When the University of Michigan football team comes to town, there are a lot more than just leaves to pick up on MSU’s campus the morning after.
That’s where MSU employee Lori Meyer and many others come in. Meyer, who works at Spartan Linen Services during the week, said she has been picking up post-tailgate trash as a way to get a little bit of overtime pay at MSU for 10 years now.
Meyer’s day started at 7:30 a.m., like she does every Sunday after a Spartan home game.
She spent her day slowly uncovering the green of the campus grounds again after it was painted red with Solo cups on Saturday.
“It’s exhausting,” she said. “We knew it was going to be like this. It’s bad.”
She said she notices a vast difference between early season games and Big Ten rivalry matchups. Particularly when the Wolverines come to East Lansing.
“The very first game (of the season) is hardly nothing,” said Meyer, as she and her work partner packed a golf cart full of trash bags near the rock on Farm Lane.
But when it's one of the biggest games of the season, everything changes for Meyer and the rest of the clean-up crew.
“It’s like the difference between a two-hour and a nine-hour day,” Meyer said. “Today’s going to be a seven, eight, maybe nine-hour day for some of these people. No lunch break, just picking up trash.”
The silver lining for Meyer is that she knew what to expect yesterday.
“It’s always the Michigan game,” she said of MSU’s messiest tailgates. “Of course, when it’s home. Either that or Ohio State. Whenever it’s the big rival games.”
The MSU post-tailgate clean-up crew has been working since 7:30 a.m. And they're still at it. @thesnews pic.twitter.com/i0NlclWUwU
— Greg (@GregMonahan) October 26, 2014
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