When large garbage was a really big show

The innovation is probably an improvement, but I miss the old ways. Today is large garbage day on my street. That's the new policy here in Wilmot township -- the first week of the month means the collection of "large garbage", on whatever day your refuse is usually collected.
This is a welcome service, of course, and doing it once a month is undoubtedly a good idea. It may even be more efficient.
But once upon a time, not so many years ago, large garbage day was just a semi-annual event, and, boy, did that result in enormous piles of cast-offs sitting in front of homes all over town.
It was a bonanza for garbage pickers, metal scavengers, and anyone looking for a beat up old table for a work room, garage or potting shed. Trucks, vans and even wagons toured the town, salvaging hither and yon. Drivers and their passengers would prowl past, checking out the discarded junk. It actually hurt a bit when they didn't stop, and you realized that nothing in your pile was of interest, even to a junk collector. That cuts deep.
Those of us without larger vehicles would wander our own streets on foot, looking for overlooked and unwanted potential treasures. To this day, my front garden, in summer, is decorated with an antique push cultivator a neighbour had put out for collection. I would venture to guess that most people on our street have neighbourhood cast-offs somewhere in their garage or shed.
In fact, some of those items may have been recycled through local homes three or four times, because, let's face it, not everything that seems a good idea at the time turns out to be a positive, long-term strategy. I still wonder about the guy who took my canoe after the craft had been crushed to kindling by a higher-than-expected ice jam on the Nith. If he managed to restore it, I'm impressed. Or maybe he wanted it for a chaise longue, like Joey and Chandler on Friends.
It was fun to cruise the streets of town on large garbage night, "window shopping" the curbside detritus, commenting on the wisdom or lack thereof involved in throwing away such valuable stuff. "I can't believe they're throwing that out -- there are plenty of years left in that couch." Worse, "I can't believe anyone ever thought that colour was a good idea!"
Your foibles are revealed to the world, on large garbage day.
But now that this happens 12 times a year instead of only two, the critical mass has been lost. There may still be salvagers, but the sheer mass of the discards is no longer overwhelming. Gone are the days when a pile of large garage could completely block the view of the home involved, when removing an item meant you were risking a life-threatening avalanche of abandoned furniture and appliances.
Not every large garbage event was positive, mind you. Once upon a time, I put out an old barbecue, which we had replaced with a newer model. It immediately attracted salvagers... and I have no problem with that.
What I do have a problem with is, they took out all the greasy, ashy, rusty bits they didn't want, and dumped them willy nilly on my lawn, making off only with the parts they wanted. That, it seems to me, breaks the unwritten rule of large garbage, which is, "Take anything you want, but take the whole thing."
I'm going to stop writing now, and go outside to haul my large garbage to the street. I'm betting the rotting, wooden garden obelisk is gone within half an hour.