One Man’s Trash

Being home, I’m an easily enlisted manual laborer. Helaine has begun to take advantage as she’s perform some heavy duty meteorological spring cleaning.

Twenty three years at one address allows you to accrue a bunch of crap! There is stuff behind stuff behind stuff.

Take the WBNE set piece I was allowed to remove when Channel 59 changed call letters years ago. Most decorative items like this look weighty, but are not. This is the exception. It is solid… and heavy.

In reality taking it home was nothing more than trash transfer. I removed something useless to them. Now it’s useless to me. Fair trade?

Oy, the garbage.

I have a vintage NYC subway destination roll. The long, heavy, printed cloth inside listed all the terminal stops on the IND lines. It has never left the closet.

Life is about accrual I suppose. The problem is we have too much room. It was easy to store and forget.

What I’ve learned today is, one man’s trash can be another man’s treasure, but mostly it just stays trash.

12 thoughts on “One Man’s Trash”

  1. Good find, Geoff. I remember when WB was on antenna channel 59. I didn’t have cable TV alot growing up so I watched a lot of the local stations. I still can remember most of the lineup

    3 – WFSB (CBS)
    8 – WTNH (ABC)
    20- WTXX (UPN)
    23- PBS -I forgot the 4 digit ID
    30- WVIT (NBC)
    49- Another PBS – I forgot the 4 digit ID
    59- WBNE (WB)
    61- WTIC (FOX)

  2. There are lots of collectors who will pay big bucks for old tv mementos and especially the subway roll. Turn them into cash instead of compost.

  3. @ Michael: WEDH-TV channel 24 Hartford / WEDW-TV channel 49 Bridgeport / WEDN-TV channel 53 Norwich / WEDY-TV channel 65 New Haven. No luck with channel 26 (IND, PAX, now ION) of New London?

    @ Geoff: Find anything which actually said WTVU-TV on it? That would be a find! 🙂

    1. Kevin, Thanks for the reply. Interesting notes on the station names.

      Living in Waterbury, the Hartford stations were always weak. Though strangly I was able to pick up most of the New Haven stations easier, such as 8, 20, and 59. They would usually be completly clear. But 30, and 61 always were static.

      Luckily, there’s no static on Digital Over the air signals now.

  4. Geoff:

    Time to slip the garbage guys a $20. I also love VVA.com. I set a goal and then they come and get it…all of it! I have my dad’s emmy’s etc. Still trying to figure out what to do with it all besides keeping them in boxes.

  5. I was in one apartment for 17 years. I had two storage bins in the basement. When I had to move it was a nightmare packing and getting rid of stuff.
    Maybe you can sell the WBNE sign. If it’s made of metal you can take it to a scap yard and they’ll pay you for it. Heck if it’s metal I’ll come get it & take it to a scrap yard myself (I can use the extra $$).
    I still have the WBNE T-shirt I won in a promotion years ago (they wanted to know who my favorite weather man was….guess who I voted for…). It’s still in good shape.
    At work we have a copious Lost and Found. Every now and then I go through it and pick out things I want, things that are still usable but I don’t want, and what’s outright trash, and take the usable stuff to Goodwill. My bosses used to just throw things out. One time they threw out a box of stuff I was saving. Went to get it back and in going through it I found a bag of change. More than $27.00 in quarters in that bag. I also got 2 NICE raincoats (1 LLBean, One Cabella’s) 3 pairs of shoes, two sweatshirts & three jackets(…and a partidge in a pear tree…). My boss got a REALLY classy tie (which I’d saved from the trash numerous times under my OLD boss). It’s amazing not so much what people lost but that they never came back for. We have an Xmas tree stand waiting there now and two sleds. Go figure.

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