February 3, 2012

Did I tell you?




Donations are down. Please help your favorite charity with a donation of gently used things.


I really like my job at the thrift store. There are times when the dust turns me into a zombie, and other times I vanish into a quaking, sweaty mess after someone sprays Febreze. Frankly, folks like me with allergies shouldn’t work at thrift stores, but I love the small excitements of the hunt.

Lately there’s been less to hunt. Many organizations like ours count on the monies they earn from their stores to help with their bottom line. So many people have been either out of work or hanging on and using their old things from cars to shoes that donations are down everywhere. I know here that St. Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army are hurting badly, (Hopefully the Susan B Koman folks are hurting too after yesterday. Did I say that?) but Wednesday there were enough donations to keep us in the back busy until quitting time.

One family blessed us this last week with a complete collection of the Dick Francis mysteries. For me, this was very exciting. I’d had to give up many of mine when we moved out of the big and very moldy house, and I had missed them. There are times I reread them as I really like these wonderfully written volumes.

So I was a good employee. I put them out…all but two that were damaged. I arranged them at eye height, so they’d sell, then I came home and immediately printed out a list of all the books he had written. I went into the bedroom, where the mysteries live, and I checked off each one I already owned. By the time I got back to the store, those books had been on the shelves the required time. I tried to buy everyone that I didn’t own, and came up only four short….even buying one that I’d put In the discard bins.

If you want me, I’m rereading one of the earliest, very happily, I may add.

8 comments:

  1. Enjoy the horses; Dick Francis was a good writer. But take some time to look at my post today.

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  2. I remember the first time I read Dick Francis! I was hooked!

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  3. My whole family was hooked on Dick Francis. Your remarks about donations are seredipitous, I have a small load by the load I am taking to St. Vinnies this morning. I loved the news that the Komen thing has resulted in donations to Planned Parenthood. Enjoy your reading.

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  4. Hubby's a Dick Francis fan from years back. I've read a few of the horse ones myself. You seem to be in a happy cycle of donating, buying back and re-donating yourself. Admirable! I gave away tons of things the last two years but I donated them to the homeless shelter. I'm trying to keep the accumulation down by donating every few months. Oh and it looks like Susan Komen has reconsidered! :)

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  5. The Dick Francis mysteries were a lot of fun. I know they turned one or two of them into B movies. The Queen Mum liked them too. I had a few of them from time to time, but passed them on. We didn't give much to Goodwill this year. We have very much depleted our stock of used clothes over the years, so little left to give away..

    As for Komen, I suppose she or the foundation have their druthers like everyone else. I know very little about the conflict involving Planned Parenthood, but I am bothered about the current uproar with the Catholic Church and the Administration. Heavy handed by team Obama to say the least.

    Dianne

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  6. I love how you did the right thing and put out the books, then hurried back home to check on which books you still needed and got most of them.
    We donated a lot of things here in Fl from our RV to the Habitat store...When we get back home to Indiana; I plan a major downsizing again.

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  7. So you ARE building an extension on the house.

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  8. I'll have to look through the house and find some things for donations. I don't have a lot since we got rid of so much when we moved to Hawaii. There must be something though. I've never heard of Dick Francis. I'll look into it.

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