Two seemingly unrelated stories in the paper the other day.
The first was about a campaign to stop people from dumping unwanted furniture at roadside. The practice spikes this time of year when students move out of off-campus housing and, not having the means to dispose of the big bits, simply discard old couches on the sidewalk, chucking them away
like a cigarette butt or old boyfriend.
Dont just blame students, though. You see abandoned chesterfields all the time: stained, swaybacked, flea-infested (hey, sounds like me!). Worst are hide-a-beds. Its easier to get rid of syphilis than a hide-a-bed. This still doesnt stop people from pinning an overly optimistic "free" sign to the fabric, if only to delude themselves into believing theyre not littering.
The second story dealt with plans to turn a dead whale into a skeleton for the Royal B.C. Museum.
The connection between the two tales? There really are times when one persons problem is anothers treasure.
Take Finny, the worlds best wedding present.
Finny was a giant fin whale at close to 20 metres, the width of a house - who infamously arrived in Vancouver harbour wedged into the bulbous bow of the cruise ship Galaxy in 1999.
While Vancouverites blubbered at the sight of the worlds second-largest animal impaled as road kill, way up the coast the soon-to-be Mary Borrowman leapt into action. She arranged for a tugboat to drag the 50-tonne carcass up to Telegraph Cove, where she presented it to new husband Jim Borrowman as a wedding gift.
She knew he would like it, as he had already reduced dozens of washed-up-dead marine mammals to their bones. The first, a bloated minke whale he recovered close to 35 years ago, exploded in his face when he cut it open; hes lucky the dogs didnt roll in him.
(This recalled one of my first stories for the Kamloops News: a cow broke out of the old stockyards by the downtown railway tracks, wandered into street and promptly expired, bloating balloon-taut in the summer sun. No one volunteered to reassemble Bossy for the museum. Go figure.)
Some of Jims finds can be found in the barn-like Whale Interpretive Centre at the end of the boardwalk in tiny, historic Telegraph Cove. The non-profit centre holds minke, grey whale, juvenile orca, dolphin, porpoise, seal and sea lion skeletons, and more.
Pride of place goes to Finny, whose articulated frame hangs from the ceiling. It took six years to get him there, with maggots, marine organisms, university students, volunteers and winter storms all doing their part. More than 10,000 visitors come to gawk at Finny each summer.
That leaves Mary with a challenge: living up to her wedding present to Jim.
"It makes it difficult when it comes to birthdays and anniversaries," she says. "You cant just buy him a tie."
But back to the point, that junk-as-treasure thing.
Mary Borrowman saw value in what others saw as 50 tonnes of problem. And unsightly as curbside furniture may be, there is also something essentially satisfying about seeing someone scoop up and portage home a sofa that might otherwise have gone to the landfill.
Best were the old days when you could scavenge each others stuff at the dump (I was with my father-in-law at the dump when he heaved a creased garbage can lid off the back of the pick-up, only to have a really fast old guy snag it on the first bounce).
The important bit: If nobody accepts your offer of free stuff, its up to you to get rid of it. Cant just walk away.
