Story Behind The Song

For the past decade or so, "Mt. Rumpke" has been the butt of many jokes in the Cincinnati area. I pass this huge landfill almost every time I go to and from Cincinnati. It's so big it's almost beautiful, and Rumpke has mounted an American flag and vario

Song Description

Mt. Rumpke is a huge landfill just north of Cincinnati. At 1050 feet above sea level, it is the highest point in Hamilton County. The song is done in a talking blues style similar to Woody Guthrie and other folk singers.

Lyrics

Mt. Rumpke Talkin? Blues (Joe Kretschmer, 9/27/03 ? banjo and harmonica)


On U.S. 27 in the state of Ohio, just north of Cincinnati about a half-dozen miles or so.
If you look out your car window, you?ll be impressed to see, a mountain reaching a thousand feet above the level of the sea.
Now that mountain wasn?t the work of God, or of volcanic activity.
It was built of trash and garbage by a company named Rumpke.
They worked for years and years putting refuse on that hill,
Until it rose like the tower of Babel in the form of a huge landfill.
And folks come from miles around, just to drive by and see
That huge unnatural wonder the people named Mt. Rumpke.

[Harmonica interlude]

Well, it staggers the imagination, really makes one think
All that stuff in Mt. Rumpke?including the kitchen sink.
Peanut hulls and Barbie dolls; forks with broken tines,
Bicycle wheels and lemon peels; rotten grapefruit rinds.
Rusty screws and worn-out shoes, plastic water guns,
Lighter flints and dryer lint, and junk mail by the ton.
They piled it high, up towards the sky; tons of worthless bounty,
Until one day, the papers did say, it was the highest point in Hamilton County.

[Harmonica interlude]

I remember well one winter in March of ?96, when old Mt. Rumpke grew itself into an awful fix.
That mountain start grumbling, and then with a terrible groaning sound,
Thirty acres of ripened trash came a-crumbling to the ground.
There was smoke and dust in the mountain?s crust?a landslide worthy of Aspen,
Only this one popped and burned and stunk, and left the neighbors gaspin?.
Yeah, the children whined, dogs got sick and birds fell out of the trees,
Lawsuits grew like crabgrass, and the lawyers swarmed like bees.
Ol? Rumpke didn?t have a leg to stand on, with fleets of garbage trucks.
So the judge said ?It?s a gol-darned shame? and fined them a million bucks!

[Harmonica interlude]

Well, Rumpke paid the fine all right, on the installment plan.
Not one truck stopped running; they didn?t lose one garbage can.
For no matter how much you squawk about how it might happen again some day,
People need to put their trash on the curb, and they need to have it hauled away.
And you can?t send trash to heaven, God doesn?t have room to spare.
You can?t send it down to hell to burn?there?s too many lawyers there.
You can?t pollute the oceans, and the desert?s way too hot.
So I guess we?ll just have to have Mt. Rumpke, whether we like it or not.
So the next time you drive up old 27, and you gaze upon its crest,
Enjoy the flag and the Christmas lights, and relax?it?s all for the best.

[Harmonica finish]