This week, I stopped by Wicked Good Stuff, our little thrift shop in town, to drop off a few of things. I mean, how many mugs with logos do you really need? I also donated a pasta maker I got a some Yankee Swap a few years back. Never did figure out how to use it. Plus, hello, you can get the fresh stuff already made down to the A&P, so why bother? I also threw in a pair of black sandals with bows that were so cute, but honey, every friggin’ time I wore ‘em it felt like I was part of some sort of an ancient foot binding ritual. Pure torture!
It always feels good to bring stuff to the Wicked Good. First off, I love roundin’ up things I’m not usin’, have outgrown or let’s face it, never really liked, and getting them into the hands of someone who might actually enjoy ‘em. Senseless to let the stuff hang around, collectin’ dust ‘til our next yard sale. Second, the money they make down to the thrift store goes to people livin’ with cancer. Whoever come up with that was some inspired, huh? And last but not least, I get to poke around and maybe bring home a treasure, guilt free, as the money spent is goin’ to a good ‘cause.
I remember droppin’ by Wicked Good Stuff a couple of months after my mother died, you know, to donate some of her clothes, including the last thing she ever bought: a new winter coat. I can still picture it, maroon with black buttons and a hood. Mom was so sick when she bought that coat, and when she showed it to me, I remember thinkin’, Wow, that’s so optimistic! I mean, she had terminal cancer. But that was my mom. Upbeat ‘til the end. Plus, she liked to shop, so that coat was a win/win.
The coat fit me, so I thought I’d wear it, but it just made me too sad. What better thing to do than donate it to the Wicked Good? I remember standing there, handin’ the coat over to Dora Pritchard who, I swear, practically lives there. I made the mistake of tryin’ to share the story of mom and the coat with Dora (I don’t know what possessed me), but I wasn’t a few sentences in when I started to cry, and it just wouldn’t stop. I mean, there was a regular waterfall streamin’ down my face. I just couldn’t pull myself together, so I stumbled from the shop, got into the car. As the car door closed, something inside me broke loose and I sobbed, wailed and carried on for a good five minutes before I felt safe to drive.
Anyhoo, my fabulous find this week down to the Wicked Good was an outdoor plant stand. Three bucks! How can you beat that? So I bring it home and show it to Charlie, and he agrees: it’s a keeper. We talk about where we’re going to put it, and find a nice, sunny little nook on the deck. Looks like it had always been there. Then, of course, I have to get a plant for it. So off I go to the Agway, with the plant stand, to make sure what I get fits. Had three, one-dollar-off coupons I got when I bought some stuff earlier in the summer, so that helped.
“Joyce,” I asks, “what do you have that’ll work in this plant stand?”
And of course, she had just the thing: this beautiful pot of petunias and what-all. Fits in the stand perfect.
“Oh, and I need one of them dish thingy’s for under.”
My total at Agway was $27 after the discount. I thought that was a bargain ‘cause I didn’t have to re-pot the thing, which for some reason never looks quite right when I do it.
So, when all was said and done, my wicked good deal cost me thirty bucks, total. But, the joy I get wakin’ up to that plant every morning. Priceless!
That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!
IDA’S PODCAST: Wicked Good Stuff
Coming Up This Summer
August 13 & 14: The View From He’ah On Stage, ACT ONE Summer Festival, Thursday at 2:00pm and Friday at 2:00pm & 8:00pm, Portsmouth, NH
August 15: Finding Your Inner Moose Book Reading, Newport Cultural Center, 11:00am, Newport, ME