There is a cleared space by the side of my house. It goes to the north and is part of the nearby park. South it goes as least as far as through the neighboring town. It likely goes further; I have never looked for it beyond there. The space was once a railroad bed for a passenger railway between cities and towns (Red Cars and Yellow Cars, once upon a time in LA). Now the space is the Right-of-Way for the power company’s power poles and lines.

The Right-of-Way is lined by the fences and trees at the edge of the yards of the houses that line one side and various small trees and oleander on the other side. Since the space is right next to my side fence I, and others in the neighborhood, take an interest in it. When it becomes overgrown with weeds we get after the power company to clear them, which they do sometimes.  (I once had to put out a small fire there.) 

At times trash gets thrown in this space so on trash pickup mornings I go out there and gather the trash in a plastic bag and include it with my trash. In recent years the space has provided comfort for some homeless overnight. And some leave trash. But not just trash, or obvious trash, and so this story.

There are two small trees about five feet into the area from one house’s ‘fence,’ which is a stand of small trees. This makes a comforting place for one or more overnight stays. Recently there have been several stays of several days under the trees. These left trash, food containers, bottles, cans, paper bags, plastic utensils, and the like. I have gathered several scatterings from here over the months. The line of trees on the other side also attracts overnight tenants.

One trash pick up morning there was quite a pile down at the far end across from the neighbor’s house next to the line of trees. But this was not just trash. There was a large heavy cloth bag, several small carrying cases with zippers, and several books, and notebooks with writing, and a few personal care items. After I collected all the trash, the usual stuff, on a whim I organized the books, and the rest into a neat pile and left it there. I looked back there several days later and the pile I formed was gone, nothing left at all.

So no trash for several weeks until one morning I saw two piles. One was just opposite my house and the other down to the right where my fence ends and the neighbor’s begins. This was a large pile and I did not look closer.  

So several days later on trash morning I went out, resigned, with trash bags and found, to my relief, that the larger pile down to my right was gone. So I had only the one facing me, It was widely scattered over about a three yard circle. After picking up the obvious trash I had another decision.

I had two decisions really. Do I load what is left with the trash or do I organize it like I did before? There were four boxes, about the size of shoeboxes but about four inches high, These would be no problem. There were two large paperback books, also no problem. One was a statistics textbook. The other maybe three inches thick, said SAT in large type on the cover (I did not open the book to see in what sense SAT is being used here). There were several letters or cards.  

Otherwise, there were maybe fifteen or more personal care items, circular tubes in several sizes. I didn’t care to handle these even with the thick leather gloves I wear on these mornings. So I left the items scattered like I found them and took the obvious trash away. So I made neither of the two decisions.

Several days later I looked out at the pile and found that the four boxes were neatly organized in stacks of two next to one another. The two books were stacked next to the boxes. I conclude the personal care items and letters are now in the boxes. The boxes and books were in about the same place but more under the trees. Every day or so after I would look out in the Right-of-Way and see that the pile was still there.

Then one morning after about two weeks itwas all gone.

END