One man's trash is another man's treasure

My mom taught me that saying when I was a kid and found a kite one of our neighbors had put out to the curb for the garbage man.

All it took was a little bit of tape and some ingenuity, and I had it flying high over our little house in Dogwood Park.

The memory came flooding back to me for two reasons today.

First, was the front page story in the Orlando Sentinel, about a bunch of personal papers belonging to local political gadfly Doug Guetzloe. The goofball forgot to pay the monthly rent on a storage unit, so the owner auctioned off the contents for the princely sum of ten bucks. The unwitting buyer was surprised by the material he discovered, and has now turned it over to investigative reporter Tony Pipitone. Something tells me he's going to get a few good news stories out of this trash-to-treasure incident.

Second, was a posting I saw on a genealogy blog I peruse on an irregular basis. The poster was bewailing the carelessness with which so many people dispose of the belongings of elderly folks who are "downsizing" or have passed away. At a recent yard sale, she discovered an original marriage certificate, social security card, tons of old photographs, etc. Evidently, the poor old lady's immediate family didn't see the value in all this "ephemera." But, oh, how the right genealogist would love to get a hold of it all!

Anyway, know what you've got. Hold onto it as long as it may have value to you (intrensic or otherwise). And, before you throw it out, try to find someone who might treasure it and give it a better home than the landfill . . . it's the "environmentally correct" thing to do!