I'm sure you all have seen the things people leave out on sidewalks for other people to take if they are interested. SF had a "trash day" where people could leave the big items that they no longer wanted in piles. Folks had "trash day" on their calendars and were ready to go out and scrounge a new laundry basket, oscillating fan, microwave oven or printer. Most of the discarded stuff was junk, but we all know one man's junk is another man's treasure. That man lives down here in LA, and he's a neighbor of mine.
His house is behind mine
and one over. It's a dilapidated old dump with a dirt yard, a dead
palm tree and a junker on blocks hogging the drive. He drives a yellow
and white 1978 Ford F-150 pickup. It has plywood sides installed in the
bed for hauling shit and he parks it in the dirt yard 'cause of the
junker hogging the drive. He has two scrappy-looking teenage daughters
that go to the nearby high school. They should be scrappy-looking -
their daddy's The Redneck Scrapper!
I first saw
the Redneck Scrapper a few years ago when I noticed his truck. It's
hard to miss as it clatters and coughs and backfires down the road. One
day I put a small piece of furniture out on the corner and happened to
be outside when he pulled up. He asked if the thing was up-for-grabs
and I said, yes. He chucked it into his pickup and off he went. I
happened to walk past his place the next Saturday
and there was a yard sale in his dirt yard. And yep, there was the
thing I put out on the corner - for sale. Lots of other stuff in the
dirt yard had price tags on them. I hadn't noticed before, but the
junker hogging the drive had a "For Sale" sign on its windshield.
Over
the next weeks I heard the pickup chugging past throughout the days.
And when the weekend came, there was a yard sale. He picked up shit
during the week and sold it on the weekends. He was a rather
enterprising chap. A neighbor put an old grill out on the side of the
road. Redneck Scrapper pulled up and asked if he could have it. The
neighbor said sure. Redneck Scrapper picked up the grill, tipped it
over and dumped the ashes on the ground at their feet. He said thanks,
winked and was away. My neighbor said he just stood there a while
looking at the ash pile on the ground and the trash bin two steps away.
He had just encountered The Redneck Scrapper.
From
where our two houses are situated, I can just see the lights in his
back yard at night. I can see his bonfires, I can hear his hootin' and
hollerin' for the Lakers, Dodgers, Trojans or whatever sporting event
he's watching on the TV he's dragged out there. He's sometimes loud,
sometimes obnoxious and when his daughters have friends over, the noise
lasts long into the night.
As his kids got
older, the parties got more frequent and while not always loud, I could
hear them. Sometimes it was just talking. Talking long into the
night. After a while I came to think that Redneck Scrapper was holding
court, teaching his daughters the ways of redneck scrapping. What to
look for. What to leave. How much to charge for a toaster or a box
full of clothes hangers. I suspect that some day, rattling down the
street in a dented tan and brown 1993 Ford F-150 will be a couple of
scrappy-looking women, stopping to pick up junk to sell on the upcoming Saturday.
Tonight - Club Deluxe (by request)
** CASH ONLY**
In our continued "artist series", tonight's TNSC features Burlesque and Variety by Little Minsky's.
Show starts at 10pm / $7 cover at the door.
bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!
