Temptation thy name is Saint Vincent DePaul

My favorite thrift store is the St. Vincent DePaul store.  My mother and I discovered it by chance many years ago.  It was on her side of town.  When we first went in, it had just opened.  The selection was poor and the items seemed shabby.  I never thought I would go there again.  As luck would have it, my sister suggested a mechanic whose garage was just 4 blocks away from St. Vincent’s.  One day while waiting for my car, I decided to give the store another try.  There had been a number of improvements.  The selection was terrific.  I was hooked.

 I loved the store’s Saturday clearance.  The items tagged with the color of the week were reduced to 75¢.  The beauty of this arrangement was that if you shopped off season and could be there at 9am, the deals were spectacular. I like to collect glass beaded gowns, especially the vintage variety.  Every Saturday, I would journey over to St Vincent’s to check for beaded gowns and leave with a garbage bag or two of 75¢ clothing and then visit with my mother.  When she passed away, I just didn’t have the same desire to drive across town.  Now I only go to St. Vincent’s if my car is in for repairs or if I need to pick someone up at the airport.

A little over a month ago, my neighbor Leslie told me a new thrift store was moving into the vacant store at the bottom of our hill.  A St Vincent DePaul.  I couldn’t believe it.  I was so excited that over the next few weeks, I watched for signs of activity at the store.  Eventually, I started to notice vehicles at the store during the day.  One night, my sister Sue and I went to pick up a pizza and as we approached the light at the bottom of the hill, there it was.  A big blue and white sign confirming the new tenant, I squealed with delight.

The next sign was “Now Hiring”.  Leslie told me that she was going to apply.  She suggested that I do the same.  She thought it might be therapeutic for me.  I thought long and hard about it.  I had heard rumors that the employees were not able to purchase anything until the items were on the floor for at least 3 days.  I just don’t have that kind of restraint.  A few days later, Leslie was hired.  She asked me again to apply.  I couldn’t do it.  I wanted to shop.

Eventually, the grand opening sign went up.  I was torn.  I wanted to go so badly it hurt.  However, my living room was still in complete disarray.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.  The night before the grand opening, I took all my money and gave it to Mike.  “Don’t let me have this”, I told him.  “No problem”, he said happily and I knew he meant it.  I would never see that money again.  I had no credit cards as I gave them up at New Year’s.  Penniless, I went to sleep thinking that I had done everything I could think of to stay away from the store but I had forgotten one very important thing.

My phone rang early the next morning.  I stumbled to the phone.  It was Kat. 

“Where are you?” she sounded agitated.

“I’m here.  Where are you?  What’s wrong?’, I mumbled sleepily.

“I’m at St. Vincent’s and they opened the doors early and you’re not here!”, Kat replied.

“I can’t come.  I have no money”, I told her.

“What the hell?  GET DOWN HERE NOW!!!!”, she yelled, “This place is LOADED!!!!”

I had forgotten about Kat.  She had been away with her girlfriend and I was unaware that she was back in town.  She had never been much of a thrift store shopper until her work schedule had changed and she began working nights and weekends.  She discovered that you can find the best items at the thrift store if you were able to shop weekday mornings and afternoons.  She was hooked.  And right at this moment, she was in my favorite thrift store without me.  There was only one thing to do.  I told her I would be right down.

I yelled to Mike, “Kat’s at the thrift store.  There’s no parking.  I need a ride down.”  Mike groaned.  He didn’t want to take me down but he knew I had no money.  I washed my face, brushed my teeth, combed my hair and changed my clothes simultaneously.  I was ready in about 3 minutes.  “Let’s go!”, I called out.

As soon as I walked in the door, I saw two of the managers from the St Vincent’s near the airport.  They were helping out for the grand opening, greeting the customers and handing out door prize drawing tickets.  I hadn’t seen them in a while so we chatted for a few moments until I spotted my sister waving frantically to me.  I excused myself and ran to Kat.  She showed me her cart of goodies.  We wandered through the store looking at all the bargains.  As we went along, I kept tossing items in her cart saying “I just want to think about it.”  An hour later, we had combed through the entire store and the moment of reckoning was before me.  I hadn’t placed many items in the cart but I was already attached to the ones that I did.  I knew I had to put it all back.  Of course, one of the items was a lamp.  It was the easiest one to part with as a probably have about 100 lamps at home (not an actual count, no one including myself knows the real number).  Kat found me looking forlorn.

“What are you doing, now!”, she exclaimed.

“I’m putting it all back”, I told her, “I don’t need any of it and more importantly, I deliberately didn’t bring any money.”

She groaned, “Those are nice things.  Be selective.  And let’s get out of here before we do any more shopping.”

I put the lamp back on the shelf.  I kept the hand made quilt ($5.99), the art deco like clock ($2.99), the cruet with the glass red pepper stopper ($2.99), the Nick & Nora Cherry Pie Pajamas ($2.99) and a bag of Selecta Spielzueg doll house accesories (50¢).  I was very happy with my final selections.  I owed Kat $17 and told her I’d pay her in a few days.  I trotted home happily with my bargains.

A few hours later, I heard a car horn outside the house.  It was Kat.  I ran down to the car to see what she wanted.  She handed me a bag from St. Vincent’s.  She had gone back to buy an end table for her daughter.  I looked inside and found the lamp that I had been admiring.  She knew I didn’t need it but she wanted me to have it.  I gave her a big hug and a kiss.  Yes, my sisters and I enable each others bad behaviors but we just like to see each other smile.