Thrift Shopping is like Disneyland?

My sister hates shopping.
HATES it!
Once in a while though, when she feels I need or deserve a special treat (like I'm her little pet dog) she will allow me the privilege of going thrift store shopping with her.
Did I mention she hates shopping? Well she especially hates thrift store shopping. She doesn't mind so much going into a store like JC Penneys or Walmart and going right to a certain department and getting the exact items she has on her list...but she doesn't have that "Thrill of the Hunt" that is inbred in me from the Tarango side of the family!

My Tia Leonor was the Queen of Thriftshopping the Queen of Yardsaling and the Queen of Antique Stores. You could not drive past a yard sale with Tia Nor and not know that you HAD to stop. And she could find treasures like no one else could. Her home was filled with her treasures and we all know about her "cuartito" that was filled with...um, well I don't know what it was filled with cause no one ever let us kids in there, but I'm sure it was filled with treasures.

Later as we all grew up Tia Nor filled the buses that Tio Tino and Tio Jesus had parked on her property with more treasures. And she knew what was in each of those buses and in the cuartito and if people needed something she knew just where to go and get it. She also had a pretty lucrative business selling clothing she picked up at yard sales for a song and selling it for a profit to migrant farm workers. She was my hero! heroine?...well you get the point.

I especially remember a plate that she had hanging in the kichen. The plate had John F. Kennedy on it. I loved that plate and always wished she would give it to me. I guess I should have asked, but I never did and I never knew what became of that plate. I hunt for it online, but although I've found others similar, it's not the plate I remember.

So thrifting is in my blood and I remember a few weeks ago for some reason on the way home Lisa suggested that we stop at one of my very favorite thrift stores, Goodwill on Rosedale Highway. I was thrilled and the closer we got the more excited I got. And when we were in the middle lane waiting for a pause in the traffic so I could turn left into the parking lot Lisa was laughing at me about how excited I was. And I told her that to me, going thrift store shopping is like a little kid going to Disneyland, you just get all excited and you can't wait and dad can't drive that car fast enough into the parking lot for you. Remember that feeling from being a kid whether it was going to Disneyland or to a County Fair or Circus? That's the feeling I get about thrift shopping, and I thought I was the only one until today when I read the blog Manic Thrift Store Shopper.

This guy Brian, is my spiritual Tarango twin and he speaks in a language that only true thrift store connoisseurs understand, just listen to him write about how he feels...

"When I drive past a thrift store, I often imagine that I feel a little pull to go inside. I think that something, some object, is calling out to me to be found and rescued from the shelves piled high with junk. I believe that if I look long enough and hard enough, that amazing object will be revealed and I will be rewarded for following my instinct, for turning from the street into the parking lot and getting out of my car."

Please go check out his site, he has so many "pretties" for you to see and he's one heck of a writer as well.