There’s nothing dirty about this award. A Brooklyn waste company, Metropolitan Recycling, honored veteran employee, Julius Brewster, 56, as part of its “National Garbage Man Month” celebration.
Brewster, who grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, cried when he was notified about the award over the phone.
He started working as a part-time staffer when he was just 15 years-old and has been on the job ever since. “I was fascinated with trucks ever since I was a little kid,” he said Monday. He joined his father on the job and started driving a truck full-time in 1977. “I remember it like it was yesterday,” he recalled. “It was hard work but the pay check I got was the most I ever made in my life. I said I wasn’t going back to school.”
But his father was tough on him and made sure he worked hard. “I thought he didn’t love me but I know he loved me now,” he said, “I’m at work an hour early. My father instilled discipline in me and I thank him for that.”
The father of six drives truck 136 and nicknamed it Delilah after the radio host he listens to while on the job in Brooklyn at night. He plans to retire in seven years when he turns 63 years old. “Guys don’t last in this business 40 hours, never mind 40 years, it’s very demanding,” he said. “Garbage men are not made, they’re born. If they’re not made for it, they won’t last.”
To read the full story, visit http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/brooklyn-man-honored-national-garbage-man-month-festivities-article-1.2680913.