I'm a 'public nuisance'

 

October 18, 2020



The city called me a “public nuisance” in the legal notices in the paper. That would insult some people, but not me. It’s the nature of my business. Some women have been calling me a public nuisance for 60 years!

For those that don’t know, a bit about my business. Much like the trash service, salvages are necessary. I have bought around 50 cars, countless loads of junk, and had lots of things dropped off anonymously so far this year. The car on blocks in the neighbor’s drive, the old mower pile, and leftover tin from the roof disappeared because of salvages. If I and the others like me weren’t here to collect the stuff, much like your household trash, your world would soon be full of junk.

I am no stranger to having to polish up my act. Many years ago, I had a good friend on the council. He would give me a heads up when I was headed for trouble. Sadly, he passed away too young, so I now receive the letter from the city about what needs to be done.

I had a friend ask me once if it ticked me off that they picked on me. My answer was that they never asked me to do anything that I didn’t need to do anyhow. If I ever thought they were picking on me then I would be ticked.

Fast forward to now. A month or so ago I got the “letter” from the city about the mess at the salvage, mostly the junk on the street. With lots of work the street is clear, and we have been working on the sides of the street. The road must have needed cleaning because I have driven by twice on the way there. We are going to start crushing cars and tin this week. Hopefully, we will soon have much-needed room again.

One problem has been with the cutting off of the world markets, we have had no price to sell on. This caused a shortage of room and it has been hard to get product into the back of the salvage.

Several years ago, a local businessman bought the old hotel across from Bar 7 with visions of making a fortune restoring it. The first thing he did was turn in complaints on three businesses across from the new purchase, Scribner Used Cars, Bar 7 Machine Shop, and Mustard Heat and Air.

His plan was to make life tough on three people just trying to get along that had no problems in reality. We all got city letters and the then-city inspector told us what to do to appease the complainer. We polished up a bit and karma took over because his grand plan never materialized. In fairness, the other two were persecuted for greed, but I did need to do some clean up.

Granddaughter Jennifer and Mike’s wedding was very nice. We sat in the shade, so the heat didn’t bother us. The cake was an armadillo cake. It was cool.

 

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