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Gahbidge

In the good ol' days, residents of many Boston suburbs divided their waste into two piles: rubbish (or trash) and gahbidge. The former was the "dry" stuff and would be taken to the town dump. The latter was "wet" (coffee grinds, waste vegetables, and other food remains) and would be picked up by a local pig farmer to feed to his animals.

Comments

Swill- wet gahbage that was kept in an underground pail with a heavy metal lid that resembled a manhole cover, called a swill bucket.
The smell of which would curl your toes after a couple of 90 degree days in the summa. Memories from a Lynn childhood.

Roberta on December 31, 2003 01:10 PM.

My mom used to always yell at us to "Put that in the gahbidge, not the trash!" The trash can was in the kitchen, the gahbidge barrel was down cella.

Sandy from Glostah on January 9, 2004 02:35 PM.

Yep. Theres a manhole cover behind my old house right next to the garage. Now, I live in house just up the street in Lynn, and the gahbidge goes in a closet in the kitchen with vents and then in the gahradge for gahbidge day which we put outside unda the tree.

Patrick on July 11, 2004 12:25 PM.

We called it swill and put it in a compost bin. When it was all composted, along with other stuff like leaves and grass clippings, it became fertilizer for the garden.

graeme on November 13, 2004 05:09 PM.

The funny thing is they don't have rubbish or garbage outside of Mass. I swear to God I need a frickin passport to leave New England

Mark on March 17, 2006 01:52 AM.

They actually use "rubbish" out in fahm country in SE
Pennsylvania, but they only other people I've heard use it have been Irish or Brits.

Ed on September 28, 2007 06:05 PM.

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