While picking up trash along our adopted highway this spring, it occurred to me that Minnesotans have come a long way in respecting our roadway ditches. In the early years, our efforts resulted in a pile of filled garbage bags the size of a pickup truck. (We have pictures!) Hard to believe when you consider that it's only two miles of roadway.

Congratulations to all who travel Hwy. 169 between mile markers 174 and 176 -- as well as statewide, assuming that our stretch is an example of what other volunteers are seeing. The person who came up with the Adopt A Highway program was a genius; 20 years later, roadside trash is a fraction of what it once was. There are some things you just know are wrong. Throwing garbage out the window of a car is one of them.


JIM MEYER, PRINCETON, MINN.