Dumpster diving

Back in Davis, I fell in with a crew of die-hard dumpster divers who, this time of year, would mount organized expeditions to dive into dumpsters and recover the cast-offs of well-to-do college students heading away for the summer. The leader, Dan, had a big old van exactly like the one Scoobidoo had, and while he and his co-pilot were belted in up front, scanning the back alleys of dorms and apartment complexes, the rest of us would bump around the back like billiard balls, no seats, no windows, no warning when the next sharp turn would come (the sharper the turn, the better the loot). Sometimes, we were too late, and unsavory characters would have beat us to it, leaving a debris field behind them. One time, a cop came and lectured us and shoo'd us away, explaining that trash did actually belong to someone (it was very low on logic and intellectual content). Always, we were rewarded with good stuff, and showcked that people could just dump stuff that could at least have made it to a thrift store. Later, some students organized a club to pick up the stuff and run a 25-cent sale, but by then we were leaving so we never got to see it happen.
Now we're at Duke, we've been cruising around here too, but it hasn't been as productive. The dorms we live near are lower-classman dorms, and parents rent U-Hauls and SmartBoxes to move their students home for the summer. We're a little behind on checking out the Central Campus apartments where the upper-classmen live.
Meanwhile, though, some weeks ago I joined the Duke International House listserv, and many international students are graduating and readying themselves to leave. They carefully photograph their belongings and households, and make picasa albums to share. Each time I cruise the virtual yard sales, I glimpse makeshift homes for shoestring budgets. Plastic tubs, mattresses on the floor, a computer, a printer, an ironing board, a cushion. When I was a postdoc, my lab had a grad student from China who managed to send money home to his parents on his student stipend. These are folks who resist comfort and delay gratification with determined purpose. I am awed, humbled, a little ashamed.