“In the Old Days”

Ahorse, a wagon, and a gun were standard equipment for many a San Francisco scavenger in the years before the Sunset Company was organized. "In the old days," as the men still say, jobs were scarce for an Italian immigrant; even at the laborer's daily rate of only $2.50 in 1912, for example. "He came from the old country and he didn't know how to read or write," explains Leonard Stefanelli, Sunset's president, "so he went into the garbage business." While a householder would pay a scavenger to take away the garbage, the scavenger probably would have to pay for the privilege of carting away the garbage of a hotel or boarding house, because that would be an immediately re-saleable quantity. By 1920, the first scavenger cooperative (Sunset) was formed. Everything points to the leading role played by Emilio Rattaro—who, incidentally, was still attending company celebrations in 1973, when he was over ninety years old.