The "Scrounging Around" Story

It was an ordinary day. Getting ready to move to our new home. Packing and throwing out all the items that we don't want or can't use any longer. I start to realize how much stuff we have accumulated over the years and how we have accumulated it. We decided when we had our first child that Carol would stay home and raise him and any that would follow while I worked and attempted to make enough money to pay for all the expenses. Quite a chore it was. We learned how to scrimp and save, but mostly how to scrounge. We had a carpet in our dining room that was made from pieces I salvaged from the dumpster at the Weave Shop. My friend Barry, whose father owned the Weave Shop told me that at the end of the day the carpet installers would throw out all the remnants from the day's installations. If I came about 6:00 PM I could get a variety of scrap pieces. Did that for a month or so and made the neatest dining room carpet. Used carpet cement and attached them to a piece of canvas. Looked like Joseph's coat of many colors. Even impressed out friends who had never seen a carpet like it. Worked so good that we made one for the baby's room. I made a dining room table from wood scraps in the shop where I taught. Made the top from a piece of plywood and covered it with tiles someone gave us. No one else had one like it. The light above that table I constructed again from walnut scraps and from plastic pieces I got from another shop teacher. The kids just loved the uniqueness of the light. They all claimed they wanted it for their house when they got married. I built a bunk bed for the kids with 4x4s and scrap pine wood from the wood shop. And the list goes on and on. One of the very unique items I scrounged from the school maintenance building was an aluminium door frame that I managed to cut to about five feet long and install as the front bumper on my VW. The old bumper had rusted and the car wouldn't pass inspection. Bumper was rather unusual, but the car passed inspection and my cost was zero for the frame. Over the years my salary increased, I took on weekend jobs and summer work and Carol started back to work when all the kids were in middle school. Didn't have to scrounge quite as much after that. Funny, I still look for items that I can use somehow, somewhere around the house. Never lose that "scrounge" gene. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.