Trashy treasures

It never ceases to amaze me what people are willing to just pick up on the side of the road. Now, I've done my fair share of curb-side shopping in my (not too distantly passed) day, so I can relate to the need to have somewhere to sit balanced with the complete lack of deiscretionary income. Plus, I'm rediculously tight with money sometimes, so I'm not averse to taking cast-offs or hand-me-over items from people I know. I'm in a position whereI could buy brand new things now, of I wanted to - but, really, if someone has something in decent condition that they're getting rid of and it's something I can use, I see no shame in taking things second hand. But just taking junk just because it's there? No.

My husband and I decided to clean up the back yard this week, and get rid of some things that have just been accumulating over time. Some of it was plain old garbage, but some of it was borderline junk. We put everything out at the edge of the curb for heavy trash to pick up later this week. Not five minutes after dragging a huge smoker that my husband got from a relative but had never used and some furniture that had been sitting out back exposed to the weather up to the front yard, and my very strange (and possibly crack-addled) neighbor wanders over - shirtless - and proceeds to wonder in amazement over the fact that we were throwing out such a useful thing. When we told him he was welcome to take it, he squealed with delight. Literally. Then he called his rednecky ol' lady (who he called "Mama") out to look at the wooden table. Which we promptly disclosed had a termite problem. It seemed like the neighborly thing to do. They took it anyway. Then, later they took the old kettle grill and a semi-functional vacuum cleaner that had probably sat in the rain at least once...so I hope it doesn't cause a fire or anything. But, hey. As the saying goes, garbage-picker beware. One man's trash is another man's entire suite of living room decore.