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THE WEIRS TIMES, Thursday, September 30, 2010 A DAY AT THE DUMP


by Brendan Smith Weirs Times Editor


This column originally appeared


in our May 1, 1997 issue. Read Brendan’s latest column on page 5 where he revisits the issue.


It was a beautiful early summer


day when I decided to make my first visit to the dump. I still call it the dump, that’s the


name I grew up with. You might call it the transfer station or the recycling center but you can’t fool me...it’s still the dump. In New York, we never actually


went to the dump, we only heard about it. It was a place you didn’t need to know about, a place you didn’t want to know about...but you were still glad it was there. In New York garbage men took everything to the dump for you. In New Hampshire, the dump


is no mystery. It is actually the number one place for social gath- erings. In my town a sticker for the dump cost a dollar. I scarped together four quarters, slapped on my dump sticker and was ready to go at it. I was anxious to fit right in. I needed something to bring to the dump. I needed something


that might take me awhile to dis- pose of so I could take in all I could while I was there. There was some wood in the basement of the house I had re- cently moved into. Not being very handy I knew I’d never figure out how to use it. I was also too em- barrassed to ask anyone if they wanted it - what would I say if they asked me what kind it was? I heard that there was a place at the dump you could dispose of wood without being seen. My first problem came when


I tried to put the wood in my Toyota Corolla. I tried every angle I could imagine to get the pieces of something by somethings into the trunk. They were just too big. I found a small, rusted hacksaw that I used once for some tree limbs and within an hour I had readied my delivery to the dump. I was feeling confident as I sped


off down the street towards my date with destiny. I rolled down my car window and waved to my neighbors, feeling a sudden cama- raderie as I approached this new phase of New England living, No one waved back. I arrived at the dump without incident but I was a bit appre- See DUMP on 19


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