Originally broadcast on CHED Radio, Edmonton, Alberta Canada in 1963

Most modern cities have laid down some hard and fast rules about the handling of garbage. I know in my town the citizens are forced to be downright clinical about this business. Indeed it is often difficult to determine whether that neat little package on the signboard is a box lunch, laundry fresh from the plant, or the leavings of last nights table going out to the refuse can. This new approach to the old problem of garbage carries itself to the extreme when we come to deal with the leaves we rake up off the lawn in the fall. That's where I got into trouble last fall.  In our town the leaves are to be raked up and neatly placed in containers to be left for pick up. (For this purpose most folks use those plastic bags that the dry cleaning comes back in). Now to me there is no smell in the world like that of clean burning leaves in the crisp fall air, and so after filling three bags with leaves, I neatly piled a few I had left over and set them afire. To escape detection, I performed this deed late in the evening under cover of darkness. Nevertheless, I got caught. The magistrate before whom I appeared must have been a man with a soul because when I told him I just wanted to smell Burning leaves a few more times before I passed on, he smiled and said he fully understood. He went on to explain however that the law has to be upheld and fined me five dollars. I have thought that whole matter over since then and come to the conclusion that it was the best five dollars I ever spent.