chrisbastian44

I spoke with one of my friends today, a former coworker.  He’s a handy guy who does most of his own home improvement work.  He’s not afraid of large-scale projects like concrete patios or kitchen remodeling, and usually rents a dumpster for all of the debris.  During his kitchen remodel a few years ago, his neighbors kept putting their bags of grass clippings in his dumpster, much to his chagrin.  He wondered what gave them the right to use up the space he was paying for.  This weekend, something unexpected happened.

He’s replacing the siding on his house, and again rented a dumpster to hold the old siding.  Early one morning, he heard a noise by the dunpster, and assumed it was one of the neighbors putting their junk in his dumpster.  But he wasn’t getting a donation this time.  The guy was pulling stuff out of the dumpster.    What was going on?  Did he wake up in Bizarro World?

The next day, the same thing happened.  A different guy was crawling around in the dumpster, picking out every piece of metal that he could get his hands on.  It reminded me of the Great Catalytic Converter Grab, where thieves were slicing off the precious metal-laden components with battery-powered Sawzalls:

Tool of choice for catalytic converter thieves everywhere! Get yours today!

Is this a return to Depression-Era values?  Is frugality back in?  Will roving bands of cheapskates be congregating at a dumpster near you?  Will they use Twitter to pull together their Project Mayhem-style flash mobs?  And will they chant “His name was Robert Paulson” over and over?  Oh, the horror…

OK, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here.  But these neo-dumpster divers didn’t live through the Great Depression (the two guys were in their 40’s).  Maybe they’re taking a page out of Grandpa’s playbook in order to pick up a little extra dough.  It reminds me of one of my uncles, who scoured the streets of his Queens neighborhood for useful junk (he did live through the Great Depression).  His favorite expression was “Waste not, want not.”

Maybe history is repeating itself.

HONEY, HAVE YOU SEEN MY  SAWZALL?

My question to you: Have you ever gone dumpster-diving?  Let us know in the comments.

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