Can Crushers a Can-Do Lot--Just Ask George

The words came from the mouth of President Bush himself: “A great group of rambling recyclers out there. . . . Let’s hear it for the San Diego Can Crushers!”

The who?

The Can Crushers, of course. You won’t find them in any phone book, and they’re not known to any of San Diego County’s formal ecology and recycling groups, but they’re out there nonetheless, keeping a vigilant eye out for the shiny little critters alongside Southland roadways.

Bush’s remarks were made Wednesday to the assembled members of the Family Motor Coach Assn., a nationwide group of 65,000 recreational-vehicle enthusiasts, who had gathered for a rally in a muddy field at the Virginia State Fairgrounds in Richmond. In one fell swoop, the President managed to plug his environmental platform and tie the subject to his audience. (The San Diego Can Crushers are a chartered chapter of the national FMCA.)

The Can Crushers, in existence for nine years, are a loose-knit group that have no official home base. The members, estimated to number between 100 and 150, run into each other at occasional RV rallies and collect dues “once every two or three years, or whenever we need to send out a mailer,” according to chapter President Paul Clark.

Pleasantly Surprised by Remarks

When told of Bush’s remarks, Clark said he and his friends were pleasantly surprised. They were aware that the President was going to address the national rally, he said, but had no idea that he would single them out for recognition.

Despite the group’s moniker, Clark and his wife, Ruth, live in Anaheim, where they own a small business. “Basically retired,” they spend much of their time tending to their two former Greyhound buses--His and Hers--that they’ve converted into recreational vehicles.

The founders of the San Diego Can Crushers, Tom and Donna Santos, live in Hemet in Riverside County. They were off visiting relatives in Michigan when the President paid them his compliment.

Although its members are scattered throughout Southern California, the group retains the San Diego appellation because that is, after all, where it started. And San Diego remains the site of their infamous beach parties, which they throw about twice a year, “or whenever somebody comes up with a good excuse for having one,” Clark said.

It started in 1980, at a meeting of an FMCA chapter called The Southwestern Bus Nuts, recalled charter Can Crusher Otis Dockery. “At one of these rallies with the Bus Nuts, a couple of the older guys would get up and go walking for exercise in the morning. Well, they just started picking up cans and bringing them back, and they collected quite a bit.”

The group decided to use the money it made from turning in the cans for recycling to throw a big beach bash, Dockery said.

Days of 10 Cents a Pound

“About 20 or 25 of us gathered at the beach in San Diego and brought the corn and the pop and the hotdogs. It was all free . . . and that was when the price of cans was only 10 cents a pound.”

The idea caught on, and more and more of the RVers started collecting cans in anticipation of beach parties to come.

“One of the guys, Fred Todd, was a cook for the Navy for 20-some years, and he puts on some of the best barbecue spareribs and beans that anyone’s ever had,” Dockery said. “It kind of gives us incentive to keep on collecting cans.”

Dockery figures they have two beach parties a year now, usually near the Hilton Hotel on Mission Bay. “The parties are beneficial for us and, of course, it’s very good for the environment,” Dockery said. “We take thousands of cans off the side of the roads.”

Dockery, 56, is chief engineer for Steiner Corp., a linen supply company in San Diego, and is one of the few members of Can Crushers who is not retired. He lives with his wife, Mary Lou, in Jamul, and they too are the owners of a converted bus--a 40-foot Continental Trailways.

Although about 85% of the Can Crushers are retired, the group also includes families with children. “Tots, ‘tweens and teens, too--we have something for all of ‘em,” Dockery said.

Most of the Can Crushers will be heading for an FMCA rally at the Thousand Trails RV campground near Palomar Mountain this weekend. And by the time they’re through, you can bet there won’t be an aluminum can in sight.

“All of us are very conscious of keeping things clean and straightened up,” Clark said. “When we leave a place after a rally, it’s usually a much cleaner place than when we went in.”