Welch: Before Goodwill, there was just a guy and a mule and wagon

Does anybody remember the ragman?

When I was a child and we went to town, sometimes we saw him. He plied the streets with a mule-drawn wagon. No kidding.

Me: “Mother! Who is that?”

I was fascinated.

Mother: “Oh, it’s the ragman.”

Her answer was matter-of-fact like it was no big deal. But in the 1950s nobody else was driving a mule. To me, he was straight from a cowboy movie. The ragman!

Apparently he went around collecting rags. Or maybe old clothes to turn into rags. He would have been like Goodwill on wheels. Wagon wheels.

There must have been a market for rags if that’s how he made his living. I wondered about that at the time. Still do.

WIKIPEDIA PAUSE.

Wow! The ragman was indeed a pre-Goodwill version of Goodwill. A recycler par excellence. Besides rags and old clothes, junk of all sorts gets collected by a ragman.

Yes, ragmen still exist, especially in developing countries. They even collect plastic bottles. That’s good.

Per Wikipedia, other names for ragman:

Rag-and-bone man or ragpicker or ragman, old-clothesman, junkman or junk dealer; also called a bone-grubber, bone-picker, chiffonnier, rag-gatherer, rag-picker, bag board or totter. Some of those terms are American; some are British.

Can we add dumpster diver? But I don’t do it for a living.

Can’t anybody be a ragman, women included? Ragwoman, however, is not a word. Somebody needs to work on that.

Meanwhile, did “chiffonnier” give you pause? (See above.) Sounds like a snobby word for ragman. Is the feminine version “chiffonnière”? (On various counts, including that one, Spellcheck is not happy with me today.)

FRENCH PAUSE.

The French word for rag is “chiffe” — root word for the English word “chiffon.” I’m just waiting for somebody to say “chiffon.” I plan to smile.

Now for some more useful rag-related information:

The English word “chiffonier” describes a tall chest of drawers — one that presumably can hold rags (chiffes) and all sorts of small stuff. Think of it as a stack of junk drawers. Everybody has at least one; the rich and famous, however, call their tall stack of junk drawers a chiffonier. We’ve gone from rags to riches.

What’s more, what about chifforobes? Is there a connection?

MORE RESEARCH.

Sure enough, a chifforobe is a combination wardrobe-chiffonier — drawers plus hanging space. Who knew? Not me. And I once owned a chifforobe. Never take a word like that for granted. Or your chifforobe.

In conclusion, do you know who wrote an autobiography titled “The Ragman’s Son”?

GUESSING PAUSE.

Kirk Douglas. His father, per Amazon, was an illiterate immigrant Russian-Jewish ragpicker and junkman.

If times had not been difficult for the Douglas family, would Kirk have attained success?

I’ve yet to read the book, but I’m guessing he just didn’t want to be a ragman.

Me, I’m thinking it’d be fun — especially with a mule.

Hanaba Munn Welch sums up her weekly thoughts in exactly 501 words and dashes, a tribute to the old Fort Worth & Denver steam locomotive Engine 501 or Levi’s jeans. Take your pick. Farm life often inspires her writing.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Welch: Ragman Before Goodwill, there was just a guy, a mule and wagon