It's funny how things get a certain degree of importance depending on the perspective of who's looking.
As if Sunday nights weren't depressive enough, last night hubby and I decided to clean out our cave. Most buildings in Paris have underground caves (pronounced "cave" as in HAVE and not as in SLAVE). The original purpose of caves is for the owners to keep their wine bottles in the best possible conditions (cool temperatures and little to no light) for proper ageing. But like most parisians, we use our cave as an extra storage/junk room. Meaning, once in a while we have to suck it up and clean out that cave taking out all the junk that's been accumulating over the months.
That once in a while was last night.
Since we had a pretty good idea of what was down there we had taken the precaution of calling our local authorities to let them know that we would be putting some old furniture out on the street side walk for recycling pick-up (you do this over the internet and they send a little car the next morning to pick up the stuff that can be recycled or that must be disposed of in a safe way).
Anyway, by 10:30pm we'd finished putting out our stuff on the street which among other things included 4 bar stools in perfect condition, the legs to an old bar table and a towel hanger. As we were getting inside the elevator to go back to the appartment I couldn't help feeling a pang of nostalgia. Those bar stools where one of the first furniture hubby and I bought when we moved in together and thinking how they were probably going to end up in a trash bin somewhere made me a bit sad.
As soon as we walked back into the apartment I realized we'd forgotten to take down an old suitcase which was also heading for "greater pastures" so I decided to take it down immediately and get it overwith. When I reached the ground floor I heard yelling on the street. I didn't dare go out as I had a pretty good idea of what was going on and instead watched silently from a distance inside our gated main entrance.
A young couple was trying to load two of the bar stools unto their scooter while and old woman with a shopping caddie was yelling at them. It seems the old lady was mad that they were taking objects from "public grounds" and she was trying to stop them (probably to be able to take some of the stuff herself!) They didn't seem to care much and continued to try and load the bar stools on to their scooter (don't ask me HOW in heck's name they intended to get 2 bar stools + 2 adults on that poor two wheel bike and I wasn't about to go out and ask them).... At one point, the guy lost his patience and started yelling back to the old woman to bugger off (of course, I'm using PG-13 language, he on the other hand was much less polite and much more graphic)... This went on for about another minute or so (the old lady and the guy yelling insults at each other in the middle of the street while the young girl kept trying to pile up a stool on the back seat of the scooter) and then at last the old lady started to back away and left pushing her (empty) caddie.
I thought that would be end of it when suddenly a big van slowed down. The guy at the driving wheel took a look at the guys and what they were doing and suddenly parked his van right there in the middle of the street and climbed out of the driving seat! He looked big and strong and at that point I can't say I didn't think "uh-oh" and was debating over if this indeed was my cue to get the heck out of there, when I saw the driver start throwing the bar stools into the van with the other two helping him out.... I supposed at some point they must have called him for help because without saying a word they loaded up the van and both the van and the scooter were gone a few moments afterwards.
As soon as I saw the van turn at the corner down the street I tiptoed my way out of my hiding spot, quickly dumped the old suitcase next to the stuff that was still left on the sidewalk and ran inside our building and up the stairs to our floor without daring to look back. I don't know what it was I was afraid of, after all, it was us that was giving the stuff away in the first place, but I simply did not want to accidently come across them.
It's funny, but looking back I'm actually glad of what happened. I'd been sad thinking that our old stuff would be dumped somewhere as common trash, and instead here they were, being fought over and hauled away to someone's (hopefully) cozy home to begin a second life.
This episode brought back memories of another similar experience although back then I'd thought it was quite exceptional: When hubby and I moved out of our old apartment we'd also left some stuff out on the street for the recycling pick-up vans. To us, this stuff truly was junk and didn't think anyone would want them: an old IKEA cuboard practically falling appart, a gas stove that was simply too heavy, too old and too dirty to take with us to our new place and a large closet missing several shelf panes. We'd just finised putting everything out on the street and were on our way to go get some lunch at a bistrot nearby when we saw two old ladies (probably in their 70s) looking at the stuff and starting to push that cuboard away with them. From were we were standing we were too far to offer them a hand, but by the time we got back home not only had they taken the cuboard... they'd even managed to swipe that heavy stove (although how in heavens they did that is still a mystery to me!)!!!!
I guess Minshap and her obsesion with The Story of Stuff will be happy to hear about this post.
Goes to show, like my brother Lewes likes to say: tu chatarra es mi tesoro! (your junk is my treasure) ;)
Fned.
P.S. When I walked out this morning the table legs, the towel hanger and the old suitcase were all gone too! :D
7 comments:
My mom used to use that saying all that time about our junk being someone else's treasure. Which is so true...you just never know what you totally don't need anymore, might fit the bill perfectly for what someone else is looking for!
Don't you feel better now that you know all your old stuff has a home?!?
And by the way, how efficient is the French government that they will come to your house and clear your old stuff away!!??!? I'm SO impressed!
Yeah I'm super duper impressed that they just come and pick up the dead couches. That's some serious efficiency.
You know, when I read your feelings about those bar stools, it kinda reminded me of The Brave Little Toaster... as for efficiency in recycling, we may not have that great pick-up service, but we're lucky to have people in our household who are willing to take our out-of-use stuff to a bazaar and trade it for tools and interesting things we never knew we needed but that actually come in handy. Like a Spanish-English Engineering Dictionary from the 50's (and still valid)! In this way, not only does our junk become someone else's treasure, but theirs becomes ours!! Oh and thanks for mentioning the story of stuff - Seems like it made some kind of an impact on you too!
Mamacita: ahhhh! If only someone else's Chanel and Christian Dior "trash" were my treasures!!! LOL
I do feel better knowing that our old stuff is being "new" somewhere else!
And yeah, the French are pretty much on the right track when it comes to enviromental issues (excepting nuclear testing of course... oh, an garbage sorting -- 'Cause even though they now have seperate trash bins they STILL don't have separate pick-up trash days for paper / auluminum / glass, so people continue to mix organic and inorganic garbage since in the end they all go out on the street on the same day!) :(
Mexico Way : I don't think the dead couches make it till the next day for pick up. I bet that if bar stools dissapear like hot buns out of the oven, couches are probably literally pranked out of your hands before you've finished taking them out on the street! LOL
Minshap: I hadn't thought of The Brave Little Toaster in a looooong time! That movie was way ahead of its time. And yeah... I guess a Spanish-English Engineering dictionnary can be considered a very rare treasure!! :D
Fned.
Our first apartment was practically furnished by picking stuff out of other people's garbage! There were certain towns that had better garbage than others.
In fact, when we packed up to move to Mexico we brought lots of our furniture to thrift stores because practically all of it was second hand and any new stuff we had was Ikea, so it wasn't exactly heirloom quality.
In Jersey stuff gets taken from the garbage piles almost as soon as it's put out, too.
One of my favourite couches ever came off the street. Teal blue leather baby, lol! Street finds rock when you are on a budget.
I remember a night in university when my roommates and I decided that an old, ugly chair had to go. We pushed it down the hall and into the elevator, pushed the down button and ran back to the apartment. We heard the elevator coming back up and ran to see if it was still there, but alas, it was gone, someone else's treasure.
About your nostalgy concerning your junk ...
a great french poet ,Lamartine ,wrote: "objets inanimés, avez vous donc une ame qui s'attache à notre ame et la force d'aimer ? "...please ,Francine translate for me !
Helene
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