Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Junkin'.

Off Topic, and unrelated to sideshow...


Today I came face to face with my West Virginia roots. I went junkin' with my grandfather.

I knew about junkin' before today, usually hillbillies (I'm allowed to say that since I am in fact, a hillbilly descendant) go around and steal copper and brass off of houses, air conditioners, cars, etc. Some even make a career out of it, they go up and down the riverbanks and take the cars and other junk, haul it to the recycling center to receive payment.

So as far as I knew junkin' was a mostly illegal job. I was corrected today, as I found myself atop a metaphorical gold mine. My grandfather and I were taking an early morning walk up a mountain today, we stumbled across an old man cleaning out his fathers house in order to move into it. He had a huge amount of scrap metal and plumbing fixtures, he asked if we wanted it... Of course my grandfather (ex-con man) jumped on the opportunity. Ol' Gramps asked the man if he could give us a ride home so that he could get his truck in order to haul everything away.

The whole way down the mountain my grandfather was smiling ear to ear...he knew what he was doing. We got home, got in the pickup and headed back up the mountain.

It took about twenty minutes to put everything in the bed of the truck. Next thing you know we are drive back down the mountain, my grandfather laughing all the way.

We arrived at the recycling center, and the man could barely wait to park the car before he jumped out to get one of the scale operators. We had to wait about thirty minutes before the recycling guys were done sorting out the steel from the copper and the brass.

As my grandfather puts it:
"Hot damn! Well buddy, that was time well spent right there!"

We earned close to seven hundred clams...

Hillbillies know how to live.

Now I do too!

No comments: