Your first trip to the dump is a right of passage. Here is the official account of grandson Porter’s introduction to the dump.
The first thing to be learned about taking garbage and recyclable stuff to the dump is the official dump song. The song is based on the William Tell Overture – a song of prominence appropriate for a dump run.
To the dump
To the dump
To the dump, dump, dump
To the dump
To the dump
To the dump, dump, dump
One of the first things you learn about the dump is that it is populated by characters. These characters are kind of gruff and scary at first, but if you are a cute little kid you can get away with about anything. Grandpa on the other hand gets into trouble by trying to sneak some paper into the cardboard bin.
It is hard to know how the different dump workers acquire their positions, but it is clear that they are specialists. The guy who takes your card to make certain that you are eligible to dump garbage, the guy (woman today) who runs the compactor, and the recycling guys keep the same jobs week to week. I would think you would rotate to keep things interesting, but it may take some time to develop the necessary skills.
In the summer the dump smells and in the winter the temperature is cold. The dump guys sometimes burn wood in big barrels to keep warm in the winter.
I wonder how many people have never had the opportunity to visit a dump. When I was a kid, we just burned the stuff that would burn and threw the other stuff in a hole we dug in our grove. Big city people just throw stuff in a big plastic rolling garbage can they leave at the curb and never give a second thought to what happens next. You have to kind of be somewhere in between a farm and the big city to visit a dump yourself. Pretty cool.
