Thrift stores, garage sales, church sales have been a part of my life for many, many years. I could write a book about the details, the changes, the raisons d'etre - in fact I started keeping notes at one point with a book in mind - but - it got to be too much 'work' and the time I spend in such adventuring contributes greatly to the 'fun' part of my life, so I stopped recording. (I continue to learn to accept that 'work' and 'fun' can equate: at the moment the income part is the stopgap - the acceptance of income for what I find 'fun' and then I can accept that this is my 'work')
One aspect of what the aforementioned 'consumerism' (and does it now qualify as such even though it plays by non-conventional rules?) gives me was illustrated yesterday in one of my favourite thrift stores, one I tend to swoop through daily as it is on my way home and, unlike 'normal' stores, the merchandise changes daily and invites daily perusal. Yesterday I came across a bar of Cashmere Bouquet soap. A single bar. New. Unopened but not in a plastic wrapper with two others. I could smell the scent as soon as I picked it up. Immediately I flew back in delightful memory to family reunions, held outdoors on a large field to accommodate our very large family, buckets of water and a basin for washing. And - every year - a bar of Cashmere Bouquet soap. Now, I've likely seen bars of this soap in the supermarket over the years, perhaps have remembered that it is the kind that Aunt Barb used to provide at the reunions. But I was never moved to pick up the package, to actually consider buying the soap. But in that thrift store the situation was just right. The single bar. The scent. It cost me 25 cents. It is now in my bathroom, in use. And when I use it I am not just washing my hands but engaging in a journey.
Today they put out wool in that thrift store. Now - what about a bouquet of cashmere........