By Carolyn Schuk

 

Just about anybody who's lived in Santa Clara for a while has a story about finding treasure in the city's annual clean-up campaign. Some of these finds are elegant enough to earn featured spots in Santa Clara's most historic residences and show up regularly in the annual Historic Home Tour.

 

As with any endeavor, cleaning up from the annual clean-up has its dilettantes, amateurs and professionals. But Santa Clara residents David and Regina Dittman are in a class by themselves. You could say they're the virtuosos of gleaning hidden treasures from others' detritus. 

 

Last year the Dittmans gave me a guided tour of their century-old home, an illustration of what a creative eye and lot of elbow grease can do in transforming cast-offs into décor anyone would be proud of.

 

So when this year's clean-up rolled around, I asked these experts to give me a lesson in the fine art of gleaning. But not before I reviewed the idea with Rick Mauck, Santa Clara Director of Streets and Automotive Services.

 

He was ready with the City's official form for gleaning – aka scavenging – outlining the requirements of Santa Clara City Code Section 8.25.280. (You may be interested to know that gleaning is only allowed between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.)

 

Who knew there was an official form for going through other people's trash?

 

Mauck admits that the form is honored more in the breach than the observance. So, with my customary high regard for tradition, I bypassed official registration of my intention to paw through Santa Clara's castoffs, and Regina Dittman and I set out on a sunny morning to try our luck among the mottled mattresses, sprung sofas and rusty exercise bikes -- those tributes to failed New Year's resolutions.

 

Monday is the best day, according to Regina -- "People have been collecting all week" -- and the Old Quad is the best neighborhood. "But," she adds, "no matter when you go out you'll be at the right place at the right time sooner or later. One year we had paid $250 for a pole lamp in an antique store and we found its mate in the clean up."

 

Regina also sees providence at work here as well as serendipity. "Some things are left for other people. If you miss out on something, maybe it wasn't meant for you." In other words, don't be selfish.

 

Cruising down residential streets, Regina instructs me in the etiquette of this particular enterprise. To alert other drivers that you're gleaning, drive slowly with your lights on. Considerate residents will set furniture and other useful items aside from trash.

 

And it goes without saying, always leave a pile as neat or neater than you found it.

 

On this particular day we're on the lookout for bricks and siding for the Dittmans' house. "We have a 90-year-old home and you can't get that siding at Home Depot," she explains. "People aren't competing for this."

 

Many of the materials the couple has used in renovating their house – drywall, hardwood flooring, wainscoting, and redwood lumber – has come from previous years' City clean ups.

 

Siding and bricks aren't on offer this particular morning, but Regina spies a small coffee table. It's badly weathered and the finish is peeling off in strips, but Regina sees only possibilities "All that's going to take is some sanding," she says as we load into the back seat of her car. "If I painted it maroon and put gold rub on it, it would be really cute."

 

We're heading back home when we spy what is undoubtedly the day's greatest find – a room size Transitional* style floral rug in pastel colors. Despite some mildew on the back and a strong tomcat odor, it's in good condition.

 

"I know this will clean up," says Regina after unfolding it. "It doesn't have stains, just odor. We got some rugs a few years ago that smelled really bad. I shampooed them several times and they were beautiful."

 

Before the week is out, Regina has sanded and stained the table. The rug is a less successful project, refusing to give up its tomcat bouquet despite multiple steam cleanings. But the Dittmans are philosophical. It's all in a day's gleaning.

 

*Transitional style rugs use traditional Oriental rug motifs in a simpler, contemporary way.

 

Carolyn Schuk can be reached at cschuk@earthlink.net.