Another Life

Yesterday the old kitchen cabinet was picked up from the nature strip within a couple of hours of being put out. Some of the items had laid out there four or five days without being taken and they needed to come back inside and carted to the tip. Sometimes on the fourth or fifth day just as hope was beginning to fade they might suddenly vanish. An old metal shipping chest and a nice blue barrel had both remained for a stretch before being taken. The tall three-door cabinet Bab had bought in the mid-sixties, a delivery truck needed from the store. The piece had remained a couple of decades in the kitchen, then the corner of the dining room. Later it was carted into the back bungalow and the old blackwood cupboard that had been in the house in the early days and that Bab had demoted to the shed made a return. The latter with its oval mirror and polish was much the handsomer item. It was strange that mother couldn't see that. Another of her failings coming from where she had come from, it had been concluded. The dumb waiter that had been bought for her in later years finally made it out on to the nature strip. Another fine piece in walnut with extended shelves either side and large, spoked and rubberized wheels. The first tenants in the family home had broken off one of the wheels and after leaving it in the shed a few months, then out under the carport, finally the decision was made to let it go. On the third or fourth day on the nature strip someone unscrewed and took the brass wheels and the remainder now awaits the next tip run. There have been five tip trips thus far this year. Prior to renting the house for the first time there must have been an initial five or six. Most of Bab's clothes went to various Op Shops, locally whenever possible. Some had gone out to St. Kilda as there were more bins stationed there. One afternoon an old grey-haired street woman was spied in a tram stop in one of Bab's warm, knitted vests. Going past the grey hair, stature and height had pierced the eyeballs like an arrow the target. The other day a friend who was undergoing the same kind of cleanout in his turn agreed it was always preferable to have the articles given another run by someone, rather than ending as landfill.