Big Garbage Day

Today in Loyalist Township, where I work, it was Big Garbage Day. You know, where people are able to put pretty much any kind of crap they want out on the side of the road and the garbage guys will haul it away. What this means is that there is all kinds of fantastic stuff just sitting there, waiting to be pillaged. It is just as the old cliché goes – one person’s trash etc. etc.

I really had to restrain myself on a couple of occasions from pulling the car over and pawing through a pile or two. It is just so intriguing. And, not unlike a flea market or yard sale, you never know when a little effort will yield some great results. Ain’t no stuff like free stuff.

Of course I have no room in the apartment to store scrapmetal or only slightly damaged shelving. And I already have one road-couch with no space for another. But the desire is there. There is just something fascinating about other people’s stuff. Why on earth would someone throw out a perfectly good _____ (you fill in the blank). It offers insight into people. Kinda like watching what people buy at the grocery store. Or like that Simpson’s episode where Homer, Bart and Lisa go to the dump and find a box with what appears to be Homer’s head in the guise of Mr. Sparkle.
.
Great stuff is to be found.

We live in a wasteful culture. Garbage archaeology makes perfect sense to me – you can learn a great deal about people by what they use and discard. Only downsides to the exercise : the smell, maggots, and potentially bears. Silly bears.

If you get right down to it, rummaging around in people’s trash is not all that different from what I do. In fact, I often get what other people just want rid of (and I think a fair bit of stuff in my archives is trash, but that is not for me to decide….yet). That little window into another person’s world is what is really attractive about my profession. Anyone who says they like archives because they like history is fibbing. If they say it is because they love electronic records I have to think they are damned liars – perhaps that is just my personal biases coming through (and of course I am making broad and sweeping statements here). It is the chance to read other people’s mail and/or diaries. That is why we do it. It is especially satisfying when you read the mail and then slap a big ol’ “RESTRICTED” stamp on the file. You are privy to the deepest darkest stuff. Oh yeah.
rgsc.