Helping Hand at the Dump

The other day I took my truck, fully loaded with yard and grass clippings, to the dump (the waste transfer station) for disposal. My annual clean-up from the entire winter windfall will usually insure me with at least three full pick-up loads of debris before I’m finished.

On this day the truck was filled one foot above the truck sidewalls; grass clippings on the bottom, pine needles and pine cones in the middle, with dead branches and a tarp on the top.

The day had been cloudy with spots of rain, so there was not a lot of other dumping going on.  When I arrived I jumped out of the truck, removed the tarp, grabbed my rake and began pulling the dead branches from the top of the load, tossing them over the safety wall onto the refuse floor below.  After removing the branches I dug my rake into the top of the pile, pulling the needles and cones down, whisking them out the open tail gate of the pick-up onto the ground to be swept over the edge onto the refuse floor below.  After five minutes of working on the load this way, I grabbed the end of the tarp, which was lining the pick-up bed, and tried pull it off, attempting to bring the remaining load with it.  My first attempt met with failure, the remaining load was still too heavy.  I began pulling more of the debris from the top of the pile with the rake trying to get the load down to a manageable size where I could again try to remove the entire load off the truck just by pulling on the tarp. 

I had removed just a few rake full’s of debris from the pile when James, the attendant at my dump site came over and asked “Could you use some help”?  I looked at him and exclaimed ‘Yea, I’ll bet I could”.  Together, with one great tug on the tarp the entire pile of debris came sliding off the back of the truck, over the edge and down onto the refuse floor.  “Thank you” I exclaimed.  “It always goes much smoother with two”. 

This often the approach taken by those who use the dump; if they finish emptying their load before the person next to them, or if there is a woman or an older person trying to unload their load, they will take time out to help them.

On the way out, as I stopped at the weigh station window to return my dump slip, I commented to the girl behind the counter about how I had been helped.  “Yes, that was probably James, the tall skinny boy” she said.  “Well, he sure helped me out.  It was just my 71^st birthday last week, and it probably was a belated birthday present.  ”. She laughed and wished me a happy birthday.  Before I left I smiled at her and commented……....…..”But I’ll bet I could have done it by myself anyway”.

For another interesting transfer station (the dump) story, scroll down to the Acts of Kindness #1 story.
Good things happen at the dump.