Gahbidge

Swill- wet gahbage that was kept in an underground pail with a heavy metal lid that resembled a manhole cover, called a swill bucket.The smell of which would curl your toes after a couple of 90 degree days in the summa. Memories from a Lynn childhood.

My mom used to always yell at us to "Put that in the gahbidge, not the trash!" The trash can was in the kitchen, the gahbidge barrel was down cella.

Yep. Theres a manhole cover behind my old house right next to the garage. Now, I live in house just up the street in Lynn, and the gahbidge goes in a closet in the kitchen with vents and then in the gahradge for gahbidge day which we put outside unda the tree.

We called it swill and put it in a compost bin. When it was all composted, along with other stuff like leaves and grass clippings, it became fertilizer for the garden.

The funny thing is they don't have rubbish or garbage outside of Mass. I swear to God I need a frickin passport to leave New England

They actually use "rubbish" out in fahm country in SEPennsylvania, but they only other people I've heard use it have been Irish or Brits.

There was Gahbage, Trash, Swill and Rags. The Rag man came up and down the streets yelling "trash any ol trash" Trash was stuff that That could be cycled old clothes etc, Gahbage was picked up by the Green Boston garbage trucks. The trucks always had an old stuffed animal tied up over the cab. Swill (unusable food) was generally frozen and neatly put beside the gahbage. Sometimes you brought gahbage to a local "project" "post war housing developments" that had "incineratahs" You went there and opened the metal door on the end of each building and threw it down to a never ending fire. When the "incineratahs" were stopped you dropped stuff off at the "Dedum Dump" drove in and tossed it, Then went to "Naponsut Valley" Dairy for a "Banana Buckut". Disposal of refusewas an "art form" for older 50's Bahstoniuns.

The under-ground swill bucket's manhole cover had a foot step lever. You pushed the lever with your foot, the cover opened and you dropped your food scraps into the pail. On trash day the garbage men came to the rear of the house and emptied the pail. It stank like hell in the hot summers. I remember the swarms of green flies.