From my archives—

If you don’t enjoy a thrift store you don’t know what you are missing! Treasures await on shelves and in bins and boxes. Have to have patience and fortitude to search, which I do not have, but I follow my dearest friend or my oldest sister-in-law, and casually look over their shoulders when they are pilfering through a depot of cast offs. It’s amazing what we Americans throw away and discard. Someone’s trash is another’s treasure. That is so true! I hope when I pass my children will give my little (not so little anymore) collections of things to a thrift store so my discards will excite some thrifter and become their treasures.

When my Roanoke home was robbed many years I longed for all my thrift store treasures more than some of the family heirlooms. Among the things stolen was a little red glass rooster bowl that my dearest friend gave me. She had found it on one of her thrifting jaunts. That bowl was one of my most favorite things. Every time I walk by the table going into the living room I remember that little bowl. I’m always looking for another one on my thrifting trips.

Last weekend I found a little brass peacock candle snuffer. I love it! My favorite find so far this year.

I remember reading years ago about a construction worker who bought two boxes of glass negatives at a garage sale. Paid 45 dollars for the collection. Kept them in the cardboard box under a pool table in his garage. The negatives were lost photos of photographer Ansel Adams. Adams was famous for his timeless black and white photographs of the American west. The negatives were appraised and authenticated and were worth 2 million dollars! That purchase was some great thrifting.

My dearest friend is the thrifting queen! No kidding! She has the intestinal fortitude to search every obscure place in the thrift store for a prize. She once bought some silver trays for nine dollars and sold them on eBay for hundreds of dollars!! Yep, she’s that persistent but I think the horn from a Model T car has to be her most unique find. And bless her heart she never forgets to pick up a small prize for me that she knows I’ll love.

I used to occasionally buy Chief a set of encyclopedias from the thrift store but I will never talk about Chief’s encyclopedia collection again. I realized I was more of a hoarder then he was when I had to move things around for remodeling the kitchen and sun room. Six cabinets in the kitchen (just one side, thank God) and all Daddy’s canning jars from the laundry room cabinets filled up the dining room and covered the dining room table.

When the handyman asked if I could clean out the sun room for painting, I had a debilitating stroke followed by heart bypass surgery. Two old metal manual typewriters weighing tons, cameras, collections of bird guides, books, and all kinds of trinkets and photographs resting on Chief’s grandmother’s upright piano. Had to bribe my youngest son to help me. We filled up the living room with that agglomeration. But those things are my treasures and I love them. They make me happy! Chief typed his novel and two volumes of poetry on those manual typewriters.

Today I took five shopping bags of things and donated them to the thrift store. Been carrying them around in the car for a week, trying to get the nerve to part with them. Some grandmother who collects “grandmother” mugs will have a field day. Hope mama will forgive me!

“Thrift shops are my favorite places for inspiration, you never know what you’re going to find. It’s a treasure hunt.” — Paul Octavio