Shoe store questions for the ladies.

[Mary Jane]

<<<<Dumpster diving is fun!!>>>>

It is that BUT today there may be someones used needles or other unnice surprise. I just today found 4 needles mowing alone my road. If not for years of looking in junk for useful stuff, I may not of seen them in time. I only saw the orange needle cover at first but i knew what it was at first site.

Fourty or so years back, I went to an old active dump. A truck had dumped a load that had to of came from a local shoe store. Many of the shoe fit BUT only one shoe. No pairs. I dug out maybe 100 or more left shoes. Very pointed toes, long tall heels but only a few mates.

MJG

[Puddleboy]

Meeting up with 'gross stuff' is just an occupational hazard.

One of the worse hazards is broken glass. I almost lost a couple fingers.

And I will never forget the guy sleeping inside a big box. I saw this big giant box inside the dumpster, and just had to find out what was in it. Of course, I woke him up. (LOL)

...... pb

[erv2u]

It was so exciting to visit small rural dumps when they were around. You never know what you would find but usualy a couple pr of womens shoes. Sometimes a girl would clean her room and chuck out some teen magazines and a pair of worn out leather flats.
Years ago I was way out in the dump and a worker had a shot gun and arrested me. A police car drove me home to my parents house. They had some vandalism at the dump and thought I was the guy. To make matters worse my parents were entertaining guests and I come home in a police car !
MJ. did you keep any of the high heel shoes ? I know thats not your style.

[Mary Jane]

For a time yes I did keep some of the heels but they are a very long time gone. How I used them, I am sorry but I forget. Most I left in the dump.


PICTURE: People are throwing junk into the dump pit. Most is falling near the edge so not a problem for us. I find a few goodies. Mr. B finds some mens shoes and looks inside. He comes up with a number of twenty dollar bills and waves them at us. He got clear of the area. We all sat back and watched the show as people went into the junk in there street clothes looking for the other shoe. Women in dresses and low heels , men in suits looking for the other shoe. They all went over the side of the pit after the easy buck. I told Mr. B that was not funny. About 10 minutes later they were sure that the other shoe was not in the pit and came back out to our delight.



MJG

[erv2u]

You have been in the mushrooms again !

[Mary Jane]

Looking at it from 2005 eyes, you are. I am not talking about NYC but rural Oregon, USA many years back. Most of the shoes worn where not jogging shoes and the gang / street look was not yet seen. It was common to see women in dresses and guys in suits working around the house. Doing whatever they needed to do and a dump run was one of the things that was done. Not the best of either was worn. If they got mud, grass, oil, or ? on them, so what, they were washed and worn. Got looking to bad they became rags or cat bedding.


Time line is from June, 1973 when we moved into the area and June at the latest of 1976 when they closed the dump to all salvage. Dump was a county dump not a off road dump site. Pit was 50 feet deep by 150 feet X 75 feet wide at the very largest. The pit at that time was 12 to 15 feet deep when the fun happened. The junk was way up the sides. Not to hard to get down but easier to go around to get back up to the parking area.


Some times people would clean out a house of every thing in the house. I think that is where the money came from. I think someone had died or abandoned the house. The owners just boxed or bagged up every thing in the house and to the dump it went.

Made for some great finds IF you could get it before it was dumped in the pit. Off loading to your truck from theirs saved many small parts and the other shoe. Some of the people would let you go into the house and clean it to the walls. You took all and made a dump run with what you could not sale or use. They got a house ready to clean, paint, and sale. You may of gotten an collection of old branding irons or whatever. I still have many old cookbooks with the hand written notes.



Now as for the mushrooms, I had meadow mushroom on steak a few nights ago. Cathys on my spaghetti last week. I hunt a lot of mushrooms to eat. SOOO!!!

MJG

[erv2u]

When you said "PICTURE:" I thought it was a nice fantasy. I guess it was real. In my teens, almost every summer day I rode my bike to my best friends house one mile down a very rural road. He lived across the street from a small dump. As soon as we heard the noise of the cans and rattle of a new load dumped over the hill, we were over there going through the load. I would kick a few shoes out and get them later. We both had a collection of things saved from the dump.

PICTURE: The trash man suspects that he picked up some cinders or hot coals and that the load of trash is on fire. He dumps the load in first available space, the empty lot on the street. The young man next store goes over and pulls out many flats and high heel shoes. He finds an old kettle about 36 in in diameter and fills it with water and some dirt. the shoes one by one get stirred into the quagmire. From time to time a wet soggy shoe is pulled up and hangs over the ladle.