Christmas used to be the bee's knees. Seriously, it was freakin' awesome. I got toys and video games and things to hit people with. For one night, my parents gave me anything I wanted because God said so.
But I got older. I don't get toys anymore.
Even if I did, I've become such a freakin' cynic that I would think they were just a waste of money. No, that's wrong too. I don't care about money so much. It's just that this holiday is just too much of a materialistic culture flaunting all the crap it has. We don't mean to flaunt. It just happens.
Christmas is the ultimate holiday of the capitalist. Even the American image of old Kris is from old Coca Cola ads.
Santa is way too excited.
Every year, I hear the Christian radio talk about returning this holiday to Jesus. HA! Christmas has been grasped by everyone who sells things and will not let go. It's the holiday that plays on people's want not to be a cheapskate because its for someone else. Well, it doesn't work on me. I'm a cheapskate no matter what. The love of an overweight pervert in a red suit isn't goin' to change nothin'.
I just wish that Christmas would grow the fuck up already and realize that maybe it could become a great holiday for giving...to people who really need it. I'm guilty of not doing it. But, I wasn't expected to either.
By the way, what the hell is this?!
Keep your dirty money-grubbin' Disney hands off my Scrooge!
I've learned that I have two potential states of working: all or nothing. I can only get things done when I'm doing things all day. If not, I will sit around all day and ponder on maybe getting something done without actually doing anything. All or nothing.
Hence, no action going on for December. I didn't do anything that I wanted to accomplish during my winter break. In fact, I did almost nothing except sit on my arse and ponder some ridiculous great mysteries.
vampires or zombies?
With that in mind, I apologize for being a general slacker in almost everything I do. In that regard, I now pledge to pay attention to this blog. I pledge to thrift all the more and to share with y'all what the hell I picked up. I will write more. This post, although on a Tuesday, will now declare that I will try to write every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I will follow such a schedule religiously from now on. If not, so help me God.
I did not write about Christmas. I did not write about the holidays. I almost have the time to write about it now. But not now. Why you ask? See above paragraph .
After continually spurting out my opinions to the world, I decided to see how integral thrift stores may be to a college population. So I talked to a few members of the OU student body to find out just how important they may be.
For the most part, there are three groups of college-aged thrifters: people who have never been thrifting, Halloweeners, light thrifters and heavy thrifters.
People who have never been thrifting are just that; they have never been to a thrift store. Maybe they never had the want or the need to stumble into a thrift store. Whatever the reason, this type of college student makes up the minority of the population.
Halloweeners are more of an Athens oddity. As you know, Halloween is kind of a big deal and thrift stores are often spread thin during that time of year. Sometimes, Halloweeners are shown the thrift store light and become light and heavy thrifters.
Light thrifters are people who only go to thrift stores when their friends do. A couple of my friends are light thrifters. Light thrifters are ambivalent towards thrift stores. They neither love or hate them, but go to them for something to do. Kyle Teders, one of my light thrifter friends commented on his general indifference, "They're okay. It depends on the thrift store."
Heavy thrifters are actually pretty common. Maybe half the people I spoke to were heavy thrifters, or people who go to thrift stores maybe once or twice a month. "They always have great deals. I mean it's obviously not the smell." said Johnothon Tenwalde, a junior. "It's an adventure"
Heavy thrifters realize the good that thrift stores do. "It's kind of genius," Sallie Christian, a senior, commented. Christian tends to visit once a month and look at the random stuff and the vintage clothing at local thrift stores. "I dig 'em." She prefers Re-Use Thrift Store.
David Miklos, a senior, often forgoes the local scene and checks out the larger thrift stores in Dayton. Miklos also brought up the guilt he sometimes thinks about as he checks out his thrifting oddities and clothes. "These clothes are meant for poor people."
Sallie Christian commented, "I'm guilty of giving clothes to thrift stores and then shopping there." I think Johnothon Tenwalde put it best. "I would feel like an absolute dick if I would buy a Christmas tree." He doesn't feel guilty about buying useless oddities but does when it means buying something that will light up a child's holiday."
I personally would qualify as a super-heavy thrifter considering I go about once a week. I'm the only one I know, which probably just means that I'm crazy. Considering I took the interview notes down with a foot-long pen I found at a thrift store, I'm sure my sources would agree.
These people I talked to brought up some good points that I may comment on in future posts.
Okay, I'm a little rusty when it comes to iMovie, so bear with me. Anyway for your viewing pleasure, here's some excerpts and some photos from my trip last weekend to Columbus. As you watch, remember that all these weird things are sold at thrift stores, meaning that once before someone owned them. I personally enjoy the Governator picture..."keep pumping". Hilarious.
Random fact: the safety dance, the song in the video, was playing at one of the thrift stores. I felt that it was fitting.
These two being only 50 yards apart I will review both as one thrifting experience instead of two separate stores. If you are going to go to one, then there is a good chance that you will go to both.
Before I start, I will encourage the thrifter not to walk from Athens. It's generally too far away for legs. I would encourage to go by automobile. I walked there. It took forever and there's a good chance people thought I was some sort of drifter as I hugged close to the hill on the side of the road. On the good side though, I got some good exercise and the landscape was "perdy."
First, New-To-You Thrift Shoppe (NTYTS) is a good standard thrift store. It's not the cleanest place nor the most organized. By my book, that's fine. After going to Athens Underground, this place really felt like a good thrift store.
NTYTS (sounds like n'tits) had a small amount of disorganized clothing, some random shoes, but a decent amount of bric'n'brac. The clothes were thrown in somewhat of an organizational pattern with standard women's, men's, and children's section. Unlike the large chains, the clothes were not organized by size or by color.
The store had a decent bric'n'brac section with movies, cups, chairs, toys, books, statuary...blah,blah, blah, you know...the usual stuff. It wasn't an overwhelming selection but again, decent.
In fact, I made purchase there, a movie called BLAST: The Final Comedown, and no, it's not a porno you sick weirdos. It stars Billy Dee Williams and explores rascism, like Crash, except with Lando Calirissian as a martial arts master named Johnny Johnson. A great thing about this thrift store is that all purchases at NTYTS help foster children, so you can't really go wrong if you buy anything (unless you hate foster children). So altogether NTYTS gets a pretty standard 3 out of 5 for being an average-sized store with average selection that happens to give money to foster children. Also because I found a movie with Billy Dee Williams there...oh yeah...
Re-Use Thrift Store is one of three Re-Uses in the area. The others are located in Wellston and Albany, towns relatively close to ole' Athens town.
Re Use greatly lacks in the clothes department. Random racks are set up and are hard to maneuver around. I didn't really see anything that caught my eye at the clothing section.
Re Use does have a great amount of bric'n'brac and rare random finds. For example, it has one of the best book selections I have ever seen in a thrift store. It also has VHS tapes there. Re Use has a lot of VHS tapes. This is great for the three people in college who still use a VCR. I personally would advise everyone to look at the books behind the counter. These oldish leather bound books are very classy looking and any selection there would add character to any bookshelf.
Re-Use also has tons of furniture and some of it is naturally not in the best shape. If you need a new toilet, look in the back. I don't personally, but I'm sure someone out there is clapping in happiness after reading about cheap toilets...perhaps. Anyway, for a good bric'n'brac selection, tons of furniture, a kick-arse book library, but lackluster clothes, another standard 3 out of 5.
To sum it up.
New-To-You Thrift Shoppe: 3 out of 5
Re Use Thrift Store: 3 out of 5
Columbus Road Thrift Experience: 3 out of 5 (two standard thrift stores make for a standard experience)
Side note: People should be paying attention to this. You've got til the 17th to input ideas...
I have a love and hate relationship with Athens underground. I love the weird clothing and the atmosphere. I hate the fact that it's not a thrift store.
First of all, Athens Underground is technically a vintage clothing store. The clothing there is generally not donated. The money earned there does not go to help the poor in any way except right at this moment courtesy of "Homecoming for the Homeless". Rather, the owner, or the little old lady who hangs over your shoulder watching your every move as you walk around, finds the clothes from auctions and sometimes from wholesale suppliers. This lady, or this "Barbara", was originally from New York and owned another vintage clothing store until she moved here to buy up the old vintage clothing store, Secondhand Row.
Apparently, Athens Underground (AU) was not the first vintage clothing store in this area. Instead, the dingy basement that is AU has been a series of different vintage clothing stores for the last 20 years or so.
Anyway, if you have been there, you will notice that AU is not set up like a thrift store. It does not smell like a thrift store. It plays eclectic Arabian music, not elevator music or 90's hits. It's bright and happy. Worst of all, it's expensive. Apparently, some of the stuff on the shelves is completely new, a sin in any thrifter's handbook. This place was made for college students, to entertain college students, and to steal college student's parent's money because most college students are afraid of mingling with poor people. I must say, the business model works. Ask anyone about AU on OU's campus and you get, "Athens Underground! I LOVE IT THERE! It's so hipster!"
Well, you're right. It is hipster.
One major problem I had with this store is lack of good clothes for men. Yeah, you got suit jackets and vests and shirts and pants. BUT, and this is a large but, most men can't get away with wearing a bright red jacket or the other weird eclectic clothing there. If you can, more power to you. I personally can't, so I stared at the clothes and just moved away to the weird vintage books. Women probably have a heyday in this place with all the different fashions. Like women really need more clothes and shoes.
Anyway, as I offend all my lady readers, here's the final rating.
Athens Underground: thrift store rating: 1 out of 5
Athens Underground: vintage store rating: I don't know. I don't go to vintage clothing stores. I hear it's good though.
"Shaking my fist..." Curse you Barbara! and your surly glances!!
In the spirit of October and of the local thrift scene, I am thinking about holding a contest that would allow you, the readers, to pick my Halloween costume. Suggestions on what costume can be posted in the comments of this post. Once that fills up, I will hold a poll on this blog and there the winner shall be decided.
Any costume goes as long as I can put it together in a week. Again, any costume is fair game. I want some creativity. I want relatively simple and more than anything I want something because I don't want to worry about it. If you have any idea, post it. Comment it up people.
Once Halloween is over, the pictures of the costume shall go up on the blog. Let the ideas spring forth.
Oh, quick side note, within the next few days, the rest of the Athens thrift store scene shall be reviewed. Stay tuned.
There is a direct link between the quality of thrift stores and how poor the surrounding area is. The more lower class in the area, then the better the thrift store...in general. Sometimes, without a large backing through chains, smaller thrift stores fall apart from lack of donations in poorer areas.
Secondly, other types of businesses make most of their money from the poor, such as auto part stores, quick loan agencies, low-end martial art dojos, cheap Chinese food restaurants, and the mecha business of the poor, the liquor store. If you've never been to the ghetto, almost every block has a liquor store...seriously, pay attention next time you're there. Their signs are yellow, bold with LIQUOR spelled out at the top followed closely by WINE COOLERS and BEER in digressing order of importance.
Hence, these two statements form an almost guaranteed way to know a good thrift store before you even have to go in. The quality of a thrift store is almost always directly correlated to how many liquor stores are in the surrounding area. If you want a super thrift store, look to where the liquor stores are.
For example, the best city for thrift I have ever been to is Detroit. Detroit is falling apart. It's roads are deteriorating. It's economy is based on the failing American auto-market. There are a lot of poor there. From what I hear, from the sports knowledgeable, their sports teams are awful. Hence, a great deal of liquor stores erupted into existence in Detroit. And so have great thrift stores.
I've got this three and a half pound lump of gray matter sitting in my skull. It irritates me, bites at me until I've got to write something. Well here is that something.
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