My mother has always had a knack for finding vintage treasures at the second hand store.
When I was young, we'd stop in at The Hope Chest and she usually found something interesting for our house.
During the year, The Hope Chest would save all of the nicest things to sell in its Christmas Boutique,
which it held upstairs. Still, there were unique things to be found all year long.

Now, we have Hospice and The Salvation Army thrift stores.
I had not been to the Salvation Army for several months, so I stopped in recently...and it's a good thing I did.
It appears that second hand stores, or at least this one, have rules which need to be followed.  
Lest you be an uninformed consumer, I shall list these rules here in order to spare you any embarrassment
should you decide to stop in there. The rules are simply this: "For Sale" and "Not for Sale."












For instance, this vintage crock is not for sale.
It has been placed on a shelf merely for you to enjoy looking at. It adds to the pleasure of shopping at
The Salvation Army, but you may not buy it. Don't ask. The employees are tired of people begging to buy it.
Pay attention to the signs and don't be tacky, asking if you can buy something at the second hand store.
You wouldn't ask to buy anything at the William B. Ide Museum House, would you? Don't do it here, either.
Now these shoes are for sale. If you are looking for vintage, here you go...
These beauties contain one of the first pairs of Dr. Scholl's odor absorbing shoe pads ever made!
These things are not for sale.
The only interruptions to the aesthetic beauty of this display are the "store use only" signs plastered all over it.
Were it not for these, and the fact that the drawers are taped shut, and the gold 70s couch next to the display,
I might have felt myself falling back into time.
Looking at the signs, I wondered what the store was going to use it all for.
Maybe there are plans to start a Salvation Army Museum House...
This stockpile of naked Barbie dolls is for sale.
This western town is not for sale.
This doll is for sale. Anyone remember when these were popular?
What were we thinking??
Here we have a jar of beans from the Depression era, highly collectible, and not for sale.
It even has a shrunken grandma face inside it.
These little faces made from a nylon sock were, for some reason, popular in the early 80s.
Yeah, maybe I exaggerated a bit on the age of the beans.
I remember a woman at my grandmother's church (First Baptist in Weaverville) made a whole basket of
lapel pins with these faces on them and sold them for $1 each. I recall looking down at all those nylon-stocking
faces and thinking that the dimpled smiles appeared to be a cross between a potato and an ulcerated leg vein
on an old woman. My grandmother bought one for me, my sister, my mother, and her best friend Marge.
Eerie how we chose faces that closely resembled our own.
Anyway, the next week, all the women in church were proudly wearing nylon faces on their dresses.
It struck me as so odd, that I took mine off. I confess that I'd have never, in a million years, thought of storing the
thing in a jar of beans. But then again, I would have never thought of making a cotton-stuffed face out of an old
nylon stocking, either. I am just not crafty like that. Ahh...such memories!
Here is a Thrift Store Museum outside of Gerber.
I snapped a picture, but I didn't go inside because the place next to it looks like the Bates Motel.
That's it for now. If I find out why the second hand store is not selling their used things, I will let you know.
In the meantime, if you're not a fan on facebook, you're missing out on photos, old friends,
and some great conversation about the way Red Bluff used to be back in the good old days.

Have a great week!



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