‘They pay me to do a job’: Business owner shows perseverance

Lillie Smith is determined to provide reliable trash pickup service after taking over her late father’s business several years ago. She says the customers keep her going despite obstacles along the way.

The Orangeburg native was raised in New York and moved back to Orangeburg approximately seven years ago to take the helm of Have Trash Will Travel LLC, the business her father, James Smith, started.

The “60-ish” Smith said she has chronic arthritis, but providing service for her nearly 100 customers is important to her. Her father would go to where the trash was and pick it up, and she continues to do the same thing without requiring customers to bring it to the curb.

She has had dealt with persistent problems with her trash truck and is now using a rental truck until she can purchase a new one. In the meantime, she and the only staff person she has continue to trudge through the elements to pick up trash for her customers, some of whom have become like family.

It is Smith’s resolve to press on with her father’s business and provide friendly service despite difficulties that has led the Orangeburg County Community of Character initiative to honor her for displaying perseverance.

It was an honor that she didn’t believe she was receiving at first.

“We’ve got a lot of pranksters out here today. It’s been difficult. After I got flimflammed once, I put up a wall, but I think it’s wonderful. I was surprised and shocked. It was a beautiful surprise and an experience that I did not ever think would happen to me,” said Smith, who thanked the person who nominated her for the honor.

Before she got a staff person to help her along her routes, the mother of three and grandmother of six had been doing the work by herself.

“Actually it was just me, but as time went on and I got older and started gaining weight, those bags were getting too heavy and I pulled my back. So I needed help,” Smith said.

She and her single helper have had to rearrange their route schedules to help save money.

“It was a Monday and Thursday route, and then it was a Tuesday and Friday route. Because it started costing so much with the rental truck, I just did Monday and Tuesday together and Thursday and Friday together. Now I work Monday and Thursday and work on average from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“We might get finished a little late because there are times when I have gotten a late start, but sometimes I might get an early start, which is about 8 o’clock, and I might finish at 1 or 2 p.m. It depends on a few things, including traffic,” Smith said.

She said some of her customers are disabled and cannot drag their trash to the curb. She thinks about where a lot of them would be without someone to pick their trash up from wherever it is.

“The average person pushes their trash can to the curb. With us, you don’t have to. Wherever it is, as long as there’s not a vehicle or nothing in the way, we’ll still go and get it.

“What I do is a convenience for most, but it’s a need for others. I look more to the ones that need. … Those walking with a cane and can hardly make it to the door to open up the front door, let alone push that trash can,” Smith said.

She would one day like to sell the business, but doesn’t want to put it in just anybody’s hands.

“I would like to sell the business, but when I sell, do I have the right to ask the next person to carry on the way my father did? To go to the trash can and not on the curb? I’m looking and hoping and praying that I can get someone that says they don’t mind going back there to get the trash bags out of there,” Smith said.

She continued, “My body is hurting me, but through it all, I know that there is a reward somewhere. I know that if I help someone, then one day somebody is going to help me. If not me, my children.

“I don’t know what lies ahead for them or me, but I do hope and believe that one day someone will treat me the way I treat them because it’s all about the Golden Rule. Even when your enemy does you wrong, you’re supposed to still smile and help them.”

She’s faced heat, rain and cold while on her routes, but keeps going. Even with the loss of her parents, James and Lurene, and the recent loss of her sister, she said she has a job to do.

“At the end of the day, what is the sense in me laying down? Through all of that, what sense is it in me laying down and crying about it? What am I going to get accomplished? I have people out there.

“No matter what, they pay me to do a job, and I have to do the job to the best of my ability even with the pains. I have to do the job because I’ve got some people that can’t get out there and do it,” Smith said.

One of those people was a lady who eventually passed away. The customer had become a friend to her despite initially telling Smith that she could not afford – and would not pay – the trash pickup fee.

Smith later allowed the customer to pay a reduced rate. She would also check on her when she thought she may have needed help or assistance, even bringing her flowers sometimes.

“She was a feisty little old lady. I miss her. Everything you do comes back to you. You do good, it’s going to come back to you. I’m up in age. I might need somebody to do that for me. But, overall, I like a lot of my customers,” said Smith, who has had others who weren’t so nice.

She shared the story of how one customer became irate with her for not picking up his trash before he eventually found in his mailbox a memo that she had sent out to inform customers of the death in her family.

“I’m getting ready to go bury my mother, and he wants to know why his trash is not picked up,” Smith said.

She said she has learned the value of both perseverance and patience and will carry on the family business as long as she is able.

“I’m going to see how long my body can hold out. I’ve gotta keep it moving. These last four years have been (hard), but I kept it moving. I had to. God has blessed me. You do good, good comes to you,” Smith said.

She continued, “I want to leave on a good note with everybody. I also just want whoever takes after me … to do right by them. I have a lot of sweet customers, I really do. When they hurt, I hurt, too.”