Trip to the Dump--a story for children

“It’s spring and time to take the trash to the dump,” the farmer said.

The family lived on a hobby farm, with a couple of horses, some chickens, sheep and a cow. Of course, they also had some dogs to help around the farm.

Every year they loaded up all the trash and junk around the farm and hauled it to the dump. The whole family went through the house and yard and other buildings. They put everything they could use on the farm into a storage shed. Whatever could not be used was loaded onto a wagon behind the tractor.

            Then the farmer drove the tractor to the dump, which was on the other side of the creek toward the town of Webster.

            Mark and Elise always looked forward to the trip to the dump. This was when they got rid of all the trash that gathered up during the winter and made everything nice and clean before starting to plant their gardens.

            Besides getting rid of things they no longer want, they always found some interesting things to bring home. The farmer usually found some boards that he could use for fixing the buildings. Sometimes he would find a lamp or something that he could fix for the house.

            The children usually found some interesting toys that their parents could fix for them.

            Shane was just a puppy last year, so when they called him to go with them, he didn’t know where they were going.

            “They can’t be going to town’” he said to himself. They wouldn’t drive the tractor to town.”

            As they drove down the road and toward the creek, he thought that maybe they were going fishing, but he didn’t see any fishing poles. When they crossed the bridge, he knew they were going someplace different.

            When they got to the dump everybody started to throw everything off the wagon. Shane shook his head. He would never understand people. They were always moving things from one place to another. First they put stuff on the wagon and then they take everything off the wagon again.

            “Next, I suppose they will pile a bunch of other stuff on the wagon and take it off again when they get home.”

            He watched as the farmer put a shovel with a broken handle on the wagon and Mark started pushing a bicycle with a bent wheel toward the wagon.

            Shane decided this place was too interesting for him to waste his time on these strange activities of people.

He chased a rabbit to the other sided of the dump but lost him when the rabbit dived under a pile of junk. As Shane looked around for some other things to do, he saw a car in the middle of the dump. He didn’t know much about cars so he didn’t know that there wasn’t any motor in it. What he did know about cars was that if he sat in the back seat and looked very eager somebody would take him for a ride. So he jumped up on the back seat, which was easy because there weren’t any doors. He sat and waited to see what kind of ride he might go on.

He didn’t know that a car without a motor can’t go anywhere, so he wasn’t surprised when the car started to inch forward’

            Mark and Elise took time out from searching for things to bring back home to watch the dump manager work with a bulldozer. This is a big machine like a tractor that he uses to push piles of junk and trash into big holes in the round. This gets rid of the junk and fills up the holes making a smooth surface. After this will be covered with dirt and maybe something will be built there.

            “Look at the car Mark.” Elise said.

            She pointed at an old car body that was toppling into the gully along with other chunks of various trash.

            Mark looked. “Wow!” he said. “Look at it roll. “Then he ran to get a closer look. “Elise,” he said, doesn’t that look like something inside the car?”

            “I think its Shane,” she answered.

            When the car lurched, Shane fell to the floor between the front and back seats. This was lucky. It confused him so that he did not try to jump from the car. If he had jumped, he surly would have been hurt by a falling rock or piece of metal.

            By the time he recovered from his surprise the car had rolled over and Shane could not get out.

            Mark ran as fast as he could to tell the dump manager that his dog was under a pile of trash in the hole that he was filling up.

            Elise ran to tell her father.

The manager and the farmer got some chains that they could hook to the bumper of the car and to the tractor and the bulldozer.

            The farmer went down by the car and told

Shane to lie very still. Then with the tractor and the bulldozer they pulled the old car free.

            Shane jumped out of the car. He ran over to Mark and Elise and licked them on the face. He was so happy to be free.

            “Are you glad to be out of there?” Elise asked.

            Shane shook his head. “When will this girl know that I can’t talk to people?”

            He jumped on the wagon and said to himself, “I hope this goes for a better ride than that car did.”

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