You really need to talk with someone who does not know all their colors yet.

Yes, my 21/2-year-old son has trouble with his yellows and blues, but to hear him drool out simple sentences describing his recent jaunt around the Elgin, Ill., Public Works Department grounds can provide you with an advanced education in the impression our industry can leave.

I was not really expecting much from the open house. When my wife handed me a flier announcing the event, I thought it would be limited to a walk around a snowplow and a handshake with the local garbage collector. As a member of the trade press I have been the grand marshal of countless parades around public works garages. At the next one I am going to demand to see their cotton candy machine.

The open house in Elgin carried the scent of a circus and the chatter of an amusement park. There was a sandpit where kids could maneuver junior-size loader backhoes in search of missing pipe, and just beyond the digging maneuvers was a life-size garbage truck in full operation. A train spun kids and their parents through the different stations of the garage. Trucks were propped up; wood chippers were experiencing small doses of uncharacteristic splendor; and Recycling Man was waving his cape through shots of high-fives and thumbs-up.

My son’s eyes were wider than the moon. In fact, it was as if he were pointing up at the newest space shuttle. Our industry was firing up his rocket.

But the one stop that made him and all the others feel like they were walking on air was the street sweeper and snowplow reality tours. Each child was able to ride in the front seat with true operators. I didn’t tell our truck driver what I did for a living. He quickly went into his tale of the city, calling Elgin residents spoiled after he heard them stomp their feet through an entire winter. His words just deflected off my ears, because I was with my son, and he just could not take his eyes off the enormous yellow snowplow in front of him. That color was ingrained in his head that day.

When the curtain closed, a survey was politely placed in my hand. It was yellow too, but failed to put me in the same kind of toddler trance. I was dealing from a sharp memory of public works activities during the year, and I promptly pepper-sprayed the piece of research with low scores for items like snow removal and fall leaf pickup (in Elgin these failures made local headlines, but they were bad enough to go national). The concept of recruiting instant feedback from residents ranked high in terms of class, even if they did try to let the entire proc­ess go down a little easier by offering a free hot dog and pop.

This industry always talks about the need to school prospects at the high school and college level. So why not hit them more when they are learning those colors? Everybody remembers that friendly police officer or firefighter flashing their shiny badge in the middle of kindergarten class and creating an instant batch of cookie-eating groupies. Can you imagine the effect of a field trip played out in front of a couple of excavators and a dozer? It’s a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.