Monkey Day at the Weigh n' Pay

I love to thrift. I love vintage everything, re-purposing old fabric, re-cycling and rescuing objects from the landfill. Combine this with the thrill of the hunt and you have the Weigh n' Pay. Every Tuesday thru Saturday a local Goodwill Outlet puts out canvas "dumpsters" loaded with stuff they sell for 40 cents a pound. You can dig to your hearts content but gloves are a must. Safety glasses, a helmet, and some of that white stuff the coroners put under their nostrils are also good ideas. I've seen fights erupt among the patrons ( a hearty bunch!) over objects and injuries sustained during the brawling. My poor friend was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got hit in the head with a toaster. On my first trip I walked up to one of the 15 plus dumpsters, touched an object and a very loud lady started screaming at the top of her lungs, "She's touching! She's touching! SHE'S TOUCHING!" A sweet elderly lady came to my rescue by saying a little too loudly, "Leave her alone! She doesn't know any better!" I would say I was embarrassed but if you are at the Weigh n' Pay in the first place you probably don't embarrass that easily.I learned later that there is certain protocol that you must follow and this includes staying behind the white line and not touching until the Weigh n' Pay supervisor shouts out the rules followed by those coveted words, "start shopping!" One day I heard her say, "No pushing! No shoving! No bodily fluids!" I generally hang back to avoid the rush of frantic patrons who are intent on getting the best stuff. None of them want the weird stuff I'm interested in anyway so they usually leave me lots of treasures. Every one has a 40 cents a pound fish story to tell and I am no exception. Like the lonely, queen flat sheet from the 70's that I sold on e-bay for $38.00 and got e-mails from Sweden and Australia inquiring if I would ship internationally. The vintage dress from the 60's that I found, flicked a freakishly large flying roach out of the lace, washed it and sold it on e-bay for a large profit. Last week there were tons of crafts and I found 68 vintage spools of thread which i sold for $12.00. May not seem like a lot of money but I paid 20 cents for them. It's called guilt free shopping. Which brings me to the the fact that there are often unintentional "theme" days. For instance, last weeks vintage spools, cross stitch fabric and sparkly pom-poms day. After holidays you'll always find your discarded Christmas balls, trick or treat buckets, shamrock flags, heart shaped cookie cutters, etc. Today was an interesting twist as it was monkey day at the Weigh n' Pay. I assume someone got tired of their monkey collection and there were dozens of monkeys like the one in the photo who's sitting on a suitcase, leaning on a walker, reaching for a red Chinese umbrella, waiting for a forever home. I have to say this guy was cute but I usually don't buy stuffed animals at the Weigh n' Pay. Ever since that bodily fluid comment. I have my pride.