The Dump Strikes Again!

Years ago, in order to manage the budget, our town canceled trash pick up. As far back as I can remember residents have been responsible for bringing their garbage and recycling to the town landfill. “What an awful place to live,” you might be thinking.

Well think again!

Along with being situated on one of the more scenic pieces of property of town, and also being the social hot spot of the community, the dump is a treasure trove of amazingly thrifty finds.

Now is the part where our mother requests that we use the term “Swap Shop” instead of “dump”. Given to hysteria as she is, she seems to think that people might be apprehensive about eating out of dishes that they think came from a dumpster.

Our father, however, sees things a little differently. The other day I asked him where he found the pair of bronze(ish) lanterns that are now hanging in the family “boathouse” (another Mom euphemism for shed). He proudly proclaimed, “My favorite store! The DUMP!”

To be fair, they’re both right. To the best of my knowledge neither of my parents are going through garbage bags in order to bring home Hall & Oates record albums (actual dump gift from Dad to me). The way it works is this: after throwing your garbage into the scary compacting abyss, giving your returnables to the Boy Scouts, and flattening pizza boxes to throw into the cardboard receptacle you reward yourself by heading over to the trailer which is in fact called the Swap Shop. This is where people leave goodies that are too nice to be thrown away and yet not nice enough to be stored as family heirlooms. Unless you’re a member of my family of course.

Featured in this entry is an enamel Catherine Holm pot. This cookware goes from $10 to $175 on ebay, and is apparently quite collectible. One online author even declared Catherine Holm “the gateway drug for vintage cookware collectors.” That sounded a bit rash to me, but we’re keeping an eye on Mom nonetheless.