FREE!

Free.

It's a magical word. I see it every time I surf the internet; ads that offer great-sounding products for FREE, or try this company's FREE trial. Items set on the side of the road, with a giant FREE sign adorning them. The word teases you, it lures you in. I have always been drawn to the word Free. There is just something about it that I cannot resist; it almost seems wrong not to accept what is being offered. How can I turn down something that is free, right?

In eleventh grade I was on the cross country team for my high school. One Saturday morning I was at practice, which involved running around the neighborhoods near the school for a couple hours. At some point during the run, we came upon a house that had an organ sitting out front with a huge "Free" sign. An organ, people. I'm talking church-style organ, made of oak. It was calling my name.

Never mind the fact that I don't know how to play an organ/piano beyond "Chopsticks" or "Twinkle Twinkle" (which is still a bit challenging), I had to have that organ. I could just picture the look on my parents' faces; they were going to be thrilled! Imagine, I was going to bring home an awesome instrument - for free! My mom has always wanted to learn how to play the piano, and I thought now she would have something similar to practice on.

I just knew it would also make for a great story every time a visitor asked us where we got that beautiful organ.

I spoke to the owner of the organ, and thankfully he had a pick-up truck, and offered to drive it to my house. About an hour later I pulled into our driveway, with this pick-up truck behind me. My parents came out front, quizzical expressions on their faces. I excitedly explained to them the story of the organ and how we were all the new, proud owners of it.

They were speechless!

Once we got it in the house, I was very excited to start playing it, but apparently this was an electric organ, and it was broken. We looked it up, and found out that it would cost a fortune to have fixed, so, it sat. A few months later was mom was cleaning in and around the organ when she made a discovery: rat poop. Yep, that's right, at some point (prior to bringing the organ to our house), rats had made a lovely little home in the broken down contraption and had left many, many remains in their wake. Now, most people don't like rats, but my mom loathes them. (We had a horrible rat infestation a few years before, but that is a story for another day). As soon as she found the rat droppings, that organ was dead to her, and it had to GO. We considered putting it on the street with a "Free" sign, but my parents decided that no one would be as gullible opportunistic as I had been.

In the end, my parents actually had to pay someone to come and haul the organ away. After that, they were explicit in their instructions that I was never to bring home another "free" item again in my life. While I understand their reasoning, this hasn't been easy for me. There was the time I saw a sink - a WHOLE sink - on the side of the road, for free! I mean, you never know when you might need an extra sink, and those things don't come cheap. Many times I have seen couches on the side of the road as well, and those are equally as tempting. Just yesterday I saw a barbecue with a free sign. Now that I no longer live with my parents, I was thisclose to throwing it in our van and bringing it home. In the end though, I talked myself out of it. Since the purpose of the barbecue is to prepare food that we will consume, not to mention, it also contains fire while in use, I decided that it probably wouldn't be smart to take one that somebody else is throwing out. Who knows, maybe I am starting to wise-up to all this free stuff! I was right about one thing though: the organ has made for a great story!

While this picture is a sign for free manure, I think it pretty much sums up the value of most items you will find on the side of the road.