Burbank Trash

     That old saying that, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” was never more true than back in the 1950’s.
     For some reason, trash cans offered a certain allure to us. The ones behind businesses were the best. You never knew what fantastic things you might uncover simply by looking in the can, as we walked home from school each afternoon.
     My favorite place to dig was in the cans behind North Hollywood Printing Co. on Burbank Boulevard. I would usually walk home from Mingay Elementary School by way of Maple Street. Their trash always included paper. They would throw away lots of it, and I would cart home as much as possible. I think they supplied my paper needs for most of my elementary school career. Some of it had printing on one side. I can still recall one sheet from something they were printing for a company called Atomics International. There was a phrase, “The demagnatriresistance of the singular uranium crystal in it’s triangular form…” I never knew what it meant, but enjoyed quoting it whenever I wanted to sound extra smart. I still don’t have a clue what it meant.
     The best find of all the things out of the printing company’s trash was an electric motor. It was so heavy that I had to go get my wagon in order to lug it home. Once home, I took it apart and removed a large magnet from inside. My dad used that magnet in the garage for years, and it is still around my house today.
     When we moved in 1957, I found an equally interesting place for good trash. The W.R. Moody Co., a maker of trophies, was located at Mariposa Street and Chandler Boulevard. They would throw out wooden plaques from time to time. Once they tossed a bunch of small plastic containers, about ¾ of an inch in diameter, with attached lids. They were great for putting all kinds of "stuff” in.
     I was not alone in my quest for trash. My friend Russell Long used to visit the trash bin at S.A.L. Instruments on Burbank at Kenwood Street. He’d find gauges and other neat aircraft related junk. Another friend, Darryl Eisele, who lived on Keystone Street, used to visit the bin behind the Kovats Academy at Lamer Street and Burbank, where he would find plaster casts of false teeth. Tony Trotta, who lived near Burbank and Mariposa, liked the trash behind Card Key Systems. They would throw out these plastic sleeves, which he found interesting. According to Tony, he trimmed some of his baseball cards to fit in the sleeves --- thus unwittingly reducing the value of the cards.
     Probably the best finder of neat things in the trash was my friend, the late Mase Hector. As a kid, Mase was always collecting soft drink bottles to sell. While walking home from school one day, Mase found a car battery, which he sold to a junk dealer for something like $3. Back then, when most allowances were 25 cents a week, that was big money. Mase was definitely the best of the trash diggers.
     All that experience as a kid actually came in handy a few years ago when Norman Enterprises, a local maker of photographic lighting equipment, moved out of their headquarters on Empire Avenue. They said I could have an electric backdrop roller, and some other surplus photo equipment --- the only catch was that they had tossed most of it into a very large roll-off dumpster. Because I knew the photo departments at both John Burroughs High and Jordan Middle Schools could use the stuff, I actually went “dumpster diving” to retrieve it. It wasn’t anywhere near as much fun as what I remember having as a kid.

      --- Stan

Questions or Comments email Stan at Burbank History.Com