Just a sneak preview of who you’re dealing with

More than a few years back I was fortunate enough to know a mate called Chris. He was a couple of years older than me but was not in the best of health.(I won’t bore you with the major details), but least to say, he was restricted in his ability to be a normal teenager.

I took a large part of my unofficial education from Chris: as well as my Dad. Both learned me the ways of repair and recycle. If something broke, the tools came out to attempt to repair it. Not ALWAYS successful, but we’d always give it a shot, no matter how impossible the task.

Dad was an engineer by trade and lived his life by the same precise rules. Everything HAD to be right....and I suppose it rubbed off a little on me as I grew up. Everything from cleaning my pushbike to organizing the communal nut and bolt collection had to be done methodically.

From an early age the fascination with repairing things took root. Collectively Chris and I would check out the contents of local builders skips or the rubbish pile around the back of the local mechanics workshop ...you see the pattern forming can’t you!  

As I started work the same affliction followed me. My work colleague Andy, also seemed to suffer from the same thing. Thinking about it, Andy was probably a lot worse than me at collecting. Things soon got out of hand as we both struggled for space to store our spoils. Then came the day when we both met our respective wife’s and had to settle down, cutting back on the amount of clutter we’d both gathered. as you’d expect; the cutting back didn’t last for long. Nowadays I’m just a little more choosy at what I store and what I pass by.

Still, I can’t seem to pass a skip without having at least a sneaky look to see if there’s anything useful to be had. The piles of accumulated treasures grow. Hence the name 

STIGSDUMP

A big thanks to Mic for your help