Saturday, October 4, 2008

My Point of View: Dress up the dump and we’ll have a winner

A few days ago I wrote that my friend Don and I drove to the Dorchester dump together to look for free lumber.

I bet that sounds weird.

Not that Don and I are friends but we’d go to a dump for any reason other than to drop off garbage.

It may sound unusual that we’d actually drive to a dump.

Because for most people garbage just goes into a plastic bag, right?

Then to the curb. And then it magically disappears and we don’t think about it again until next week.

But mark my words, someday soon driving to the dump to look for free lumber or millions of other useful things will be something a woman looks for in a man.

As we think less about constant consumption and more about the end results of our continuous shopping we’ll realize there’s treasure in them there hills and we can reuse some of it.

But the dump will have to get gussied up a bit before it’s a great place to visit.

A greeter would be nice.

“How can I help you today, sir?”

“I’m looking for a door for my shop.”


["Neater piles would be nice!": photo link]

“Oh, you’ll find hundreds of reusable doors to your right, over in pile 7.”

“And free lumber?”

“Gord, stop jokin’ around. You already know where that is.”

The greeter’s right. I know where hundreds of dollars worth is located.

Wanna go to the dump?

.

3 comments:

Nestor Family said...

Time. No one has time to reuse (or scavange). Much easier to head to the nearby Target on your way home from job #2 that they had to get to pay for gas to get to job #1. (She types next to the lamp her pop got from a dumpster and fashioned with a lampshade found on a garage sale.)

Now, if there were greeters and aisles that you could manuever with a cart at the dump... you might have something there!!!

Good post. Enjoy your day!

Anonymous said...

So,are you allowed to take stuff from the dump?

G. Harrison said...

you're right, heidi. time.

I'm retired and have a few hours per month for such activities and a like-minded scavenger friend who has a small pickup.

maybe good signage would also be useful so folks could make their way around.

to jesse: i can only go to the dump with a Dorchester resident (Don, in this case: "All others will be prosecuted, maybe even persecuted") and not only is there a recycling or reuse table with items on it for the taking we are also allowed to pick through the large lumber pile.

I have an eye for pine and cedar and never go home empty-handed.

yard-sale this coming Saturday!

cheers,

gord h.