"Another good dump, dead and gone." With us we've still got our dump, but it's not the same. It used to be much more relaxed - you could spot stuff people had taken in that still had some life in it, and take it home, and there was an old man who used to go there regularly with tins of food for the colony of feral cats who lived there.

Then they smartened it up, and called it a "civic amenity point", and had a bunch of men in overalls with a mission to stop anyone ever taking anything away. Even books.

But it's still a friendly enough place, where you keep on running into people you know. And if not, some stranger always seems to pick up the other end if the bag of stuff you are trying to heave up the steps to lift into a giant skip is too heavy. Without being asked, and likely enough without asking if you need help either.

Great story, Jerry, and a great thread. How come I've never opened it before? I'll have to catch up with it on the run-up to Christmas. Should put me in the right frame of mind.