The Dump

Today I brought our rubbish to the Norwalk Transfer Station. Going to a dump was a weekly occurance when I was young in the 50's and 60's. In Ashby there wasn't any pickup and you had to bring your rubbish to the local dump. My brother Bob and myself would often go with my father. We would load up his station wagon and off we would go. The town dump was at the end of Wheeler Road where we lived. Mr. Edwin Shepard was in charge of the dump when it was open. He would tell you where you could dump your rubbish. The neighborhood kids would visit the dump when it was closed to see if they could find anything of value. We also would throw rocks into the small pond at the base of the dump site. You might also see several rats running along in the rubbish. In the 50's they would burn the rubbish weekly to get rid of the paper waste. If you were outside our house you generally could tell when the dump was on fire. With the change in the laws about dumping waste the town had to closed the dump site. Today you would find houses built very close to the site. The town purchased land from Mr. Robbins who owned land all around the old dump site. The new dump site was within 1/2 mile of the old site but now they couldn't burn the dump and they would cover the rubbish with gravel every day. No more neighborhood play at the new site. Mr. Robbins was a farmer and his farm had a large barn and also had a slaughter house. The kids on the street always wondered what went on in the slaughter house. One day a bunch of us got the opportunity to go inside. We didn't stay long because of the site of butchered animals hanging as well as the smell!