Mon 26 Sep 2005
Twice a year all the houses here burp out semi-valuable refuse for anyone to pick through and cart off.
It’s a great system. If you think your unwanted stuff has any value, the scavengers will either confirm or refute that view.
After sitting out on the curb for several days, the garbage trucks come along and haul away what is left. By then if no one wanted it, it’s trash.
Yesterday I walked outside with a partially working toaster and a plastic trash bin. They never even made it onto the pavement. I just handed them to the family going through this pile.
September 27th, 2005 at 12:51 pm
Today as I was reading at our dining room table I heard this dull shattering noise coming from below my window. I got to the window just in time to see the gypsy woman taking the sink basin from the newly-shattered old marble counter top from the remodeling upstairs. She quickly joined her friend on the cart and with a crack of the whip, the horse and ladies were off. (A few days earlier a few blocks away they similarly landed an old kitchen chair.)
JH