Sunday, March 21, 2010

«Thin Strip of Steel»

Have any of you have come across little strips of steel on the sidewalk or road? I did as a child. I'd play with them. I'd hold one end on the edge of a table and flick the other end so it makes a funny little reverberating, almost buzz noise.

The strips of steel are not that big, the one I have at my desk now is about 16.5cm long, 4mm wide, and are quite thin at about 1mm1. Usually one end is kinda ragged, and the other end is smoothed on one side. It took me quite a while to finally figure out what exactly they were, and why I was randomly finding them.

They are the individual bristles off a street-sweeper vehicle that have broken off. Hence, why I kept finding them on or near roads. I've known what they are for years now, but they had me quite puzzled as a child.

1: I used metric measurements because it's a pain to measure something that's that thin in inches using a ruler.


  1. I was gonna say the sky is fallin' or the aliens are comin' but ya figured it out--street sweepers, of course. *gigglin'*

  2. Oh, and nope, I've never spotted any whilst on my childhood travels. I did encounter a lot of silk worms hangin' from trees when I was a kid. The li'l buggers' silk thread would latch on and I'd have a few wormies hangin' onto me.

    Don't see very many anymore. I think I killed 'em off--or somethin', or they're afraid of me.

  3. @ Berni: And sometimes as adults you just don't notice the same things you did as a child.

  4. I am a child in adult disguise. LOL


Thanks for taking the time to comment.


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