Stu's email address is stumail@earthlink.net.

 

Getting rid of a bunch of junk on Mackinac Island is not easy nor cheap. Unless you consider paying $500 as easy and cheap. That's what it costs for a mixed garbage dray permit from the City of Mackinac Island DPW. The fee to have the Mackinac Island Service Company deliver the dray with two horses, then later pull it away is another $132. Remember, there are no privately-owned motor vehicles permitted on the Island. There is no other reasonable option. No competing companies. Plus, you have to load it yourself. About your only other possible option would be to cut it all up and hall it one piece at a time (like Johnny Cash) with you each time you take the ferry off the Island. But if you are getting rid of construction debris, old shingles, cleaning out your basement, etc., this is not a reasonable option. Oh sure, you could chop it up and put it in blue garbage bags, which are sold by the DPW for $3 each, but have you ever tried putting a sleeper-sofa in $3 garbage bags. Forget it! (But it has been done). And hey, if you don't like this and other idiosyncrasies about living on Mackinac, "There are other places to live," as some aldermen will quickly point out. While some complain about these idiosyncrasies, I applaud them as they provide great entertainment to stave off the banalities of life. For instance, as a result of these exorbitant fees associated with garbage drays, you will see some of the most creatively built, stacked, assembled heaps of junk you've ever seen in your entire life. An eighth Wonder of the World (see photo). Chicago World's Fair load of logs, move over! If you see small, loosely stacked dray loads, you know you are witnessing the handiwork of a greenhorn to the Island, or someone so wealthy that it is of no consequence. The drays arrive as essentially horse-drawn, flatbed wagons with short walls maybe 2' tall. From there, you build your walls with old doors, plywood, old fence, whatever. Then you stack everything in between the walls, sometimes more than 12' and pray the sides don't let loose. Visitors to Mackinac will often see these garbage drays coming down the street, like some kind of current-day version of the truck from the Beverly Hillbillies. What many don't realize, but I am going to share with you, is that many of these drays contain treasures. One man's junk, is another man's new bicycle or dresser or anniversary present. Whenever I see a garbage dray being loaded (you are allowed seven days), I carefully scale the walls of it and peer in to check out the loot. Through the eight summers I've been on Mackinac, I've found many usable items: classic Schwinn bikes, bike parts, antique screen doors, antique beer cans, usable lumber, boat parts, rope, wire, tools, garbage cans, hats, furniture, light fixtures, bath tubs, paint, etc. The best drays are ones where there are new owners of one of the cottages on either the East of West Bluffs. These "cottages," known to most people as mansions, are time capsules. Through the years they have become elephant graveyards for items from the owners homes in other parts of the country and world. For decades, (sometimes since the 1800s) all this stuff winds up on Mackinac in their summer cottages. Then, one day they sell the place, the new owners have no use for this stuff and it all goes into a garbage dray. And, if you're lucky to be the first one to find it, and not too modest, you can stumble upon these treasures and claim them as your own. I'm a collector of old bicycles and beer cans from the 1970s and earlier. The hunt is so much fun, the anticipation of what might be hidden in there, recklessly disposed of by fools, the wealthy and or the disinterested. Once I find something, I immediately haul it away, because if you leave it, planning to pick it up later, some other scavenger will likely make away with your find. One time I found an old twisted bike that had been run over by a horse or carriage of some sort. It had some salvageable good parts on it. A nice seat, peddles, etc. I was on my way to ride around the Island, so I didn't really want to hall it eight miles in my basket, so I left it, planning to pick it up on the way home. I get back and it was gone. Rats! foiled again. I later found out a fellow bike collector snatched it and hauled it all the way back to Pennsylvania! When you live on an island, much is recycled, whereas on the mainland it would be disposed of and a new one purchased. And, living on Mackinac Island is an expensive proposition anyway you look at it. Take this fun scenario, for example. You want to buy a new refrigerator. First you have to get rid of the old one by buying from the DPW a disposal decal for $35, then you have to hire the Service Company to get it and take it away to the transfer station (another $15). Already, you have more into this than the thing was worth! Now you have to go to a major city (ferry ticket, gas money, an entire day), buy the new one, have it delivered to the freight dock in St. Ignace (another $100), then shipped across the lake for more money, then delivered by the Service Company for yet more money. By the time it's in place and you've properly disposed of the old one, your new $300 refrigerator could be approaching $600 in cost. And that's just one appliance. So now, over the years, you need a new washer, dryer, dishwasher, bed, mattress, couch, dinning room table. Well, good luck with that. It's no wonder so many things get recycled on the Island. I recently went to an estate auction on the Island. While some of the stuff was purchased and shipped off the Island, most of it was merely redistributed to other homes on the Island. You should have seen it. It was like Christmas, people grinning from ear-to-ear with furniture and household items strapped to their bike baskets, pulled in garden carts, whisked down the street on ferry luggage carts and, of course, hauled by drays from the Service Company. Welcome to part of my world, fun, exciting, entertaining, anything but cheap and easy.