Dump picking through the decades

October 18, 7:40 PMNew Ipswich Community ExaminerJohn Poltrack

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Some of my treasured junk
John M Poltrack

When I was young, my father used to take me to Scofield town dump in Stamford Connecticut. Scofield had both residential and industrial waste and I was intrigued with all the treasures that could be found. I would gather up chemical glassware and odd pieces of metal. I once found a partially burned A.C. Fairbanks banjo with mother of pearl inlay. I was lucky to get it before the brass and copper pickers did. I managed to reconstruct the burned tuning peg and add a new skin on the ring (these were the pre-mylar days). While we poked among the burning piles of chemical waste and looked at the multicolored soil, I was completely oblivious to any possible danger. Open dumps were not of much concern in those days.Scofield was closed, capped with clay converted into a town parkl and now appears in articles about ground water pollution in the local paper.

When I moved to New Ipswich, I took a step back in time. The dump was located at the top of Page Hill road with a magnificent view of a ridge. There were only a few industries in town but no restrictions on what could be dumped. When my father would visit I'd take him on a trip to pick up remnants from Warwick Mills of dacron fabric. I used to use the stuff to smother weeds.

Residents used to shoot rats scurrying about the garbage. It was a happy time. The dump was eventually closed. A house was built on the spot  (it had a lovely view) but I believe the homeowner contracted cancer and died.

The new dump was located on route 124 on a sand (porous) pit. They installed monitoring wells (it was near some condos) but thankfully the open dump is now capped. The site is now a transfer station and the Green Center handles all the recyclables.

Over the years, I fear that I could have become the third Collyer brother with all the stuff that I have collected. I still can't resist a dead hard drive, knowing that it contains a powerful rare earth magnet.  I'm sure that hoarding syndrome is a genetic disorder when I compare dump picking notes with my sister, and we realize how we first did this with our dad.

I took a hard look at some of my stuff and decided that if I couldn't part with it, I could trade it for cash. I decided to create a Box-Of-Junk sellers account on my blog http://musings.poltrack.net. Will this work? I'll report back, but I 'm hoping that there are other collectors willing to part with their dollars for more stuff. Meanwhile I'm going to take a peak into this dumpster.