Of all the special jobs, there is one that stands out above the rest. New hires shudder at the thought of it. College program interns refuse to do it. It is called Honey Bucket. Even though the task I'm about to describe in detail is not really known as "honey bucket", but it is in the same category of jobs revolving around horses. The "honey bucket" is used for sweeping up manure on Main Street at the Magic Kingdom. During parade time, this large olive green bucket on wheels goes out with the pre-show pipe-organ, Calliope. The rest of us spotters are left with pan and brooms to cover smaller horse teams like the Cinderella carriage.

How the big green bucket got its name, I may never know, but it is a serious job and just as important. I was first acquainted with this special duty during parade clean-up. The supervisors have very few guys willing to do it and when they were not around to fill the position, I was called to fill in. I was around horses back home and even spent a few years in 4-H, so I didn't think it was a big deal. The big deal came when I had to dress up like a footman to Cinderella's carriage. I showed up on time at the car-barn (place on Main St. where the trolleys are kept) in my pink costume to have pantyhose pulled over my head and a white wig pinned on. All my buddies had grins on their faces and ribbed me in good nature. At least I won't be recognized by the public in this get-up. No one knows who I am and would soon forget there was a poor sap sweeping behind the horses.

I successfully walked the whole parade route behind the carriage, sweeping manure and keeping out of the Fairy-Godmother's way. Once it was over and a sense of relief set in, I dressed back out and went back to work in my area. It wasn't even thirty minutes when I was stopped by a guest. "Hey! Weren't you the pooper-scooper in the parade that was just on?! Hey kids, come here!!" If I had a crack in the pavement to melt into, I probably would have.

To the more serious business at hand.

Aside from parades, the honey bucket sees daily action up and down Main Street. Horse-drawn trolleys carry guests from one end of the street to the other saving visitor's feet for the rest of the park. On a typical day, the trolleys operate as a pair.

On busiest of days, they will run as much as four trolleys at a time. When this happens, the honey bucket guy needs to be alert to the hand signs given by the trolley operators.

The hand gesturing works very much like the gesturing of our favorite movie critics. A thumbs up means "good show, no problem at all." The thumbs down could only mean one thing, "This show stinks!" The custodian operating as the spotter to the trolleys sees these hand signals from his base on the corner of Center Street. Each passing trolley will give the appropriate signal and when the horse had done his business, the custodian takes the honey bucket in the direction the trolley had come from. Once the pile is located, the custodian pulls out a push broom and proceeds to "push" the pile into a nice, neat mound. Next, he pulls out a short square-end or box shovel and scoops up the mound. The neater the mound, the easier and cleaner it is to scoop. Once the mound is completely disposed into the honey bucket, the custodian will pull out a water jug and rinse the street and the shovel. As a final step, he will push the water with the push broom to the trolley tracks to drain from the street and dry the spot.