Go to What Happened When The CityBoy Moved to TheCountry
- Add a comment
- Go to Breeding Refrigerators
There was a time when I was reularly visited by the
"Clutter Bug"... I've sinced been inoculated and happily clutter free... nice blog with lotsa neat stuff ummm not that it's cluttered or anything...
posted by
mysteria
on August 12, 2005 at 5:48 PM
| link to this | reply
Let me tell you... country folk are not the only ones who never throw things out. After cleaning out much of my mother's things I've decided she has to be one of the greatest hoarders there are!
posted by
Ca88andra
on August 6, 2005 at 10:05 PM
| link to this | reply
Thanks for your comment, Joe. I felt especially encouraged after reading some of your writing. It's like reading the New Yorker. Very nice!
posted by
cfarrell
on August 5, 2005 at 7:29 PM
| link to this | reply
Love
Don't you just hate when after you get to know someone they begin to feel comfortable enough to gossip.I hate gossip it doesnt serve any purpose at all, and she is just hoping you will fall into it, so she has someone to repeat her garbage to. The lock was a good idea.
posted by
Tweeter65
on August 5, 2005 at 5:12 AM
| link to this | reply
Joe Love,
I grew up in the country. I remember the 1930's red peg-built barn on the property. It too housed an assortment of sundries, mostly old farm machinery; parts and pieces. My favorite place to play was in the loft or on the bottom level of the barn where the floorboards covered a fresh water spring -- a resplendent landscape for the imagination of a child. Great post. ~ red
posted by
redlunar
on August 4, 2005 at 11:25 AM
| link to this | reply
JL
Excellent post as usual...and let's not forget "A Fridge Too Far"..
posted by
Mudman
on August 4, 2005 at 4:31 AM
| link to this | reply
I wonder what he was storing in them?
Love the blog awards. Cool.
posted by
word.smith
on August 3, 2005 at 8:19 PM
| link to this | reply
Joe Love,
I grew up in the country and actually, you keep anything around that's mechanical for emergency situations. Say you bought a dryer and eventually it dies. You buy a new one and one day it starts making a funny noise and you discover you have the part sitting out in the shed. Or maybe you can take parts off to help fix some other engine so you don't have to spend limited money (hey you are a farmer, not a CEO). I do have to agree and draw the line at more than two old fridges sitting around. 
Shadow
posted by
Keshet
on August 3, 2005 at 3:56 PM
| link to this | reply
There is something about
living on a farm that seems to make it necessary to keep everything. It goes back to and before the times when I was growing up on one in Idaho. The late 40s. It was a poor farm and having to replace something was unheard of if you could steal the parts off of the old one out in the barn to keep this one going. You couldn't afford to run to the hardware or other stores to grab the little things your always in need of. Wire, screws, pieces of metal, so you made the most of everything available. That was real recycling.
posted by
Moondawg
on August 3, 2005 at 2:49 PM
| link to this | reply
Joe_Love, I am too familiar with this type of country people. You have described it well.
posted by
TAPS.
on August 3, 2005 at 11:33 AM
| link to this | reply
Wow, you must know all my neighbors.
I can't deny that I have three broken weed eaters. I was planning to trade them into the local small motor repair shop towards a new push mower. Yes, I suppose I am that scary kind of person you are talking about. As far as metal goes, I would sell it to a places that buys metal. A metal recycler. You could get 50 bucks for the copper condensers in the old refrigerators. But if you're not into that sort of thing, I understand. Funny blog! My dad will love this because he is also a city boy.
posted by
Flumpystalls3000
on August 3, 2005 at 9:20 AM
| link to this | reply
Very fuinny post, Joe Love.....
Great sense of humor, too. I hate junk left out on lawns and stuff like that. You can tell I'm a city gal. You poor thing. I hate the mice problem even more.....I'm telling you...d-con...it's more humane. The mice get thirsty and run out looking for water.
posted by
MedusaNextDoor
on August 3, 2005 at 8:58 AM
| link to this | reply
This way of treating what citybreds call junk, is true of countrysides all
over the world, it appears to me
posted by
Straightforward
on August 3, 2005 at 8:11 AM
| link to this | reply
Tash Litter
Hey, you have it good! Here, in suburban Philadelphia, my wife would never dream of having our property strewn with litter. No, she prefers having our HOUSE strewn with litter. Papers, books, mags,string, old computers, shards of broken glass ("so pretty"), supermarket flyers from 6 months ago, etc. etc. ad vomitum.
posted by
Pooch116
on August 3, 2005 at 7:03 AM
| link to this | reply
Joe,
I guess it must be quite a change moving to the country from the city...lol...people keep that stuff cause they are gonna fix it someday !!!
posted by
SincerityAnna
on August 3, 2005 at 6:27 AM
| link to this | reply
From the real Madison County
Yes, we have a covered bridge and there must be a few lonely housewives hoping Clint Eastwood will wander by and have a cuppa tea or ... There are also alien-planted infamous breeding appliances.
Trust me, it's not limited to refrigerators. I have found additional mini Cuisinarts, in factory packaging, accumulating in the "future yard sale storage area" near my art and craft supplies. I am sorry to report that expensive paint brushes and tubes of good acrylic paint do not multiply. (Sigh.)
posted by
Pat_B
on August 3, 2005 at 4:26 AM
| link to this | reply
Dave
I look forward to it...poor Joe is probably sleeping and I won't tell him the happy secret. If it is about fridges and such, coming from your mind..look out I can hardly wait!!!
posted by
Offy
on August 3, 2005 at 1:22 AM
| link to this | reply
Pubster, poor old Joe's inspired this morning's post for me, which I'm just working up. Beware!
posted by
_dave_says_ack_
on August 3, 2005 at 1:13 AM
| link to this | reply
Dave
Your tormenting this poor man..I love it! The Fridges of Madison County...My God you have me laughing out loud at 4:15 am EST..Poor Joe, he is in a pickle!
posted by
Offy
on August 3, 2005 at 1:10 AM
| link to this | reply
And, of course...
The Fridge on the River Kwai
posted by
_dave_says_ack_
on August 3, 2005 at 1:03 AM
| link to this | reply
Joe.... more thoughts on refrigerators
... I've been thinking about them since first reading your post. I even mentioned them in a comment I left somewhere. And next time I'm out walking in the countryside with my camera, I'll take photos for you and post them to show that this happens in barns in the English countryside too - perhaps it is a worldwide phenomenon.
In fact, did they not make a film about it with Clint Eastwood... The Fridges of Madison County
posted by
_dave_says_ack_
on August 3, 2005 at 1:02 AM
| link to this | reply
I never went to your place...
You have a cool layout:)
posted by
Marshallengraved
on August 3, 2005 at 12:56 AM
| link to this | reply
Oh, Joe!
I'm so sorry it's taken you this time to get used to such a change! You'll be okay, though, I know it! Just give it a bit more time!
posted by
SpitFire70
on August 3, 2005 at 12:15 AM
| link to this | reply
In days of yore ...
... there weren't any garbage disposal companies in most rural environments, you know. In the lag between the 'rag and bone man' and Garbage 'R Us, old wornout stuff had to go somewhere. Be glad M. Sr. was a 'put it in the barn' rather than a 'dump it in the gulley' kind of guy.
posted by
aamie
on August 2, 2005 at 9:37 PM
| link to this | reply
Hola!
Oh man!! What a great idea for a new scary movie!!! Refrigerators from Hell!!!!
Joe, you betta get movin' on that script before someone beats you to it!!
Go Easy,
J. King
posted by
J.King
on August 2, 2005 at 9:14 PM
| link to this | reply
Joe_Love
I added an addendum to my post based on you comment...so please see if it reads better to you now; I did not want to leave the impression you got from it...at all!
posted by
Krisles
on August 2, 2005 at 8:53 PM
| link to this | reply
I feel your pain...I grew up in the country and we always had a shed
Full of junk that nobody wanted...I never realized this was wrong till just now though...lol
Episode 17 is ready of the Road Trip Sagas...are you still reading along?
posted by
Passionflower
on August 2, 2005 at 8:37 PM
| link to this | reply
Hahaha...Your neighbors probably think you're nuts...
...for throwing out all that "good stuff." Does your trash actually make it to the pick-up guys? See...I woudl think that all those treasures woudl be stolen and stashed in your neighbors' barns. That's what happens around here! Better yet - have a YARD SALE! People pay you to take your junk. It's wonderful.
posted by
allicat275
on August 2, 2005 at 6:51 PM
| link to this | reply
Breeding fridges...lol...too funny...but unless you see any little mini-fridges (like the hotel mini-bars)...they're probably not fertile enough to breed!
posted by
Julia.
on August 2, 2005 at 6:37 PM
| link to this | reply
O Joe Love
OMG.. you poor man! I keep telling you about Park Avenue. You keep telling me about old stoves and now all these fridges.. Good God, walk a different route tomorrow, the dogs will never know..how do you deal with this insanity???
posted by
Offy
on August 2, 2005 at 4:40 PM
| link to this | reply
Exhausting!!!!! But are you happy
in the land where refrigerators roam free???
posted by
Cynthia
on August 2, 2005 at 4:02 PM
| link to this | reply
Joe Love, love your posts! Too funny....my grandmother never threw anything away, she even washed aluminum foil and saved it. As a kid, I spent hours plundering her house, and when she passed on, her children found $40,000 in cash she had stashed in various places in her bedroom. Most of it was under her feather mattress.
~Mama.Dragonfly487
posted by
Mama.Dragonfly
on August 2, 2005 at 1:26 PM
| link to this | reply
Bite your tongue!
I was raised in a rusty old high chair and nearly died seven times in refrigerators like the ones you describe...ahhh the memories.
posted by
UsualSuspect
on August 2, 2005 at 1:00 PM
| link to this | reply
Oooh. Are you brave enough to open any of those old fridges? ? ?
posted by
SilverMoon7
on August 2, 2005 at 7:10 AM
| link to this | reply
WOW
Attack of the Rusty Refrigerators? I can see the movie preview now...In a small rural town, life moves at a slower pace...people sit on their porches and wave to one another, the paperboy gets paid in chocolate chip cookies, and Darby's Diner serves the best coffee around. But whatever you do, don't, go, into, the kitchen!
Maybe this could be the new Hitchcockian shower scene of the 21st century.
posted by
mhickory
on August 2, 2005 at 7:03 AM
| link to this | reply
Love
Once again, your story is completely true while be totally histerical. When I moved here, I had to tear an old barn down to put up a new one for my horses. I found bikes, kids toys, silverware and much, much more.
To this day I walk through th pasture area in front of the barn (because they had crap strewn for a hundred foot radious around the barn area) and I am pulling things out of the ground like old bike parts plasticware, shirts and of course glass. So Love not only does this junk breed, like your refridgerators, but it grows also. I guess after living on the farm for so long the junk has adapted its own way of survival.
posted by
Tweeter65
on August 2, 2005 at 5:34 AM
| link to this | reply
i loved this post. i was happy to see i had two to catch up on....
Its so true though.. maybe not in EVERY country/small town, but when i was in the south on a year long adventure, those people did some crazy stuff. one day i was walking across a swinging bridge over a stinky river (where many threw their garbage) and a chest freezer went sailing below me and caught the bridge.... i thought for sure i would die and did take a moment to reflect on what an odd way it would be to die.....
here is hoping those refridgerators are not "in bred" between brands so that they don't become odd or worse yet, hostile like my encounter with a kentucky freezer....
posted by
mmm-w
on August 2, 2005 at 5:34 AM
| link to this | reply
Joe Love, you are funny. I suppose you could leave all the junk out the front for passing traffice with a sign "Please Take" but the sign might be all that goes
posted by
Azur
on August 2, 2005 at 1:38 AM
| link to this | reply
Funny stuff, Joe. Lots of well-worked lines that made me laugh. Refrigerators do breed. It all starts when they gather round to sing 'Freezer jolly good fellow'.
posted by
_dave_says_ack_
on August 2, 2005 at 1:34 AM
| link to this | reply
I haven't room to talk
My TV is in the cabinet from the first TV my mom bought back in ummm 1955. The cabinet is made of beautiful wood. So a few years ago I got a friend to take out the old b&W TV...it still worked btw. Then I put in a 20 inch set and even have my VCR and Dvd players hooked up on the top. It makes a nice cabinet.
Mom never liked to throw things away.
Sorry about rattling on...really did enjoy you post...will be back.
posted by
Whacky
on August 2, 2005 at 12:17 AM
| link to this | reply
Too funny Joe!
Just had pre-bed laugh reading this! And one always needs a pre-bed laugh! "...the corpse of a deceased grandmother" LOL!! I hate junk! I keep nothing! Why I've been known to throw out car keys, cash, credit cards, and always the most important receipts! I like the clutter free method...if I ain't used it for a year..it's gone! Now of course refrigerators might make good coffins..
posted by
ginnieb
on August 1, 2005 at 8:44 PM
| link to this | reply
Okay, Krisles. . ,
like, I
do know that the antique tools are worth
something. But, a broken television from the sixties??? lol
posted by
Joe_Love
on August 1, 2005 at 8:29 PM
| link to this | reply
You must have never played the game "Astro Turf."
It's the classic game you play while traveling in the car where you get points for spotting things like astroturf used for carpeting, infoor furniture on the lawn, working appliances on the lawn, the Tennessee State Flower (huge white satellite dish) etc...
Funny post, Joe! And agree with whoever said breeding refrigerators is better than breeding mice!
posted by
strat
on August 1, 2005 at 8:29 PM
| link to this | reply
Joe_Love
You obviously don't know the value of "stuff"....my family, on both sides, are a long line of stuff collectors...give enough time, and I can find about anything you want. Few things give me more pleasure than finding a use for something I have held back from the junk heap.....and my husband worries about what to get me for Christmas! You find this engrained in any community/family still imprinted with the Depression psyche.
posted by
Krisles
on August 1, 2005 at 8:21 PM
| link to this | reply
hahaha. you can find treasures in that junk. And the fridges were mating, they do that on the full moon, when all household appliances come to life for an hour...
posted by
Vanidad
on August 1, 2005 at 8:17 PM
| link to this | reply
I loved this post.
Better than breeding mice I say.
posted by
bettyboop1967
on August 1, 2005 at 8:16 PM
| link to this | reply
Geeeez, Wifey!!
I got a story coming up on that!!! LOL (rolling eyes)
posted by
Joe_Love
on August 1, 2005 at 8:10 PM
| link to this | reply
I do not stow away my garbage, I burn it!!
Geez, city boys don't know nothin'!
posted by
Bel_
on August 1, 2005 at 8:08 PM
| link to this | reply
Thanks, Grail and Katray
Always a pleasure and honor having you visit.
posted by
Joe_Love
on August 1, 2005 at 8:02 PM
| link to this | reply
Very funny JoeLove
I have breeding toasters in my garage. ;)
posted by
Katray2
on August 1, 2005 at 7:59 PM
| link to this | reply
Oh that's too funny as always. My sister and brother in law only get so many trash pick-ups per month. You should have seen their place when they were fostering a litter of 6 puppies. Egads!!!
posted by
Holy_Grail
on August 1, 2005 at 7:59 PM
| link to this | reply