Essex lions, Piaget, Goodnow
Cleaning up the junk pile led me to an interesting memory. Before 1970 the distinction between trash barrel and junk pile wasn't clear. Many farms and houses had accumulating trash/garbage piles that were occasionally burned but never emptied.

In the late '50s our family lived in a new subdivision built on the former Goodnow property. The Goodnow house itself was directly north of our house, about one block away. As I explored the world, I found that the Goodnow house was still occupied by a cranky old lady who didn't like kids exploring her yard. (The cranky old lady was not exactly a Goodnow, but was the last remnant of the Goodnow household.) So I kept my exploration somewhat away from the house, south of the stone wall that marked the inner yard. Just outside the wall was a trash pile that contained all sorts of interesting stuff: old radio parts, car parts from the 1920's, and new tin cans. I spent many happy hours digging through the radio and car stuff.

Modern 'industrial archeologists' would undoubtedly stop all development within a mile of such a historical site: the town founder's own midden, with 100 years of trash!

= = = = =

And the neighborhood Essex Lion also had an interesting memory of my former junk pile. Yesterday as I was watering the lawn at first light, he showed up to supervise. He took a close look at the place where the pile had been, and instantly turned around and spotted the hidden corner where I've neatly stacked the blocks. He recognized the stack as being the same blocks, even though the blocks were mostly invisible under furniture and weeds in their original location. He spent some time sniffing around the new location. I'm guessing the blocks were reliable mouse containers.

Sort of a Piaget test for Essex Lions: they can detect visually, from a considerable distance, that a completely different setup is made of the same elements.
  ¶ 3:08 AM