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According to city employees, a community of intelligent, inventive orphans is thriving in the annals of the Woonsocket Municipal Junkyard.
The orphans, estimated to be aged from 3 to 14, have been making their homes among the rusting car frames and discarded steel girders for years, creating a surprisingly sophisticated makeshift community.
“Bottlecap was the first of us,” reported Dougboy, taking a break from somehow converting a broken down F150 into a fully functional dirtbike. “He’s named after a bottlecap we found over there.”
Dougboy, Bottlecap, Boomer, SeaBreeze, Lila, Jasper Phillip, Taz, Crinkles and Petrov make up the Torqueheels, one of the junkyard’s most successful syndicalist communities. As the population grows, though, they’ve had to contend with other groups for territory, something that most orphans get to do in a safe, controlled environment.
The Torqueheels have assembled a guard tower out of discarded refrigerators and protective walls out of stacked cars. A series of hubcap bells are primed in the event of a raid by rival orphan families, and the traps rigged around the perimeter should be enough to repel all but the most tenacious invaders, at least for as long as it takes for the Torqueheels to escape through the culvert tunnels that crisscross their territory.
Each orphan has a role that complements their skill set. Bottlecap sets out the Torqueheel’s strategies for expansion and survival. Dougboy is the builder, SeaBreeze is a scavenger, Boomer specializes in demolitions and Jasper Phillip is in charge of distributing all the trash they find. Petrov writes poetry.
“It’s tough without parents or a reliable source of water or food,” said Jasper Phillip, adding that the orphans’ lack of shelter, clothing, and other basic needs of survival also presented challenges. “But at least we can make things out of this dirty metal.”
Though technically the orphans appropriation of the refuse pile is unlawful, they aren’t without their allies.
“I think the little one, I call him Little Duncan, lives in that truck tire over there,” said maintenance worker Duncan Samuels, who will occasionally leave little candies outside. “But anytime I get close the tire just starts rolling away. They’re just too smart for me!”
Additional reporting confirms that despite all the orphans’ ingenuity and success, it’s still really sad all their parents abandoned them.
