“We’re all just trash, waiting to be thrown away! That’s what all a toy is!” Lotso argues with Woody in Toy Story 3.
“You were made to be thrown away. Ain’t one kid ever loved a toy, really.”
We were in line this weekend at the City of Lakewood’s wonderful Community Cleanup program. In partnership with LeMay Pierce County Refuse, Lakewood offers residents free disposal of, among other things, attic cleanouts, and old or broken furniture.
And teddy bears. Like the one slumped in the trailer next to us.
Lotso, aka Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear, in Toy Story 3 was once the Christmas gift to Daisy who loved him. Lotso was her favorite toy.
But one day, on a road trip, Lotso was accidently left behind at a rest stop with two of his toy friends.
The three waited for a long time but Daisy never returned.
The trio were able to make their way back to Daisy’s house only for Lotso to have his heart broken.
He’d been replaced.
Lotso never recovered. He became embittered, feeling betrayed.
And so began his life of crime that would lead to a foul-smelling dumpster; a clogged-with-horrid-garbage landfill; a conveyor belt transporting unwilling toys to a shredder and then, the incinerator.
But then, just in time, a garbage man – fondly remembering his own childhood when he had a Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear of his very own – spied Lotso and rescued him from a fiery demise.
Maybe Lotso and lots of his friends could be added to the list of not accepted items at the next city Dumpster Days.
Or be rescued by a garbage man.
