I gravitate toward the clothes section(s) in the thrift store first. Manly because of the exceptional possibilities of finding something bizarre. Even when a garment doesn't seem say "buy me" sometimes it says "search my pockets." Which I then oblige, because if clothing is talking to you , you've already got problems, right? So why fight it?
In most pockets I find nothing or old candy wrappers. Sometimes a handwritten grocery list or movie ticket stub to Rocky III. Someone I used to know found $300 in a pair of old blue jeans. I myself have not found more than a dime. Occasionally, however I find something worthwhile, like a Boy Scout badge or a old Cracker Jack charm.
But hands down the strangest thing I've ever found in a thrift store pocket was this:
Inside the interior pocket of a US Air Force blazer from the late 1970s, no less. Of course I've blurred the agent's name and telephone number (because I don't really want to get a visit by the FBI). But I do have the number, tucked away, just in case.
Anybody out there beat that?
11 comments:
It wasn't a pocket find, but....
There was a book I owned when I lived in Memphis approximately 1987. It got lost in moving. In 1996, I was in a thrift shop in Miami and found a copy of this cheesy teen novel.... and then I opened it up...and it was MY copy--the pages were ragged, a poem I had written in math class was scribbled inside the cover. Let me tell ya THAT was a trip!
@marie
That's like a Ripley's Believe it or Not story! You know, the one where the lady loses her wedding ring down the sink and then cuts open a fish 3 years later and her ring's inside?
I've seen my own stuff in thrift stores, but it's because I dropped it off there and went back a week later.:P
Wow... what an interesting find. Marie's story is also quite strange. What is the chance of finding your old book?
I'll have to start doing that. I actually love the idea of finding old ticket stubbs to movies.
Somewhat off-topic...
I once bought a used paperback of Rod Serling's adaptations of stories from THE TWILIGHT ZONE. When I got the book home I noticed that inside, someone had carefully clipped out old TV guide synopses from the episodes represented in prose. It seemed that every time I opened that book one of these clippings would drift out. Little gifts, I always imagined, from some deformed shut-in with nothing but time, or an obsessed institutionalized wreck trying to make sense of it all.
I used to cut out pictures of the back issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland not because I was a shut-in or institutionalized, but because I was an six year old kid with a pair of scissors and no idea what "collectors item" meant.:P
I just like the idea of a deformed and/or institutionalized Janet Tyler (see Serling's EYE OF THE BEHOLDER) being the previous owner of my used PB. --MQ
i don't think mine qualifies as a pocket find, but it was strange. No, I think 'awful' is more appropriate.
i was in the goodwill by my house when I uncovered a small bowl sitting on a high shelf. I lifted the bowl down and to my horror, discovered that someone had.....poo'd in the bowl.
Luckily, I carry hand wipes with me.
"someone had.....poo'd in the bowl"
If I ever rename this blog, I think that would be the new title.
And, oh yeah... EWWWW!!! :D
I have also learned the value stashing 99 Cent Store baby wipes under the seat of my car, because of the poo.
Quite worthwhile information, thanks so much for the post.
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