The Best Things In Life Are FREE!

My son reminds me of Fred G. Sanford from Sanford and Son the old TV show from the 70's. sometimes. He is like my nephew too. When my nephew was little he used to collect everything that people put on the curb for free. Our backyard at one time was filled with about 20 bikes and bike parts. That is not an exaggeration either. Every time someone would leave a bike on the curb which back then was like every other day my nephew would bring it home. Needless to say he had no idea how to fix them or what to do with them but they were nonetheless collected and put back there leaning against a fence near a window. He didn't only bring home bikes he brought home tons of balls too, all kinds of balls, from footballs to basketballs and every ball in between including a ping pong ball and we didn't have a ping pong table but we had 4 balls just in case he every found a table and paddles. The collection of things was massive at times and just as massive was the pile of junk that was put out on the annual junk day for the garbage man. Once a year they would collect old junk like bikes, balls, furniture and other things that were considered junk.

My son is kind of the same. He has brought home speakers, balls, skateboards, wood, TV's, computer monitors, records, books, amps, even a dog leash and we don't even have a dog.  Most of this stuff goes back where he found it and some of it goes on the junk pile for the garbage man. I tell him that if it at the curb 99 percent of the time it is no good as in not working. One percent of the time you might find something that half works or works. He got lucky with the paper shredder he found with a pencil sharpener on top. I didn't know that it had a pencil sharpener until my brother pointed it out to me. That was a cool find.  The records, old 45's not so much except to do what he did with them make Tron discs. Those fell off of a truck in the middle of he street. Most of them got broken and the rest were scratched up badly.

So, it was of no surprise to me when a couple of days ago he came running up the stairs in the house and said to me, "Guess what Mom? Guess what we found?"  I shuddered to think what him and his friends had found. It could have been anything from a snake to a drum set. So, I cautiously asked him what it was and he instructed me to look out of the window.  Once I looked out there it was in the middle of the sidewalk. I couldn't believe it.

I shook my head and closed my eyes hoping that it would disappear somehow but when I opened them it was still there. An oversized wooden skateboard ramp that someone had made that was well used and all I could think of is how they didn't all get splinters in their fingers when they tried to drag it  here from wherever they got it from. But, somehow they got it here with no splinters and the spray paint on had their favorite word in the universe "FREE" that is all they needed to see. They probably jumped with joy when they saw it.

Well, after the "newness" wore off which only took about a day and a half it is still out there near the fence. Moved from the middle of the sidewalk for now. I don't know just yet what the fate of this will be in a few days or a week or two or three it may be moved to the pile of no return.  But I know it will be only a matter of time before they see that word "Free" again and something else will  out of the window for me and the rest of the neighborhood to see.