Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Page A-9
Winding Trails: by Al Hobart
Dump Nostalgia
From my back door a steep
narrow path leads the short distance
down to Packer’s Creek. Across
the miniature canyon, worn deeper
and wider each year by the rushing
floodwaters, a rickety, bouncy foot-
bridge stretches across to the further
bank. Continuing on a few yards,
the path enters a shadowy nook well
hidden from view from above or
from any direction. And here is the
vast repository of all the cast-off,
superfluous and crowded-out detritus
that has tended to accumulate in my
still over-stuffed abode over the 36
years of my residence in Packer’s
Gulch: here is The Dump.
More than a hundred times a
year I make the short trip to the dump,
bearing each time a load of waste
matter –never any garbage–such as
tin cans, bottles, old catalogs, etc.;
ROGUE VALLEY
Beautyrest was done. So, with sadness
in my heart, I carried it down and
placed it reverently on the dump.
The new nylon-sheathed, foam-
rubber upstart that has taken the place
of the old mattress is, I must admit,
fully as comfortable. Still, out of
loyalty to the little Beautyrest I guess, I
still half resent its smug presence over
there in the bedroom corner.
In time, like the central-sinking
gook in a pot of boiling fudge, those
old sentiment-stirring objects – Mom’s
old trunk, Clyde’s mounted treasures,
the little Beautyrest mattress, and a
dozen other aged-cloaked memory-
nudgers –will be overwhelmed by new
additions to the old dump, and will
sink from view forever.
Then maybe I can add my
armloads of junk to the dump without
all those morbidly sentimental
complications, and, with as much
secret, simple enjoyment as the
circumstances might seem to warrant,
just watch the darned thing grow.
but it always seems to make me a
little drowsy when my eyes come to
rest on that rotting corner of my fast-
disappearing old Beautyrest mattress,
and a little ghostly sigh escapes me
when I recall the many wonderful
nights of floating dreamily off into
the fantasy-filled Yonder on that, little
down-soft man-made cloud.
I’d almost forgotten what led
me to abandon this luxurious example
of our comfort-conscious inventors’
ingenuity. I guess the little twin
size mattress just succumbed to the
ravages of old age and mistreatment.
The fabric and cords inside just
gave way and allowed the countless
little coil springs to turn crosswise
and otherwise, producing annoying
little bumps that left corresponding
uncomfortable depressions in my
flesh.
My more or less skillful attempts
at surgery proved fruitless;with each
succeeding operation the malady
seemed to grow worse. At last the
awful truth dawned on me – the little
treasurers:the rim-racked remains of
Mom’s old iron-bound trunk stands
forlorn and half buried at this end of
the dump. Farther along and higher
up on the soggy mound I see a now-
shapeless feathered mass with great
taloned feet still clasping the artificial
rock to which it was attached more
than 50 years ago–the, mounted
bald eagle my stepfather brought to
earth while riding the bleak range in
northern Montana. And farther along
still I see the protruding horn of an
antelope, belonging to a mounted head
that once proudly adorned the folks’
home, and that I fell heir to when they
were gone. A crumpled ear is still
visible, and one glassy eye peers eerily
out from the slowly enveloping waste-
mass. The sleek, fleet little creature
that once bore that moss-grown horn
at amazing speed across its level home
terrain was brought down by my
stepdad in his young cow punching
days, shot from the back of his running
horse on a Dakota prairie.
Maybe it’s only my imagination,
and, callously-spurned, once-treasured
objects such as worn clothing, scuffed
and tattered space-filling books and
magazines, outmoded or broken-down
furniture.
Watching the old dump grow
–getting higher and expanding
noticeably each year (now about a
third as big as my cabin)–has been a
source of mild wonder to me, and has
provided me with a sort of hard-to-
explain secret pleasure. Every load
I add to its increasing bulk gives
me a pleasant little feeling of minor
achievement. Rather than make a
cheery bonfire of old cartons, boxes
or other combinations, I carry them
happily off to the dump to add another
small stone, as it were, to the only
great monument that is ever likely to
be erected in my honor.
Sometimes a feeling of nostalgic
sadness assails me when I enter that
shady little near-hallowed alcove
and let my gaze wander idly over the
visible contours of my private little
mountain of yesterday’s decaying
Thursday, May 18, 1967
Illinois Valley News
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