When I was a kid, growing up in Reseda, garbage collection was much more freeform than it is today. We had several oil drums that we used as garbage cans. My father managed a Standard Oil station and later had his own Chevron service station. For yard clippings, our front yard was basically ivy, we just stuffed it into one of the cans. 

I have previously written about my lack of adequate career orientation in high school and subsequent lack of preparation for college. Well, I went to college anyway. The closest community college to home, Los Angeles Pierce College. I thought it was a good school but one thing I noticed in retrospect was that I learned nothing about doing research. After two and one half years and some time at West Valley Occupational Training, learning about refrigerators and air conditioning, I enrolled at San Fernando Valley State College.