dumpster diving

i was talking to a friend yesterday about the good old days when we were raising our children. i worked 40 hours a week and my wife watched the children. it was to expensive for day care for 4 children. we use to do a lot on the side to make extra cash. one of the things was a thing called dumpster diving. behind each business they had these containers that they called dumpsters . these containers would be for any thing the businesses wanted to throw away. a lot of times they would throw stuff away that we could use or at least take and salvage like copper and brass and aluminum. there was a refrigeration place that had a dumpster and they would throw small pieces of copper tubing away. they also threw some brass fittings away. every time i would drive down the road and pass a business i would drive around to the back and check the dumpsters and after a while the kids got involved and they could make extra cash that way. my daughters birthday was about to come one year and she wanted to invte a friend to come to the house and have cake and ice cream and have a little party. so we called the girls parents and asked if their daughter could come to the party and they said yes. my two daughters got in the back seat of my 1955 buick and we went to pick the little girl up. on the way home i decided to go behind the refrigeration place and check the dumpster, after all it was on the way. my daughters both had been to this dumster before with me. when i stopped the buick my two daughters jumped out and dove in to the dumpster before i had a chance to get out. i waited a couple of minutes and my daughters got back in the car. their friend was sitting in the middle of both of them. the girl had a surprised look on her face. she looked at my daughters and said, "what are you doing? " my daughters looked at her like she was crazy and said, "don't you know? " my oldest daughter held out her hand and she had some copper fittings in her hand. she said, this is copper and we get 25 cents per pound at the salvage place for this. my other daughter held out her hand and said," this is brass and we get 20 cents a pound for this." they both said to their friend, "don't you ever do this? " "we thought every one did." i couldn't wait to get home to tell my wife about it.