Jeff Eaton (top photo, center) and his recovered fender with Lincoln DPW workers Ian Sears (left) and Mike Desmond. Lower photo: the fender back in its rightful place.
This is the story of an antique, a transfer station, and the people in a small town who helped reunite the antique with its owner just as it was about to be unwittingly tossed into a garbage truck. Sounds like it might have been a priceless family heirloom, but actually it was something a bit more utilitarian—the fender from an old utility trailer owned by Jeff Eaton.
It all started when the fender somehow became detached from the trailer as Eaton (a Storey Drive resident) was working outside and was later found by his friend Ken Hurd. We’ll let Eaton tell the rest of the story:
“Ken kindly wrote me a perfectly clear email on December 13 saying, ‘There is a small fender with a taillight on a stump toward the bottom of Old Lexington Road. Is that yours?'” Eaton said. “But I stupidly misinterpreted it, thinking that a small fender and taillight had fallen off my ‘Green Machine,’ a 247,000-mile 1994 Honda Civic hatchback. I checked and there was no missing piece from that vehicle, so I thanked Ken and dismissed the thought.
“A week later, in conversation with Ken, he mentioned ‘trailer,’ since he and I had done a project using it and he knew of its general appearance. I raced down to my garage and sure enough, a fender was missing. (The side of the trailer in question was in the shadows on the far side and I hadn’t noticed the fender’s absence, not having used it since December 13.) So then I raced to the stump in question, and it was gone.
“I made a beeline to the dumpster at the transfer station and crawled around in it, making a careful examination, thinking that someone had picked it up and added it to their dump run. No luck. So each successive Wednesday and Saturday I checked the dumpster again, and really was on the edge of giving up. Meanwhile, I sent emails (with photos) to folks like Brooks Mostue, Eph Flint, Jack MacLean, Buzz Constable, etc., who live near where the fender was last seen.
“On Tuesday, Carol (the administrative assistant at the DPW) called me with the news. Mike Desmond, who has been part of the DPW for only a month, spotted it whilst riding east with Ian on Trapelo Road that morning. As they were coming down the hill near the deNormandie pond, they observed a commercial trash collector heaving barrels onto their truck’s specialized tailgate. Falling off the top of one of those barrels was the fender with taillight attached. Five minutes earlier or five minutes later—no fender recovery. If that isn’t luck, I have no idea what is!”
Eaton had a photo taken with the DPW crew who saved the day and sent it to friends. “Brooks was right on when he said, in acknowledgement of the photo, ‘Ha! More than luck. Another example of a great town. Where else would someone have salvaged an antique trailer bumper? Congratulations!'” Eaton said.