Just Write Communications
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • News
  • Clients
  • Testimonials
  • Writing Tips
  • Weekly Chuckle
  • Meals We Steal
  • Bad Golf

Trash History

11/19/2023

1 Comment

 
Picture
​Working my way through invasive buckthorn recently, I came across trash history. Our property heads down a hill to the Bark River, where the buckthorn multiplies. The low-lying earth where the river overflows is where I was cutting down the brush and came across living history.
 
The term “trash history” is literal, not figurative. As I slashed, yanked, pulled and piled the various bushes and small trees, history was unearthed as well.
 
An overturned stump held a broken glass bottle nestled in its root system. Underneath a pile of leaves, the front bumper of a car emerged. Stuck in the dirt was the top of an old, rusted paint can, which slowly emerged with digging, and partially crumbled in my hands during the process.
 
A small local dump on our property. Oh, joy. How long had these artifacts slept there? The answer to that question slowly emerged with each new discovery.
 
First to test my personal knowledge based on my lifespan was a pop-top beer can. The style told me everything. It was from the 1960s.
 
Next was a beer bottle. The style gave it away. Again, from the 1960s. Probably was a Schlitz, but the label had disappeared.
 
The level of decomposition was another telling factor. I’m no archeologist. At the same time, when you see the rusted remnants of a cooking pot and look at the other refuse, you put two and two together to come up with your prediction on how long ago someone decided to let their crap fly.
 
How long does it take glass to decompose? How about an aluminum can or a cooking skillet? Plastic jar? Barbed wire? A discarded tire? Clearly, none of them in 50+ years, which is pretty scary. All of these items were intact in the scattered rubbish.
 
Carbon dating is a scientific method that can accurately determine the age of organic materials as old as approximately 60,000 years. I didn’t need that to help recognize the leftovers from my own personal life.
 
Do people think about decomposition when they toss their refuse in the woods? Highly unlikely. In the 1960s, as is often still the case today in 2023, too many people don’t care what they throw in the woods or out the car window. Sadly, the world is their dump.
We grew up on a dead-end street in northern New Jersey. There was a dump at the end of our street. Random cars and trucks would stop and throw old television sets, toilets, tree limbs, leaves, lumber, shingles, and who the heck knows what else into the ever-burgeoning pile. I wonder now if those materials are buried, have been removed or still sit on the surface providing a certain historical perspective of those years.
 
We played in that dump, never thinking twice about smashing things, throwing something over the ledge. The trash depositors created a new world for us kids.
 
Future generations might unearth artifacts from that dump in the years ahead. What will they find? If it’s similar to the junk I’ve found during my buckthorn destruction, the throw-aways will tell a story, like most things left behind.

1 Comment
Larry Weiner
11/25/2023 04:18:42 am

Keep on digging Dave!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013

    Categories

    All

Proudly powered by Weebly