Free bin

I know I have a trip to talk about, but on my arrival back in Eugene, we discovered that one of our favorite places in the neighborhood is no longer.

When I first moved to the West, I was fascinated by people putting shit in front of their houses with 'free' signs. Anywhere else I've ever been, you leave something sitting in front of your house, it's going to walk away sign or no sign. Here in Eugene, this was apparently elevated to a new level with a set of shelves, a bulletin board, and constant traffic near the local free bin.

Or, as we have now found out it was called the free box. Today we were coming home from visiting the tomatoes and saw that the shelves had been removed and a new sign put up. It says something to the effect that local complaints and sloppiness forced the owner of the property to kill the free box.

The free box was brilliant. It always looked neat to us--we always assumed someone was maintaining it by folding clothes and getting rid of stuff that didn't move. We left a number of things there, and were always amazed at how quickly they went away: blankets, tall girl clothes, a leaky air mattress. Earlier this year, a sign went up asking people not to leave appliances. After that, I didn't see any more stoves, etc.

Long live the free box.