Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The Joy of Thrift-Shopping

The N.O.A.H. thrift shop is not on my regular walking route, which is a pity, as it is a splendid place to while away an afternoon. And occasionally I have found a real goodie among all the Stuff.

And I mean scads of glorious Stuff, stuffed wall to wall in a big open building down one block from South Montezuma at the corner of Granite and Walker Streets. Too bad. It's not nearly as convenient as the Salvation Army's downtown emporium. Location, location, location, as they say in the real estate business.

N.O.A.H.'s merchandise appears a lot more varied than the Sal's (perhaps a function of the crowding.) But if you're looking for baskets, they have more than several -- they have lots of 'em.

Perhaps you are into figurines. There they are, complete to the box from Costco.

A matched set of books to give the living room a more learned (or perhaps Victorian) look. Years ago, I came across many of those old, complete sets of this or that author's works that an earlier generation of door-to-door drummers hawked to middle class housewives. Today, such books are rarer than a 78 rpm record.

A teddy bear plate or two for the toy fancier. (And this place is really the store for stuffed bears, horsies, bunnies, puppy dogs, whatever! Take a look here.)

How about a painting for somewhere (I don't know quite where) in your house...

...and a Henley shirt possibly worn by the painter himself.

Clothing? Oodles to choose from, including some quite smart selections. Got several hanging in my closet.

Then there's a nice garden party (or gardening) hat...

...as well as a slinky blue teddy plus a cosmetic case for that special weekend getaway....

...and plenty of accessories hanging on the wall next to the mysterious bamboo curtain which only proves my ignorance of much famous art. As I found out from Judith, it bears a reproduction of Klimt's The Kiss. Now the mystery is when, where and how the painting made its way onto a bamboo curtain. In Prescott Arizona.

13 comments:

angie said...

Oh wow. I really want that Bates Motel shirt! *Mental note...must go to N.O.A.H, ASAP*

herhimnbryn said...

Ah, you are a woman after my own heart!

Lucy said...

There are some great shots here; odd objects making fascinating shapes and patterns and colours... just the kind of thing I really like and don't get around to finding and taking. We don't really get thrift/charity shops here, just one big one in major towns only, called Emmaus, founded by the great Abbe Pierre, where everything finishes up. I rather miss them.
Sorry I don't get here more often; all your wonderful photos take a bit of time to get through without broadband (still- it hasn't come to our corner yet), so i tend to leave it till I've enough time to do you justice, but I love the blog and I'm really pleased to know you!

Granny J said...

Hey, Angie -- wasn't that Bates Motel shirt a real find?

And herhimnbryn -- I've haunted thrift and collectibles shops for more years than I can remember. Fortunately, when it comes to making a purchase, I do dither, which cuts down on the amount of Stuff that I accumulate.

--Lucy, I apologize for the download time. I went broadband a year ago and in purely self-centered fashion, completely forgot that there are people who have to spend real t-i-m-e bringing up graphics. And, oh, to think of a barren world, one without all those lovely thrift and consignment shops. We have the majors here in our small city -- the Sal and Goodwill (unfortunately too far away in an upscale location) and Habitat for Humanity and a veterans' organization, plus several privately run consignment shops. Not to mention all the mall-style collectible/ antique shops on Goodwin Street. A cornucopia!

Catalyst said...

I, too, love that Bates Motel shirt. May have to race Angie to the store!

Granny J said...

Mr. Cat -- I've noticed that it's not often that really great Tshirts show up in the resale shops. I guess that as a rule owners wear them to death.

Anonymous said...

You always have such informative posts and pictures. I have to ask. Has anyone ever asked you to stop taking pictures?

Granny J said...

My daughter figured that she was going to have to bail me out of jail for photographing the election scene, but I had asked the election judges & had their ok. However,I was actually stopped one time (and recently) while taking pix at PetSmart. I already had enough pictures for a post, however.

Anonymous said...

I'm sort of surprised it only happened once. But then again, I'm glad. Guess most of the workers don't care as much as management might. I missed this post while I was away.

Avus said...

In England we call them Charity shops and I enjoy them for books and bric-a-brac. My wife is an addict. Whenever we visit our daughter and her (wife's) sister and in Australia they will spend days prospecting the "op shops" (opportunity shops) as they are called out there!

Granny J said...

Steve -- this is still the west, where people are more open (tho if you've noticed, I do try to keep the number of pix of people down. And do ask permission in some cases...

Mr. Avus -- I collected an excellent children's book library for my daughter at resale shops (another of our terms) back in Chicago. The only classics they didn't have were the Oz books -- and I had those already. As for what one calls the shops, I thought they were "jumble shops" in the UK or are those something else again?

Avus said...

Guess you could call them jumble shops - after all we have "jumble sales" which sell the same sort of stuff

Granny J said...

Here those sales are called rummage sales. I don't know where I collected the jumble term -- I thought it was the UK, but it may have been Canada. Can anyone out there help me?

 
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