About 1953 to 1955
When I was somewhere between 12 and 15, I got together with my friend Dick Gaskill and we decided we were going to become entrepreneurs. We started our business by building a shed at the edge of my yard which bordered a forest. We envisioned filling the shed with all kinds of metal junk, paper junk, and any other junk we could find at the dump. This dump happened to be past the forest, past Suicide Hill, and at the end of the plain at the bottom of the hill. Back in those days you could accumulate junk and call a salvage dealer who would come to your place of business or your back yard with a big truck and a big scale and give you the published price per pound for iron, copper, aluminum or any other metal, even Gold. The dealer would also give you the published price per pound for paper, if you kept it dry, reason for the shed.
The dump was at least a mile or two from the house but we devised ways to get the heavy treasures to our shed. We had a few run ins with the Dump Manager who we found out had the same ambition as us, to make money by selling stuff from the dump, which was stuff that had been thrown out by people in our town and he had no more right to the stuff then we did. He didn't own the dump, it was on public property and anyone had the right to walk there. It was not like today where there are fences and gates around dumps and you are not allowed to trespass.
We finally got the shed almost filled and while we were doing it tried to stay away from the dump when he was there. We had camouflaged spots at the top of Suicide Hill where we could spy down to see when he would leave so that we could make a raid to get more stuff. The day came, we finally had the shed full and called the salvage company. They came the next day and weighed our stuff and we were shocked we got more than $200 dollars. Dad, your Grandfather, Great Grandfather and Great Great Grandfather, was making $100 dollars per week and we were kids and we had $200 dollars in our hands. I had never made more than $5 or $6 dollars a week selling newspapers.
Now we were more determined then ever to get the metal we could find at the dump, but we got careless and we got caught. We were just walking in the dump and he came up behind us and grabbed us. We said we were just walking through but He made us show him the bottom of our sneakers. He had made castings of the impressions our sneakers made when we were there and taken some big stuff. Our shoes matched the castings. He couldn't believe we were so puny,(Feet grow first and even though I was a kid my sneaker size was 11) he didn't know how we had taken the very heavy metal parts out of there. He was also very mad and told us if we ever came back, it would be our last time. He was really big and really strong, but we figured he couldn't run as fast as us, so we came up with a plan.
We figured without his truck, we could cover the ground faster then he could and maybe without the truck we could keep him out of the dump completely, for a few days. We looked around and on the road leading into the dump there was a giant oak tree right next to the road. At the age of 11, when brother Dave became an officer in the Air Force, I was in charge of getting the trees that we burned in our furnace to keep warm all winter. I figured I could get that tree down mighty quick. Well it was a big tree and it took a lot longer than I thought. About a week later with the help of my friend, Dick, the tree was ready to fall. From all the trees I had chopped down I was good at getting a tree to fall where I wanted by the way I chopped. We figured because of the size of the tree, it might take a week or longer to cut it apart and get the truck through to get back to the dump. We wanted to block the road, so that we would have free run of the dump, we were not prepared for what happened.
Just as the tree was falling, tall trees seem to fall in slow motion, the Dump Managers Truck came speeding around a bend in the road. Dick and I stood in terror and horror. We never expected the Dump Guy to be coming right when the tree was falling. It looked like the Dump Guy was going to be crushed under the tree. He saw the tree and slammed on the brakes and by a miracle the tree smashed right in front of his truck. Dick and I were still frozen for a second as I looked into Dump Man's eyes, I realized I should run as fast as I could because he thought we were trying to kill him and I saw in his eyes he wanted to return the favor. Dick ran back toward home and I ran into the swamp, figuring he wouldn't follow me there. I was wrong, as my feet splashed into the water I heard the first shot and the water kicked up beside my knee with the sickening sound of a bullet hitting water. I started running faster even though I thought I had been running as fast as I could. The bullets hit the water around me as I ran in total terror. You are all living proof that I made it out of the swamp and back home that day. I never told Mom or Dad about the whole thing. I knew I would get in as much trouble as the Dump Man. I will never forget that moment when I looked into his eyes and realized he thought we were trying to kill him and the fury in his eyes, as I realized he was going to attempt to kill us.
I never returned to that spot or the dump, our entrepreneurial days were temporarily put on hold. The dump was eventually closed and filled in, I never saw the Dump Man again. I never got to tell him we were just trying to block the road.
