(no subject)
man, garbage picking in rich neighbourhoods is my new favourite hobby. i should digress. when i was a small child, i would head over to my ukrainian grandparents house in central toronto (ossington/bloor). a neighbourhood full of immigrant and blue collar families. my baba (grandma for the non-ukes) would head out every garbage day and scour the latest offerings. At first it was cute. Then the roof on the garage litterally popped off the walls because of all the crap that was amassed over the years. now baba is in a retirement (aka nursing) home and dad and i have dealt with most of baba's findings. The thought of picking through trash reminds me of this and more ukimemories.
then there's the old adage one man's garbage is another man's treasure.
i never knew how true this was, until last Tuesday evening.
on the other side of jane st from my neighbourhood is a very affluent area. you know, the kind of people who own 2 BMWs, a lexus SUV, and a Toyota Prius (for eco-points!). the one's who have immaculate houses but have never as much as touched a duster. these people have stuff. LOTS of stuff. and they get rid of things like last year's bicycle, a solid walnut armoire, lawn furniture, oh the list goes on!
so i hunt and peck through things. just the out of the open things, i'm not ready to dive in to snootyly-scented garbage bags to see what treasures are held there. i stand in amazement that these people have so much wealth that they're just discarding stuff rather than sell it off/donate. I have a new rug for my patio and 2 cannondale saddlebags for my bike (NICE!) things i don't need per-say, but are nice-to-haves. my treasure, you're garbage. hakuna matata
i should remember that my grandmother went through a lot in the past; having lived on next to nothing until captured by the Nazis where she was then shipped off to a ship yard to build submarines for the Kriegsmarine. She escaped with a few other POWs and headed for the UK. much of her life was in strife and she got by with what she needed to, and what was materials were available to her at the time. i understand why baba now needed those 13 vaccuum cleaners.
i <3 garbage hunting.
then there's the old adage one man's garbage is another man's treasure.
i never knew how true this was, until last Tuesday evening.
on the other side of jane st from my neighbourhood is a very affluent area. you know, the kind of people who own 2 BMWs, a lexus SUV, and a Toyota Prius (for eco-points!). the one's who have immaculate houses but have never as much as touched a duster. these people have stuff. LOTS of stuff. and they get rid of things like last year's bicycle, a solid walnut armoire, lawn furniture, oh the list goes on!
so i hunt and peck through things. just the out of the open things, i'm not ready to dive in to snootyly-scented garbage bags to see what treasures are held there. i stand in amazement that these people have so much wealth that they're just discarding stuff rather than sell it off/donate. I have a new rug for my patio and 2 cannondale saddlebags for my bike (NICE!) things i don't need per-say, but are nice-to-haves. my treasure, you're garbage. hakuna matata
i should remember that my grandmother went through a lot in the past; having lived on next to nothing until captured by the Nazis where she was then shipped off to a ship yard to build submarines for the Kriegsmarine. She escaped with a few other POWs and headed for the UK. much of her life was in strife and she got by with what she needed to, and what was materials were available to her at the time. i understand why baba now needed those 13 vaccuum cleaners.
i <3 garbage hunting.