What Happened to All the Small Town Garbage Dumps?
Where are all the town dumps?
When we were kids, our dads would load up the trunk with bags of garbage and off we would go a mile or two to the outskirts of town, where there was a little one-lane dirt trail that led back to the town dump.
I vividly remember literally mountains of garbage: tin cans, slimy rotted food, papers, cardboard, furniture.....all piled high into one big massive behemoth that dwarfed my friends and me.
That’s right...my friends. It was a big deal to be able to go out to the dump. My neighborhood friends would be excited to go with us when we went to dump the garbage in that smelly place. It was a thrill for a kid to stand in awe of all that trash and rubbish that looked - to us - like a Rocky Mountain range.
A chubby little man lived right there at the dump in a little house and basically earned his keep by burning the trash and shoveling the garbage in an attempt to keep it all in line. When we arrived, he would walk out unshaven in his grimy t-shirt, hat, and half-smoked stogie.....but he was one of the nicest and friendliest people in town. Not only did he manage the trash, but he also would do his best to keep the rat population to a bare minimum.
So what happened to all the little small town dumps?
They are now micro-managed and controlled and aren’t called ‘dumps’ anymore. No, they have new names that make them sound more upscale than they really are: landfill, recycling center, dropoff area, transfer station, disposal center.....all with big machines to push, scrape, and scoop up the garbage. No more chubby little old men to come out and greet you with your bags of waste.
Many of the former small town dumps have been cleaned out or buried, with grass, bushes, and trees replacing the mountains of debris and sewage. Okay, maybe it’s more sanitary than it used to be all those decades ago – but it sure ain’t as much fun.
The Town Dump
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