The rats

The town dump was just back off main street, two blocks.
People who lived along that edge of town made a habit of killing the rats.
There was a creek that ran through the grave yard, which was on the other side of the dump, it ran through the dump and past my back yard, then out to the town bay. The sewer and water facility was there too and it had that smell.
There was no way to control the rats. They would wander up into the feed buildings and then run the streets of down town, at night.
Scary bastards. The 70’s were so brutal still. Killing rats at any given time of the day was common place.
They found a different location for the town dump. They filled the one that was two blocks from down town and turned into a park for all of the children of the town to play baseball and use their bats for something other than killing rats.