Why do poor people keep everything they ever owned in their yard?

[fastfredracing]

My dad and I took a road trip to pick up an old Lincoln this morning. The car was located in a depressed rural area. They guy said he would set the car out front of his house so we could spot him easily . We figured it would stick out like a sore thumb, until we rolled into town, and I swear every single house we passed had at least 2 broken/rusted or wrecked cars in the driveway/yard. Every lawn tractor, hot water heater, refridgerator, washer, dryer, or furnace these people ever owned were stored neatly in their front yard for safe keeping.
I am not trying to pick on the poor, as I have been financially challenged for many years of my life as well, but I never left my junk out front for every one to enjoy as lawn ornaments.

[Zeke]

American Pickers.

[yetibone]

I guess when it takes a man some time and effort (notice that I didn't say work) to scrounge up some foldin' money for a major purchase, he don't want to let go of what he's spent his money on. No matter how dilapidated, and worthless his possessions will become. If money was spent on anything, that makes it valuable, regardless of functionality, or condition. If money was spent on an item traded for another item, then that other item is just as valuable as the item he traded to get it.

I've heard old fellers say "I spent X dollars on that thing yonder, back in the fifties, 'an ain't nobody gonna give me what I want fo' it, so thar it sets. Ain't causin' me no problems settin' thar."

[Por_sha911]

Its what I call the "poverty mentality". You don't want to throw anything out because you may need it (or a part off of it) someday. Besides, why spend the extra money for gas to haul it off? You will find this same effect (to a degree) with the generation that went through the great depression and WWII. Nothing was wasted or thrown out. You either kept it or recycled it for the war effort. My parents (and my wife's parents) kept everything and both families were comfortably middle class with a margin. Fun times when you have to move them from home they've lived in for 20-40 years. Its amazing the stuff they collect.

[epbrown]

Rural areas like that are cash poor but storage-space/personal freedom rich - they keep all that crap because they can. They've got the room and their neighbors won't be in the next town meeting squawking about declining property values, unlike some suburbs of Chicago (or condo associations), where it takes an act of Congress to do anything to your own property, lest you offend your neighbors.

[Embraer]

+1. More power to 'em.

[id10t]

I'm poor.

Anyway, *my* stuff in the yard is made up of the 356, some kids toys (but not many), a garden tool or two, and an old dishwasher, washer, and dryer.

The appliances are there because each time I have a truck available to haul 'em off, either the local dump station is closed or the appliance area is "full and not taking any more right now, come back next week".

The toys do a rotation, so they aren't exactly yard art. The 356 is there until I clean the garage out this winter *again* so I can put it in there, and maybe even work on either turning it into a running rusty, or start taking it apart for a rustoration.

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by embraer

+1. More power to 'em.

+2 !

[pete3799]

I store most of my crap out back in the woods.
2 or 3 VW's, a buick,datsun,couple of dodge p/u's washer and dryer, old Peterbilt parts etc...
I try to keep the place fairly neat. Nothing at all around the house (wife would kick my a$$)
down by the garage is starting to look like the Yokum's but i'll have most of it gone before the snow flies.

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by epbrown

Rural areas like that are cash poor but storage-space/personal freedom rich - they keep all that crap because they can. They've got the room and their neighbors won't be in the next town meeting squawking about declining property values, unlike some suburbs of Chicago (or condo associations), where it takes an act of Congress to do anything to your own property, lest you offend your neighbors.

Agree totally!

[RWebb]

my relatives used to stick stuff out in the "yard" for use as barriers to shoot from when the revenuers done come

[aigel]

Some of them are horders but some of them genuinely keep stuff around to have spares or use something off of it, if they remember they have it. I have seen some creative recycling, i.e. in fences and gates on ranches.

I have lived on lage properties before and always loved having a couple parts cars for whatever project I was working on at the time.

George

[strupgolf]

I like to dispaly my "junk" in the front yard for the neighbors, but then my wife gets mad and makes me put my pants back on.

[pete3799]

What are these pants you speak of?

[VaSteve]

Originally Posted by yetibone

I've heard old fellers say "I spent X dollars on that thing yonder, back in the fifties, 'an ain't nobody gonna give me what I want fo' it, so thar it sets. Ain't causin' me no problems settin' thar."

You sometimes see the same mentality in the PP for sale forum as well.

[Heel n Toe]

Originally Posted by milt

American Pickers.

Ah yes, but there's a new reality show in town that might be more appropos...

SCRAPPERS on SpikeTV... it's hilarious if you enjoy NYC humor...





HERE’S Frankie Fidilio rolling down Avenue U in Brooklyn on the second-hottest day of the year in his blue 1986 GMC Suburban. The van has no air-conditioning, but that’s the least of its problems.

So much rust dust has accumulated in the back that this looks like the only vehicle in creation with a dirt floor. Still, that’s better than the front, where there is no floor, just the hot asphalt of Avenue U flying by beneath the soles of his sneakers. Frankie’s Newports and a copy of Playboy rest on the dashboard. The exterior is so rusty that a tetanus shot should be required just to look at it.

To Frankie and his partner, Joe Posa, that empty dirt floor is a beautiful blank canvas: soon, if all goes well, it will be covered with scrap metal: pieces of cars, plumbing, old appliances, air ducts, fences: anything that the citizens of Brooklyn no longer need or want. So they give it to Frankie, a scrapper. To him that old steel, iron, copper and aluminum might as well be gold.

Racing to fill the van gives narrative tension to Frankie’s day and also allows for all kinds of interactions with construction workers, auto mechanics, other scrappers and even little old Italian ladies. So: why not a reality show? We’ve already got “Ice Road Truckers,” and crab fishermen off Alaska and real housewives. How about Brooklyn scrappers driving around in their rusty van hoping to fill up and unload before the sun goes down?

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/arts/television/01scrappers.html

[johnco]

I might be one of those poor people with the poverty mentality. I've got 4 cars and a 16 ft trailer loaded with misc tools and parts in the front yard , 4 cars and a boat in the backyard. at my shop I have 3 cars in front, 2 inside and 4-5 cars, a 16 ft enclosed trailer as well as equipment and stuff from our old fab shop in back. inside the shop I have anything and everything from airplane parts to welding machines. something in my genetic code inherited from many generations of hoarders. I really don't believe I could possibly care any less what anyone thinks about it either. I'm the guy everyone around here calls when they need something they can't find anywhere else.

[BeyGon]

Not just the poor, how about the farmers with the John Deere's all lined up in the front yard, and then there are the people on the reservations, with the last ten pickups parked out there, with a TransAm or two.

[Groesbeck Hurricane]

Because I don't have room to park the seven trailers, tractor, and implements anywhere other than around the driveway without using up valuable farming land and hay/animal storage buildings.

Oh, and the junk piles from the previous owners are slowly moving to the recycling places. Come by next year, it will look nicer, I promise!


Seriously, it is because they don't care and don't know any better. It is also to have barriers from which to shoot and areas to block the vision of others. If it is not worth selling it is not worth paying someone to haul it away. Trust me, you don't want to go onto their property anyway!!!! The house is most likely MUCH worse than the yard. Please don't ask how I know....

[john70t]

The only gripe I got driving by those yards is that the stuff is scattered about randomly. If someone is going to keep those old Buicks to restore for the 2030 Barrett-Jackson, at least put a cover over the windows.