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Date: | Mon, 7 Aug 2000 13:09:36 -0400 |
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For all who have participated, or read, the recent exchanges on "Landfill",
you might be interested in that there will be a full-day
session at the SHA Annual Meeting (January 2001) in Long Beach on
"Archaeology of the 20th Century." It is organized and will be chaired
by Audrey Horning who has done 20th century sites in Appalachia. It
should be very interesting and wide ranging.
In regard to the probable lack of specific 20th century dumps at
individual sites, we may be more fortunate than one would expect.
I was born in 1941 and left New Haven in 1960 to go to college. During
the "New Haven Period" of my life, although we lived within the city
limits, our family usually had a dump!
1941-1947 - lived in Westville on the edge of the city and
apparently maintained an illegal dump behind our rented
house (I do not remember this myself but have been told).
1947-1950 - moved "downtown" near the Green and so had a very
small urban backyard and could not have a dump.
1950-1958(?) - moved back to Westville and lived on the edge of
West Rock Park. We maintined a fully illegal and quite large
dump in a depression (hillside) going into the woods. We only
put "solid waste" (bottles, cans, broken toys, etc.) in this
dump but did so for years. Some sand was put over the dump
on occasion. We also had a garbage pale set in the ground
behind the house for all organic materials and the garbage
man (or should I say, "sanitation worker") would walk around
from the front, take the pale out of the ground and go back
to the street to empty it in the the truck! (Image them doing
that today.)
I have no idea why we maintained the large illegal dump unless
the New Haven Sanitation Department only took organic waste
- but that sounds odd. I also am not sure why we closed the
dump near the end of the 1950s and started to put all waste
out on the street to be picked up.
The point is that even in the 1950s in a fully urban setting
with a municipal sanitation pick up system we still produced
a large dump easily associated with out property lot. It is
still there because when I returned to New Haven in the 1990s,
after a 30 year break, I looked in the woods and found it
although today it is not at all visible on the surface.
I suspect there will be a lot more specific 20th century
dumps then we might expect.
Bob Schuyler
Robert L. Schuyler
University of Pennsylvania Museum
33rd & Spruce Streets
Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324
Tel: (215) 898-6965
Fax: (215) 898-0657
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