I am inspired to reply by the comment about 2 dumpsters. Sometimes we forget what was politically correct and indeed encouraged as being efficient and "frugal" in earlier times and in different cultures. I know of a farm home in rural Canada that never had a "town dump" and so the normal practice was for each home/family to have their own dump. All sorts of things went there for sometimes hundreds of years. In this particular situation the particular site was inhabited for at least 200 years. When renovation occurred it was decided that the dump had to go. No one knew exactly how deep or big it was. The work started with a backhoe which in very short order got replaced by a more appropriate tool - an excavator, you know those BIG steam shovel type affairs. I don't know precisely how many dump truck loads were required but the trucks did a round trip - hauling away to the dump in one direction and bringing back fill dirt because the hole was so deep that there was a fear of collapse of the adjacent ground. It was that big and deep.... I remember not wanting to get the load count after I heard it was over 12.... All sorts of interesting stuff came out of the excavation - the kind of stuff you see at flea markets - bottles and cans from manufacturers long gone. From Car Batteries to outboard motor parts to wooden golf clubs, bed springs - it was all there, and I made sure it all went. At the time I was appalled, but looking back now - I realized that as a New Yorker of this time - I had a very different perspective then a Canadian living in a harsh climate in other times would have had. The idea of dragging their trash to a dump and wasting precious time to do that instead of tending the fields would have been unthinkable to them in their time and place. It would be considered hugely wasteful and "luxurious", a silly thought on a farm and no one would have given it a second thought. There was so much land - people had better things to do with their time. I can't truthfully say I "appreciated" inheriting the dump, but I do wish I had saved a few trinkets from a time and place and way of living that will never be again. It is now (I hope) somewhere in the town dump - where no doubt people in another time will wonder - why did people do that when they could have just vaporized it {substitute your own future disposal technology here} like we do now....... Jim Lindner * Email: [log in to unmask] * Media Matters LLC. * Note New Address: 450 West 31st Street 4th FL New York, N.Y. 10001 * eFax (646) 349-4475 * Mobile: (917) 945-2662 * www.media-matters.net Media Matters LLC. is a technical consultancy specializing in archival audio and video material. We provide advice, analysis, and products to media archives that apply the beneficial advances in technology to collection management. A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>