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Springtime in Wausau, and I am sure in many other cities as well, is looked forward to by anyone with and old mattress, or couch, or stereo which has outlived it's usefulness. The big "Spring Pick-up" is when residents put unwanted items not otherwise accepted by the trash-collectors out by the curb for a special collection. This is also the annual free swap-meet anticipated by bargain-hunters looking for a better used mattress, couch, or stereo.

When I was growing up in Cudahy, I remember carrying an old black-and-white TV home one spring. The TV, which I found on the curb in front of a house a couple of blocks from my home, needed some work. I checked each tube, at the neighborhood K-Mart, two at a time so as not to forget where each one went. When I was done I had a TV in my bedroom for the cost of two or three vacuum-tubes --remember those?

Back then, it was mainly the kids looking for "neat stuff" in the heaps of discarded items lining the streets. It wasn't until I came to Wausau that it had become a giant free yard- sale; considered by many to be an annual event to be marked on the calendars of both givers and receivers alike.

One year, when walking home, I noticed a picnic table among some other junk by the curb. I took a closer look and discovered that the frame was solid but the top and seats had rotted. Julie reluctantly helped me carry it home, and with some help from her father Hank, we had a new picnic table. The cost? A few hours work, six planks, and a quart of red- wood stain.

The very chair in which I now sit, came from the lawyers' office down the street. Julie picked it up a few years ago. The base was broken off so she took it out to her parents' house and Hank welded it back together.

It's gotten more difficult to find anything good out on the street now. Professional collectors have become exceedingly efficient in patrolling the streets. Last year I put out an old oxygen tank which was left in our basement by a previous tenant. Before we even got the remainder of the junk out of the basement, the tank was gone. It was later spotted in the back of a pickup truck still circling the neighborhood as our neighbors continued to pile unwanted belongings by the street.

What is left for the salvage company contracted by the city to collect has been picked clean of anything even remotely useful.

Our contribution this year, was a nine-year-old stereo which no longer worked because the control-panel was pushed in. I kept the speakers though because they're still in good shape. Julie and I went back in the house after putting the stereo out, to look for any other items we wanted to part with, and not five minutes later, the stereo was gone!

Several vulture-like people in pickup trucks were jockeying for position so they could be first on the scene each time a new potential treasure was placed on the curb.

This is not an amateur sport anymore; you've got to be quick these days to find anything of value.

Anyone know where I can find a good deal on a couch?