I remember when the "garbage man" made his curb pickup followed by the "ash man." Back in the day, most homes were heated by a coal and wood burning furnace. Ours was a HUGE circular affair with oven like cast iron doors which opened to reveal the fuel oven. Ours was mainly coal, but in the deep dark days of the depression, it was over to Kuser's Woods for a few wild cherry or oak mini logs to heat the house. We had a steel grate planted firmly between the dining room and what we called our "parlor" but today they call a living room. By the way, when you are passing down Sylvan Avenue and heading toward the Hamilton Township Public Works complex, you will see a huge hill on your left as you pass by the cross streets in the Patterson Avenue area. That was the location of the Hamilton Township incinerator with its huge tall chimney that belched out all kinds of bad stuff. Inside the incinerator building was a huge garage large enough to allow the garbage man's dump truck to back in and dump his load of garbage. A chain pulled block and tackle device hooked on to a very large manhole and lifted the cast iron cover from the burning ovens below the garage. At that point, all the garbage was dumped into the flaming inferno and consumed. Don Slabicki and I often drove there when we worked for the Kusers and took their trash to the incinerator. An indelible memory for me was the day that Don's dog "Rex" died. He brought Rex to the incinerator and he was cremated in the Hamilton incinerator. How in the world do I remember all thes 70 and more year old memories?
