Captain's Cleanup

About Captain's Cleanup

Winter mornings in Canton arrive flat and wide, the sky over the old Rouge lowlands going from ink to pewter while most of the township is still asleep. Captain's Cleanup is out in that hour, pushing driveways down to pavement along the streets off Sheldon Road so the first car of the day rolls out onto bare ground. Come thaw, those same routes turn green and the work turns to mowing, trimming and hauling off everything winter left behind in the beds. There is a plain satisfaction in a lawn that looks finished — the lines even, the walk swept, nothing left but the smell of cut grass. Snow or grass, they take the whole calendar of a Wayne County yard as one continuous job.