DUMPSTER diving with Brad
Note: Brad has experienced some hard times lately…very hard. I have written this
short story to bring a little cheer to his life. Good times are stored In our memory cells
to help in bad times
ALn skeoch
June 13, 2024
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“AL, GET UP HERE FAST.”
“WHERE?”
“Treasure Island…you know where…too busy to talk…bring your van…now!
Clarence Bradley Schnellar was a Dumpster Diver….a treasure hunter.
I think dumpster diving is illegal but that did not stop Brad.
Sometimes the treasures were too big for his car and when that happened he called me. I had a truck.
“What have you found?”
“No more talk…get up here!”
A whole nest of dumpsters were were dumped at the edge of the old brick factory on Mississauga
Road where a Loblaw mega store now stands.
I got there pronto but no sign of Brad. Some other divers were present sifting through the dumpsters
“Clarence, where the hell are you? “ His mother named him Clarence. He did not like the name so I called him
Clarence just to irritate in friendly way. “Clarence!” I yelled.
Several long cardbosrd boxes flew over my head from a dumpster. Clarence was in so deep he could not be seen.
“Al, gather up these boxes….get your truck rear doors open.” Boxes rained down like air defence misilles. Several
dozen,
“What’s inside?”
“Carnations…lots of them…must have just arrived from South America.”
“The boxes are cool…direct from cargo jet liner.”
“Why are they dumped?”
“Maybe drug dealers hid cocaine or heroin in the boxes of carnations..red and white long stemmed carnations.Lots of room.”
I looked around. Maybe we were being watched by members of a drug cartel with big knives or guns.
Who else would throw out shipment of carnations.
‘What will we do with them, Al?”
“Kevin and Andrew have a paper route. Carnations delivered with the Toronto Star/”
Note: our motorcade — a beaten up Ford cargo van and a spiffy
Ford station wagon— were unremarkable….but were we being
tailed by Drug dealers!?
No one following. Imagination gone wacko?
How could the carnation bonanza be explained?
Brad did not even try as he distributed carnations to his neighbours in Erindale.
Note: That happened in the 1970’s
alan
