Good Will Hunting We Will Go

I found myself perusing the racks of Goodwill a while ago. Goodwill is such a treat for me on so many levels.  The hunting for treasures, the people watching, the possible finds....its exhilirating. 

1. The people who go there look as if they would deny to their death that they ever went there.  They comb the racks for name brands and when they find one it becomes a CSI investigation into the quality of the item.  I watched a mother/daughter team capture a Tommy Hilfiger purse and then like a band of monkeys feeding on fleas they both held and searched every seam of that bag.  They ultimately did not purchase it. Reason unknown but best guess is because you can buy a new one at TJ Maxx for a little bit more and it would be crumb-free. Its Tommy Hilfiger people, calm down.

2.The items to be discovered cover a wide gamut of emotions for this hunter.  Typically, for me, its disbelief.  I can't imagine someone would purchase a dining room table where the leg has been duct-taped back on.  Or a big pink stuffed dragon with no eye button (saw purchased by an elderly Hispanic man no bigger than said dragon.)  I can't imagine someone cleaning their home and said, yes - lets give that dilapidated dragon to someone  so they can sell it.  Or better yet, that Goodwill got some of this "stuff" and under the SOP that "one man's junk is another man's treasure" and slapped a price tag on it.  But there are times that I come across a white goose cookie jar wearing a jaunty country blue bow around its neck and I'm transported back to my childhood home where there were gaggles upon gaggles of these same geese in our kitchen.  I want to buy it just to hold and hang on to easier times.  And then there are moments you find something and cease being human, well at least I do.  I become a squirrel with a nut or Smeagol with The Ring and I want to hide it or abandon all other treasures and run for the cashier yelling "Mine! Mine! Mine!"  I had this happen once.  A fine little black and white maxi dress I innocently found hanging on the rack.  I got a White House Black Market dress on the 50% off day for like $3.00.  My friend called it the Holy Grail of Goodwill.  I call her my precious....

3. My deepest, darkests concern about shopping at Goodwill is this: I am afraid that I will be mindlessly flipping through the hangers, laughing at the ludicrous clothes that people donate and stumble upon something I donated.  Touche Goodwill, touche.