Yes! Let's Go to the Dump on Friday Night...
It was the summer of '89. I had just finished 8th grade and decided to spend a good portion of the summer with my dear Aunt Ethel in Maine. We road tripped up in her minivan listening to some “contemporary” Christian music on a soon-to-be worn out cassette tape. We spent the summer going to a tent revival, hanging out with family, and fishing in the mountains.
One day we drove pretty far into the mountains and away from civilization. We hiked deep into the woods. I remember vividly sitting on a rock by these beautiful streams of water fishing. I love the sound of streams so much to this day. I was very successful that day. I would catch a fish, stuff the fish into my purse, and zip it up until I caught another fish. My aunt was upstream a ways so I had to store them somewhere. My purse was the perfect option. When it was time to go, my aunt opened up the small cooler we had with us. I dumped the contents of my now fishy-smelling purse into the cooler. My aunt mentioned something about not getting caught by the “game warden” when we were walking back to the car. I didn’t know what a game warden was and I didn’t know what he would want to do with us, but my aunt explained that the fish we caught were too small (hence the reason they could fit in my purse.) I imagined a man dressed in a “camo”-like police uniform with a shotgun chasing us out of the woods. I suddenly became terrified until we made it back to the minivan. I felt pretty safe in there because I couldn’t imagine the “fish police” chasing down a couple criminals in a minivan. I did think it odd that we were faithfully going to a tent revival almost every night and breaking the fish laws during the day.
Another amazing memory that I have of that summer happened that evening. We had met up with an old friend of my aunt. I’m not sure what led to the next part, but I remember her friend saying something about going down to the dump because that was where everyone was at on Friday night. Hmmm… So we jumped in his truck and headed down to the town dump. Upon arrival, I was shocked to see that indeed the whole town was at the dump. The whole town consisted of about 80 people or so. I couldn’t really see their faces because they were all facing away from us. They were seated in lawn chairs. Some of them were cooking dinner over open fires. Some of them were kicked back chatting with a bottle of beer in their hands. There were some children running around chasing each other. There was even a “television news” crew. This consisted of someone talking in front of the pit with a guy videotaping her with a camcorder of some sort. We walked up behind the crowd of people to find our place at the edge of the pit. Now I could finally see what they were all enamored with. The pit was massive and held a ton of garbage. On the other side of the pit was a forest. I was underwhelmed. I examined the bags of trash very carefully. I examined the woods very carefully. I, then, examined the faces of the onlookers very carefully. I concluded that they were all looking at the same stuff I was looking at. They were excited. I was not. The anticipation in the crowd was palatable, but for what? Maybe these people need to invest in television sets.
After about 30 minutes of meticulously examining the trash and the woods, the voices in the crowd began to rise. “Oh, Look!” “Do you see it?” “There they are?” I squinted off into the distance and saw movement in the woods. “Here they come!” “Awe!” “Look at that!” Slowly three bears emerged from the woods. There was a mama bear and two cubs. I thought, "Now for the fun!" They lumbered out of the woods and slowly made there way toward the trash. They didn’t seem to notice the crowd of humans on the horizon. I’m not sure they cared. It got quiet. Very quiet. Even the small children were speechless in wonder. The cubs followed mama bear to the middle of the pile of trash. They stopped. They used their paws to adjust some of the trash bags and sniff them. Then, they turned around and lumbered back into the woods. This edge-of-your-seat entertainment lasted for about three minutes, I believe. Then, began the after show. Everyone began to discuss all that the bears did during the performance. They even discussed what the bears were probably thinking. The party still didn’t break up for a little while. The after party was just as filled with excitement as the party itself. Believe it or not, I will never forget this Friday night at the dump. Here is my train of thought after this life-altering experience:
I don’t remember what I watched on tv that summer.
Maybe those people shouldn’t invest in television sets.
You don’t “get” people unless you hang out at the dump with them on Friday night.
Jesus would be sitting in a lawn chair roasting hot dogs discussing bear antics and “getting” those people on any given Friday night.
P. S. Another thought to remember: The fish police are legit and you should measure your fish.