Agnes Varda made a documentary, The Gleaners, about people in France who pick the fields after harvest and other people who scour the dumpsters of Paris. I don’t think those people were poor, but they were certainly resourceful.
I’m a gleaner. This time of year, I pick wild blackberries from alongside various walkways and trails in my neighborhood. In fall, I pick buckets of the sweetest persimmons from my brother-in-law’s way-too-tall tree. Year round, I check out the free box at the top of the Boardwalk where I live. It’s not really a box, it’s just some pavement under the community bulletin board where people leave things they no longer want. My husband and I have gleaned some great stuff there – the knives, forks and spoons that we use daily – just our kind of thing, colorful, well made, nice to hold in your hand, called Fiestaware. Some neighbor just left it at the free box! Then there’s the lovely set of six champagne glasses, delicate, clear, with shadows of polka dots (like champagne bubbles) on its sides.
Once at a party, a neighbor saw me drinking from one of those glasses and told me, “I left those at the free box years ago!”
Another neighbor said, “Oh yeah, I picked them up there years ago. Just decided I have too many champagne glasses and left them up there again.”
My husband’s and my good fortune.
Sometimes what goes on at the free box gets funny. Last week, on the e-bulletin board, came this message from our neighbor Crissy: “Does anyone knows anything about the two surfboards my tenant left near the free box yesterday afternoon? He only left them there for a moment…Came back and they were gone.”
A couple hours later, a response from Sam, a second generation Boardwalker. ” I saw them in the free box and put them in my car. Sorry. I’ve gotten some good stuff up there!”
Shortly after that, stopped Cissy on the Boardwalk and told her I hoped her tenant found it as funny as lots of us did.
Cissy said, “He told me he had no idea about the free box! I told him, ‘There’s a reason there’s a pile of crap up there every day.’”
I didn’t say anything, but I thought to myself, “She’s never gleaned any great stuff from up there.”
I felt kind of bad for her.