A Hardcore Picker's Thrift Shop Comedy Moment!

 I have found and spotted all sorts of bizarre things in thrift shops. People will donate all sorts of crap, and the things that pop up in some of the stores make you wonder about the world.

 I am sure there are tons of things that hit the trash in the sorting rooms, but the "censorship" of the sorters is only as good as their own personal knowledge....
 
About 10 years ago, a fellow dealer friend and I would do runs down south of Winnipeg to various thrift stores, second hand shops, and other places we knew about. eBay was rocking then, and we did very well, getting loads of stuff. We bought all sorts of stuff I would not give a second glance to now. 

I got addicted to cheese curds on those trips. Sounds like they are disgusting, but they are delicious....!!!   On many of the trips, we'd make sure we would come back via a route that would pass New Bothwell, Manitoba.

 Bothwell Cheese's plant is there, and they have a little storefront in it. It looks very different from when we went there, more upscale, but still is packed with their quality products. I love their Mild Cheddar Cheese...none better anywhere, in my honest opinion. Bothwell Cheese is where my friend introduced me to those damn, squeaky, addictive chunks of goodness....

Mmmmmmm....Bothwell Cheese's cheese curds....

Oh geeze, hang on, I need to go get a towel...I have a pool of drool forming on my desk.

They used to be super cheap, and you could buy a HUGE bag of them for under $10...I am talking what seemed to be thee equivalent almost a bread bag's worth! But, supply and demand has taken over, and ever since "poutine" has taken off in restaurants, etc, cheese curds have gotten much more expensive....and they now sell them as a packaged snack product.

No, I am not getting paid, receiving a kickback, or any sort of revenues from this plug. They are a Manitoba company who make a superior product, and they deserve the attention! 

And who knows, maybe I will get a huge case of cheese curds appear on my doorstep! 

If that happens, you will know it, as I will be blogging every day...because  I won't be able to go pickin' at all....I'll have gained 200lbs and won't be able to move.


Anyway, back to the story.....

We went into one MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) thrift shop in a little conservative town.  


There on a shelf, right at eye level, was a 1960s/70s vibrator in its original box, sitting nonchalantly beside the other donated used goods.

I pointed it out to my buddy, with a smirk.

He bought it as a lark, and was not unfamiliar with selling that sort of stuff in his shop....I remember him bringing in a load of dildos into a shared shop space he, myself and 2 other junker guys were sharing, and putting them all out for sale. He had snagged then in a clean-out job he got...some stripper's apartment he had hauled stuff out of.
Anyway, this little gizmo on the MCC Store's shelf was tagged at a   $1.00 or something like that, and it was a deal, after all....

The little old ladies running the store obviously hadn't a clue what it was. They were talking about using it for relaxing neck massages,  and that sort of thing, while he was paying for it and his other purchases.

I was having trouble keeping a straight face all the while....I had to go outside to compose myself...

Of course once we got back to the vehicle, we went into hysterical laughter...

Ya gotta have some laughs when you are on the road! 

And, as a bonus, here is another bit of Thrift Shop tune-age/comedy for you....

Here is

  MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS

 performing their tune  

THRIFT SHOP

 

Work, Comedy & Making Ends Meet.

Just a quick post to let everyone know that yes, I am still alive, and haven't broken my neck by falling through some attic floor through to the next floor. Been through a few attics, basements, farm sites, etc since the last time I blogged.

 Been busy, though not picking as much as I would like.

Funny how the cash goes out twice as fast as it comes in!

Lots of flooding in this area, as well as south, west and east of here. A few rivers have been overflowing, and there also have been so much rain around that there has been lots of "overland flooding" as well. Makes picking tougher....backroads turn to mud, are washed away, sinkholes happen, and critters like moles decide that the road is the best high ground to head to and they start colonizing. 

You hit one of their hills at any speed and you have a recipe for disaster. Add to that having water right to the roadside, and filling ditches that are 10 feet (or more) deep...well, you can use your imagination.

I can still pick every day and find cool stuff, despite events like flooding, storms (rain or snow!), etc. Usually there are 2 things that can slow my picking activities a fair bit:

(1) Poor health (illness that keeps you bed bound...things like the flu, inner ear infections, or other things that make it unsafe to even walk)

(2) Lack of cash on hand.

Basically my health is ok at the moment. Cash is tight, though. Doing renovations to the house (we run a B&B also...www.buzzingbeebandb.com), plus been paying bills down, getting car repairs done (picking is tough on the vehicle!), etc.

Heck, filling up the tank with gas is a $100 touch these days!



Still managing to pick up some old stuff here and there. Even the jobs I have been doing on the side to make some extra cash can offer opportunities to get inventory.

Been cleaning up a scrap metal pile on a farmsite, for an associate of mine. He's a bit of a wheeler dealer, and he bought a package of farm properties, and he needs the scrap cleaned off the place before he resells that piece of the package he bought. Wants to have it looking clean & more appealing for potential buyers. 

I volunteered to do it, as he's related to a good friend of mine. It is more of a favour, as it is heavy work, moving literally tons of metal by hand. He might think I'm getting rich off the stuff, but that is far from the case. However, it allowed me a chance to pull out any interesting bits and pieces...many of which I see in many scrap piles that are sold at farm auctions, and the piles go for more than I want to pay for the few things in them. Having to talk to the scrap dealers who bought the piles later tends to be a pain, and sometimes impossible when you are trying to keep track of the other stuff you want to buy at the auction.  

So, from this pile I have gotten some cast iron farm implement wheels, as well as some other bits and pieces that have some resale value beyond scrap steel prices. 

Hot and heavy work, for sure.

I have been earning every cent I will gain, that is for certain...and every dime will have been hard earned at that. The blood and sweat expelled by my body has the profits wiped out already. Yes, I do REALLY mean blood!

Dangerous work, also... especially when at every square inch there are rusty & pointed harrow teeth, rusty, broken (and still sharp) swather blades , jagged old cultivator shovels that have been made razor thin and edge sharp by tilling sandy soil for eons, not to mention an intertwined conglomeration of knife edged sheets of tin, flesh scoring rusty barbed wire, rotting cans of who knows what...and to to that the fact the pile is intricately interwoven, with structures being interdependent...with no sense of structure or stability.

I climb and scour these sorts of piles when I am out picking, but usually only for easily accessible items. If I have to shift ten tons of metal in the blazing sun and risk slicing my jugular open to get at something, it better be a heck of a treasure!

I also pick up interesting bits and pieces of rusty metal for potential sculpture or other artistic/creative use...which I may use....someday.....if I ever get some spare time!

There were some cast iron water bowls for cattle:

I figured they could be used as rustic planters, bird baths, etc.

Also got some heavy chain links, which are actually from a dairy cow barn....part of the system used to mechanically clean the place. Yes, from a manure removal machine...(SHHHH, don't tell anyone!)

  They are long sterilized by mother nature, and their previous exposure to the, uh, ummm.... "elements" have given them a very cool patina:

What did the country antique dealer say to the city antique dealer?

That there ain't cow shit, that there's PATINA!

Well, with that I will leave you laughing, or groaning, whichever!