As I was writing this article I just remembered something. My father, Elmer G.Fridrich, the inventor, was one of the world's master recyclers. I often remember him as the tight wad who gave us scimpy meals and kept the house freezing cold in winter. Even though he was a miser he appreciated the value of things better than sloppy capitalists who think earth a thing to plunder. Dad lived through the depression and had learned to live in excessive frugality but at least he was not intensely wasteful like so many in our throw away society. I remember him as the guy who was so lost in his thoughts about light bulbs that he barely recognized that he had kids. I remember him as the neurotic genius, book-smart and life-stupid, just like me. He is largely the reason I am that way myself.
Dad often brought home stuff he had bought cheap from the GE dump. He would tell us at the supper table that the amount of waste that GE produced was astonishing and that he did not think that kind of thing could be maintained long term. He was right. That society is falling apart right now. Dad did nice and very unusual things with that stuff for other people. He was always making something in his workshop full of stuff. He had used lathes and drill presses and such down there in his basement. I can not be ashamed of being a good dumpster jumper. I learned it from my famous father.
The End
P.S. It would be nice if we could all send our discarded items to the kids who are on the streets in peaceful demonstrations against the dying system. We might need a volunteer to start a new collection organization. Or maybe the kids could do it for themselves.
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