Nearly 4,000 people go there each week. They spend anywhere from 15 seconds to a few minutes before they leave.

So, in such a short period of time, what can happen?Just ask Sherry and Keith Knappenberger who operate the dumpsters at the Penn Forest Transfer Station off Route 903 in Jim Thorpe. People realize that throwing away trash is the reason they have to go there, but for many, the Knappenbergers are the reason they like to go there.Keith will say that the best parts of the job outweigh the bad, but working at the station is not a job for everyone. There are days of brutal weather: 40 miles an hour bone-cold winds, all-day sleet and snow events, and hot and humid summer afternoons. When asked if the stink of the garbage bothers him along with the bad weather, Keith replies quickly with a laugh."I don't smell anything anymore, and if I did smell something, it would make you throw up."His wife, Sherry, tosses bags away with a smile on her face and "ears" on the top of her head. She's a lady of the seasons, greeting drivers in witches' costumes, leprechaun outfits, Santa hats and Easter bunny suits complete with whiskers on her face. She has become most recognizable, however, by her "ears," headbands that sprout antennae with things that jiggle, that, well, make many dumpgoers just giggle."I like to make people feel good so I started wearing costumes and different types of ears," she says, while sporting bouncing pipe cleaners tipped with miniature traffic lights."I guess people like them because they bring me new ones to wear. My collection keeps growing. I have about 30 now."Though bad weather and their lifting of what Keith estimates to be about 16,000 bags of garbage at 20 pounds apiece are the drawbacks of the job, he and Sherry love the people they meet and the stories they share with them."A guy brought in a bag one day and I noticed what I thought was blood leaking out so I asked him what was in there and he calmly answered, 'my ex-wife.' Then he said it was a deer carcass. We both laughed, but I still wonder, you know?"Garbage seems to say a lot about relationships township residents have experienced. A man tosses his estranged wife's white wedding dress into the jaws of the dumpster. A woman cries when she loses an heirloom ring that is swallowed into the growling belly of the metal monster. Then, one day a young woman drives in to throw away her boyfriend's ex-wife's belongings."She places the bag carefully in the dumpster," says Keith. "Then she puts a picture of his ex-wife on top of the bag and as I go to push the button to start the crush, she steps in front of me and says, 'please, allow me.' Then she smiles and pushes the button."People love to bring their dogs to the dump, too. As witnessed during this interview, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel started to bark and wag his tail when its master's car approached the drop-off. That's because Sherry always gives this pooch and all the dogs that visit the station a treat to eat.Once a man popped open his trunk only to find no bags of trash there. Scratching his head, he said he was trying to get his dog to get into the car at his home, and it wouldn't go in, but where was his garbage?" He went back and returned to explain what had happened."When he got home he found that he had put the bags in his other car," Keith says. "And his dog was sitting patiently in the front seat, ready to go to the station to get his treat."The Knappenbergers don't mind going above and beyond their duties at the dump. Keith reopened the station after hours one day to help someone find an $800 check accidentally tossed into the recycle bin. Then there was the time a frantic woman told them that she had thrown away a bag of Christmas cards filled with more than $2,000 in cash she intended to send to family members."I couldn't promise her we would find them, but I opened up the back of the dumpster and she walked in and found that bag. A minute later and it would have been crushed with everything else."There are sad stories to tell, too. When wheelchairs, walkers and canes are discarded, Sherry and Keith realize a death in someone's family has occurred. When a woman who always drove up with her husband comes without him one day, the inevitable question is asked and the anticipated answer is given."One woman brought me a pair of beautiful hunting boots," Keith said. "She said her husband told her just before he died to give the boots to me because he thought the world of me." Then Keith adds after a pause, "I didn't even know his name. We can tell you what cars and trucks people come here in, but we don't get to know too many people by name."In the midst of life and death stories, Sherry emphasizes another purpose of the station. She recently initiated an electronics' recycling program. On her days off, she distributed 2,000 fliers throughout the township requesting everything from old TVs to broken computers."The response was incredible," Sherry says. "We collected over 42,000 pounds of electronic recyclables. And the best part is that a company picks it all up at no cost to the township."There was still one obvious question to ask Keith and Sherry, who have been husband and wife now for four years. How has working together at the station all day, every week, affected their marriage?"I certainly can't ask my wife how was her day," says Keith with a chuckle. "The good thing is that if I am having a bad day, she picks up my spirits and I do the same for her.""I enjoy being with Keith and I could really do this 24-7," says Sherry. "It's the perfect job."If you should drive into the Penn Forest Transfer Station to throw out your trash, you will get something to take back with you."Have a good one," says Keith."Have a great day," says Sherry.These are their parting trademark words, but you can also leave with a feeling that you didn't have when you arrived.A trip to this station promises that Sherry and Keith Knappenberger will meet and greet you and then send you away feeling a little bit better about yourself and the township you live in.