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Comments:
Laura - 2005-03-14 19:50:29 I really like most of your writing, Laura, but these Lake Wobegone, or better yet, Thomas Kincade (TM) fantasies about the angelic simple folk are really creeping me out. The "happy mammy" institutional cook was nauseating enough, and now this! Sorry, I don't mean to stir sh*t up-- just add a little editorial tweaking: stick to non-fiction!* * * * * * * * * * * * YD - 2005-03-15 08:40:47 That is one of the best things about Ypsi. You can put anything out near the street and it will be gone.* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-03-15 08:56:34 I was really surprised when I moved here to New England to find that things that I put out by the curb just sat there. When my father behaved very badly, I gathered up a bunch of dishware made by his company and given to me and put it in a bag by the curb. It wasn't my taste, but it was pretty decent-quality stoneware and some other assorted baskets and things. In Ann Arbor that stuff would have been gone before I made it the ten feet back to the house. Instead, it lingered until I packed it up and took it to Goodwill.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-03-15 09:19:24 Rolf: That is non-fiction. More or less. There are plenty of such guys in Ypsi. I do appreciate feedback. Thanks for yours. But as you may have guessed I'm too stubborn and pigheaded, not to mention old, to do (or write) anything other than what I damn well please. You'll have to skip over those bits, Rolf--but thank you for visiting and reading.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-03-15 09:21:04 YD: Yep. Pretty much anything at all. And from the trashpicking side, I have to say I've picked up my share of used treasures, including a beautiful bentwood rocker.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-03-15 09:22:36 Anna: That's so odd. I wonder why that is. A nice set of plates put on the curb here would vanish (heck, I would take them). Do you have any ideas as to why this custom is different in New England?* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-03-15 11:28:53 I don't know why it is -- I would think that good Yankee thriftiness would dictate that such things should be picked up; certainly they are in Maine and New Hampshire. However, I live in a small southern New England *city*, which means lots of immigrant decsendents from the turn of the 20th century (Italian, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Irish) and maybe that's the difference -- something cultural about taking used things of unknown provenance? Certainly it's not because the majority of the people in this town are rolling in dough. Odd. * * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2005-03-15 12:07:22 maybe i'd better get those six broken lawnmowers out before the township prohibits such excess* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-03-15 12:15:20 Anna: hmm. Perhaps a respect for others' privacy (not rummaging through their castoffs)? At any rate. Raymond: April 18 is the clampdown. After that, the trash limits are in place. I plan do do one huge spring cleaning before April 18.* * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2005-03-15 13:35:29 it'll be fun to watch to ditches around the area when people start dumping more filthy couches and broken washing machines this summer* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-03-15 13:37:52 You're right. I can imagine that...that'll be lovely.* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-03-16 11:59:52 I've thought about it and decided that actually it is East Coast Urban Suspicion that prevents people from taking things curbside -- "there must be something wrong with it, who knows where that's been?" thinking. People have no problem going through my recycling bin to see if I've left cans in there (which I do, glad to give them to the people who find the 5 cents per can worth the trip to the grocery store).* * * * * * * * * * * * add your comment: |