At the Department of Sanitation, you can always find something in the trash 鈥� but can you find a metaphor?
Jim Hart did, as well as simile, a dash of foreshadow and, most importantly, a host of colorful characters.
The Brooklyn-born retired city sanitation employee has fueled his experiences with New York鈥檚 Strongest into a budding writing career.
Hart, 67, has already self-published a book of poetry titled 鈥淩amblings of a One-Eyed Garbage Man.鈥�
His time in sanitation is also the grist for his first novel, the noir mystery 鈥淎 Tom Collins To Go.鈥�
鈥淟ife in sanitation as a clerk in a district, you work with a lot of 鈥楤rooklyn guys,鈥� 鈥� Hart said. 鈥淪ome of those guys had a knack for wisecracking. I think it enhanced the way I write.鈥�
Hart joined Sanitation in 1974. Since he is legally blind in one eye, he was never assigned to a collection truck, but given clerical duties at different garages.
One of his first postings was at a now-defunct garage on the Red Hook waterfront, which became a backdrop for parts of 鈥淎 Tom Collins To Go,鈥� which takes place in Brooklyn in the 1940s.
鈥淎 few characters end up in the Gowanus Canal,鈥� he joked.
During his career with the Sanitation Department, he worked his way through the ranks to serve as the agency鈥檚 deputy director of public affairs and director of correspondence for the Sanitation Police.
He worked under former Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty, and counts him and Deputy Commissioner Vito Turso as 鈥渢wo of the most influential people in my life.鈥�
鈥淧eople say that Sanitation is a family and that鈥檚 what it is,鈥� Hart said. 鈥淏eing transferred over the years, I鈥檝e met hundreds and hundreds of people. To this day, I can name the people I didn鈥檛 get along with on just one hand.鈥�
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