Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Going to the dump....

Remember when you were a kid, and
you and one of your parents would make
a dump run? Usually it was your dad.

My brother and I would always want to go
with dad. See going with Mom, was kind of
boring. We get there, throw out the garbage
and off we go...

But with Dad. Well, he would have loved
garage sales.. because we came back
with about a 1/3rd of a truck full, from
a truck full of what we took down there.
We got to salvage for hours.

My kids loved it to. It was a great source
for bike parts and go carts. Especially the
cart they found that was all together except
for one wheel. Marv fixed that. That cart
was dragged up the Honda hills (Honda
at that time was a small motorcycle so
it was used on these old coal piles). It would
take the kids 15 minutes to drag it up,
and 4 seconds to come down. Kept the
kids busy for hours. I could keep an
eye out for them, from the back door.

Only flaw was the steering wheel would
come off. One time #2 son talked
#1 son into letting him drive down,
and foolishly #1 son decided to
ride to make sure the #2 son didn't
wreck it. Which was almost his demise.

When he was gripping about how the
younger one was driving, the younger one
handed back the steering wheel and told
him, well you steer it. The front wheel hit a
rut, turning the cart sideways and it rolled
the rest of the way down. I made tough kids.

Now days, everything is either recycled or
buried. And we do have our famous
Colburn/Culver Mall. But when wood or metal
come in, in any form... it is not recycled to
people. The King sat there in horror as he watched
a riding lawn mower, he had just started with 3 pulls,
picked up by a claw and smashed and thrown into
the pile of metal. He asked why couldn't he had
purchase it...Nope, policy says... And this past
weekend he saw the same thing happen to 3 large
sheets of plywood.

Make a grown man cry. So many people could have
used both of those. Ah, the good old days, when they
would only burn the dump once a month. All other days
were free for all.. Literally.

5 comments:

MarmiteToasty said...

At our dumps over here, the dumpmen will take out of the skips (bins) or even out of peoples cars, anything that looks reusable, and they put it next to their shed and sell it on to anyone that wants it...... only cheaply, but nuffin decent gets crushed or dumped that is reusable :)

will email soon (((Cis)))

x

Word Tosser said...

Well, Marmitetoasty, it sure makes sense to me to do it that way. After all the county is always crying poor...

PinkAcorn said...

How funny..I just read Marmitetoasty's blog, too. Any way...the dump off Dufort Rd in Sagle has a small area called "Dufort Mall" and has some interesting items now and then..I haven't found anything yet..

They've outlawed dumpster diving, too. I did that only once, years ago.

Down in Cali I found an old metal picnic table and chairs but only got one chair because I thought the guy might see me taking it (it was a no-no) so now I'm on the look out for a matching chair that I'll probably never find.

Rinkly Rimes said...

I'm not a dump fanatic but I adore Op Shops. (Well, that's what they're called in Australia, anyway.) If I can buy a decent blouse for a dollar I'm in my seventh heaven! I write poems about things like this. You may like to read some. I've only beemn Blogging for a month but I'm getting there.
BB

chamoisee said...

You can sign a waiver and pick through the wood to your heart's content. I just brought home a whole bunch of lumber and firewood from the Colburn Culver dump. The metal they won't let you have because they sell it all for scrap...even brand new bicycles. :-(