The city of Pinckneyville sponsored a junk collection day June 12. At least six, forty yard dumpsters will filled with old furniture, appliances, mattresses and other nasty, moldy stuff that had been festering in people's homes. Tillock Steel Supply of Baldwin hauled away the scrap metal. Big Dawg Disposal of Pinckneyville donated the first three dumpster and charged only cost the the remainder.

            BY JEFF SMYTH

             Rooting around in the land of forgotten memories – a crammed closet rarely visited – the thought came to me that the scavengers on “American Pickers” might want to stop by my house. After all, the same family has occupied this place for almost 50 years and a lot of treasurers from a lot of different people have been stashed away here over time.

            As I bound down from the upper reaches of the manor, giddy with my idea and the thought of the riches that could come from mining the “rusted gold” under my roof, I clutched a wooden nickel I remember picking up at the at the 1982 Du Quoin State Fair. I proudly displayed it for my wife.

            “Maybe there is someone who collects these,” I said, pinching it between my thumb and index finger.

            “Yeah, the guy in the stinky truck who stops at the blue barrel in the alley once a week,” she scorned.