I hadn’t seen our old neighbor in a few months so I gave him a call and suggested we go over to Krieger’s with some scrap metal that I had piled up near our garage. It was all stuff that we took out of our basement when we remodeled last year, an old fireplace grate, the chain-like curtain that went with the fireplace, the metal framework for the drop ceiling, two old cast iron music stands, some leftover conduit and a chunk of wire mesh left from the concrete pour. I was thinking twenty-five bucks at least but I just wanted to get rid of it and most of all I knew how much Sparky like going to Krieger’s.
We still call it Krieger’s even though Metalico has cornered every bit of the junk business around here. They’re located right by the tracks at the very beginning of Portland Avenue in downtown Rochester and the characters who work here are every bit as colorful as the assortment of junkers and junkies that patronize this place. Sparky though is more colorful than them all.
I looked straight in the camera at the cashier counter and received a paper receipt for $10.00 after Metalico’s “Rounding Adjustment” of -$.42. The cashiers handle no cash. The receipt has a bar code on it and you go outside to an open air money machine where you scan the sheet and “Take Cash Quickly.”
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