Every month, the Tough Guy Book Club issues a challenge to its members. Something to push them, to challenge them, and to give them something interesting to add to their story.

For this one, we sent the Goons somewhere a bit quieter than usual. This month's challenge: grab two or more goons, head to your local graveyard, and fill a bag with trash. Graveyards are some of the best public spaces going. They are full of history, and no one ever spends much time in them, let alone cleans them up. We figured it was time someone did.

And as always, the Goons delivered, some in the middle of an Aussie winter, out in a balmy 1 degree.

Caulfield goons hit Brighton General Cemetery, tidying up among notable neighbours women's activist Lizzie Ahern, war hero John Monash, and Melbourne gangster Squizzy Taylor. Over in Greenville, South Carolina, the guys cleaned Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery and stumbled across the grave of baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson. On the other coast, San Francisco kept Joe DiMaggio's plot spotless, while a Washington D.C. crew drove up to Rockville, Maryland and cleaned up around literary giant F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The Simpsonville chapter went in heavier, rocking up to a graveyard buried under years of overgrowth and attacking it with chainsaws, trimmers and weed whackers. That’s fuckin’ tough! They cleared fallen limbs, beat back the poison ivy, and uncovered three headstones that hadn't seen daylight in years.

For plenty of guys it turned into something more than a tidy-up. Quite a few found themselves standing at the graves of their own relatives, while others mused about needing to visit those who’re still around a bit more frequently.

Well done to the Goons. Some of us clean up after ourselves. Turns out some of us clean up after everyone else too.

By Josh King