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

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