My father, Niven Gale Wilson whom I was named after.. Nicole Gail Wilson.. used to be a big junk collector. When he first arrived in Valdez, Alaska around the year 1973 the Alyeska Pipeline was being constructed and he worked for the City of Valdez as a "Garbage Man". He told me that it was the funnest job he ever had. All day long he would drive around rummaging through peoples trash and take it home to the trailer park and stash it in a pile to "fix" someday.
Fast forward ten years to the 80's and the hobby of his continues.. now he has five kids to tag along and though he is no longer the towns garbage man he still loves the dump.
Miles France was a close family friend for as long as I can remember. He met the love of his life through a personal ad in the Anchorage Daily News and invited her to Valdez to meet up. He brought her over the 316 Lowe Street to introduce her to the Wilson Family. I was in third grade, 8 years old and eager to meet pretty much ANYONE! When I met Nancy she commented on what a pretty blouse I was wearing. I replied, "Thanks, my Dad got it at the dump". Nancy was strictly a Nordstrom shopper fresh from the big city of Anchorage and it blew her away. After leaving our house Nancy asked Miles all kinds of questions about why I would wear a shirt from the dump.. were we some poor, welfare family who needed help. Miles got to explain my Dads passion to her about the dump.
I can remember exactly what the shirt looked like, it was navy blue almost black with ditsy rosebud floral print in lt. pink and lt. blue, ruffles all over the chest, puffy sleeves and button down the front. I thought it was cool to find stuff there too! One time a local Valdez family suffered a terrible fire that took left their home unlivable. BOY did I score at the dump! I found all kinds of smoke damaged make up and was in heaven! I am pretty sure my Mom threw it all away after finding out what I had brought home (at least I hope she did). I still remember the smell of the fire damaged goods. Oh and then another time the Olkjers house caught on fire and Mary Kay the wife of the home couldn't keep a single thing that was in the house because she hated the smell. SO guess who got the bedroom furniture? MEEEEEE!! I was THRILLEd.. I cleaned it up and put a fresh coat of paint on it. My childhood house had just been recarpeted a smokey blue color so I painted the furniture white with lt. blue trim. Nicest stuff I ever owned.. and yes I still remember the smoke damage smell of that too. I am off to dig through my pictures so I can post some visuals.
3 comments:
that.is.awesome.
why have you never told me about the dump?
I loved this! I always heard about these trips, I think maybe Jon and Briana got to go sometimes and I always felt left out. Dang, I would have traded card board earings for a trip to the dump. . . oh, to do it all again! I remember your awesome furniture but never knew where it came from. . .great story! Keep them coming!
OK, I got the sweetest treasure of all from the dump. It was this Gerber boot knife. It was double-edged and a portion near the hilt was serrated on both sides. It's one of the meanest coolest knives ever. It came in a really sweet leather sheath too.
We also scored some really expensive snow gear too. I remember Nicole got a Columbia coat with a removable liner and I got a fancy red nylon jacket that you put on like a sweatshirt because it had no zipper.
In general it was fun to find a tv and see if you could break the super thick glass or just chuck glass bottles around. I guess the dump brings out the redneck in all of us...
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