(WARRENSBURG, Mo) – Until recently, there was a bra in a tree on Clark Street. I didn’t pick it up because I didn’t want to go into that person’s yard and take underwear out of their tree, just in case it was important to them. But I want you to know there was a yellow bra in a tree on Clark Street. For a while.

There have been a lot of clothes. I’m not certain how this is a thing; you leave your house with a shirt and pants, and then you return with just pants… Does that happen?

I’m impressed at how much lip balm is out there. Several different flavors of ChapStick, a couple of tubes of Carmex and one tube of Herpecin L. There are potentially a lot of people with chapped lips walking around town, and one with an untreated cold sore.

I’ve found multiple tampon applicators. With the first one I found, I assumed something had happened to someone’s trash and it got loose. It happens. But I keep finding them. I’m not terrified of tampons in the way that is an easily imaginable cliché thing for a guy to be terrified of. However, I know how they’re used, and that makes the frequency with which I’m finding them out and about a little… strange.

Similarly, I’ve found two pregnancy tests. I couldn’t tell what the results were, but that isn’t what’s important here.

Recently, I picked up a couple of napkins from QuikTrip, a cup from Dunkin Donuts (an actual Dunkin Donuts retail location, not something available from a grocery store), a receipt from the Mid-Continent Public Library, and a receipt from a toll plaza from the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority. What do all of these things have in common?

None of them are from Warrensburg. We’re importing trash from other places.

That’s annoying.

When properly disposed of, trash doesn’t raise questions. Some junk I’ve found amongst the litter in our city does raise a few though.

I suppose I get why empty food and drink containers end up as litter. Someone had them, emptied them, and then didn’t want to carry them anymore. I don’t support it, but I get it.

But doesn’t seem to be the case in Warrensburg.