With Big Daddy out of town and large item pickup going on in the hood, I enlisted Boy Child to help me with some roadside shopping. I live for this weekend and out of three children, he’s the only one who would be caught dead picking up stuff from the curb. Lucky for me, his semester was over this week and since he’s moving into an apartment in August, I had my own little Jethro to heft our goods into the car.
Large item pickup is THE biggest holiday in town. It is a chance to clean crap out of your garage and basement and then fill it again with other people’s cooler crap. We struck out days ahead of time, cruising curbs. Our early acquisitions included a rusty wagon that made me want to cry when I saw it cast away on the street, a mid-century cabinet for BC’s new apartment, a stash of frames, a plant stand and some wood boxes.
By Friday afternoon, everything had ramped up and the curbs starting filling up. My neighbor directed BC to 69th St. for chairs and me to 70th St. for fencing. A friend called to say her neighbor just put stuff out and I needed to get to 64th St. ASAP for the good stuff. Another neighbor called to say there was a door with my name on it on 72nd St. Traffic was crazy here in Mayberry with scavengers hunting for retro/vintage stuff, metal and building materials. Between perusing the curb, watching for parked cars and avoiding pickups, it got a little dangerous.
All afternoon I kept an eye on my neighbor’s curb because last year was the jackpot. Sure enough, out it came and out I went. I got a tour of the junk piled at the curb then a tour of the house and came home with an old trunk that they hadn’t even bothered to empty of an old wool blanket, photos and books.
It was a good haul and not to brag, but somebody must have been a good girl this year because Santa delivered. Big time.