Second-hand Treasures

Did you have a nice New Year’s celebration?

We don’t go out to celebrate. Our New Year’s Eve traditions involve making homemade pizza and watching a very long movie series–usually the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy–until we can’t stay awake any longer and then finish the movie the next day. It was easier to do this when EJ worked second shift. Now that he works first shift, his alarm goes off at 4 a.m. and often he wakes up before then. I get up at 4:30 a.m. to spend a little time with him and pray for him before he goes to work. Then, if I can, Hannah Joy and I go back to bed for an hour or two more of sleep. By evening we are all eager for sleep (including Hannah) although we try to hold off until 9 p.m. before heading to bed. EJ had to work this New Year’s Eve. I made pizza for supper. We stayed up until 9:30 p.m. and then went to bed. We figured that somewhere in the world it was midnight so we were good. We never did watch The Lord of the Rings.

In the last month, I’ve heard three different instances of people speaking contemptuously of thrift shops (two of them on social media). They spoke as if the items in thrift stores were inferior, dirty, torn, broken, and/or bug-infested. This slightly irritated me. I say “slightly” because I don’t care how people shop. If they want to buy new items, that’s their choice. But as for us, we love second-hand shopping. I’m sure there must be some undesirable thrift stores, but the ones we have always visited have items that are clean, in good condition, attractively displayed and NOT bug-infested. If they were not, people wouldn’t shop there and they wouldn’t stay in business long.

The only real difference I’ve seen between a retail store and a thrift shop is that the latter has no racks and shelves filled with many of the same item. Instead, items are one-of-a-kind (at least at the store) and we never know what we might find–so there’s a thrill of treasure hunting. Also, the prices are cheaper at thrift stores. We’ve found the same high-quality, name-brand items that people paid a lot of money for at retail stores at a fraction of the price they paid. We’ve heard of some people who buy items at thrift stores and then sell them on their websites at a marked-up price. We’ve also heard of people finding items at thrift stores that are worth thousands of dollars. When you think about it, every beautiful antique is actually a second-hand piece of furniture.

I get highs, to be totally honest, in second-hand shops. My hunting instinct, I expect, really kicks in.
~ Bjork

I found this beautiful Norstrikk sweater, made in Norway, at a thrift store. It is very heavy, warm, well made, and beautiful. I love Nordic-type sweaters. This is one of my favorites.

The best way to look stylish on a budget is to try second-hand, bargain hunting, and vintage.
~ Orlando Bloom

Every item in the following photo was bought second-hand, including the picture on the wall. Most of the items we found at thrift stores but I actually found the desk–called a “secretary”–at a garage sale years ago when I was in my late teens or early 20s. I paid $5 for it. It was in bad shape with the veneer cracked and the door falling off. Everyone disdainfully told me that it should be thrown away but I saw possibilities and I refinished it. After I married EJ, he named the desk “Ms. Pennyweather” because it is a secretary. We’ve called it “Ms. Pennyweather” ever since. It is a treasured piece of furniture.

Second-hand stuff leaves you more open to whatever your own personal style is rather than feeling dictated to by shops.
~ Sophie Ellis-Bextor

EJ and I both grew up loving garage sales, thrift shops, used book sales, and auctions. We have both always been frugal and we loved to repurpose things, which takes a fair amount of imagination and creativity. There are things we buy new, but we rarely buy anything new if we can help it. Before we married, EJ had seldom gone to garage sales and I had never gone to an auction. Auctions taught me a lot because they usually involve the selling of a deceased person’s estate. I soberly considered that these people had spent a lifetime accumulating stuff that was now dragged out into the yard, scrutinized by strangers, and sold for very little. It taught me that stuff is just stuff. EJ and I are unimpressed by name-brand labels or the expense of an item. If we brag, it is about what a treasure we found and how little we paid for it.

We love used book sales because we treasure books. We turned our spare bedroom into a home library whose walls are lined with shelves filled with hundreds of books. One of my favorite childhood memories is that of the huge used book sale our library held every year at our town’s annual festival. I looked forward to the book sales more than the parade, or the arts and crafts sale, or the historical encampment held at the huge park. My sisters and I filled boxes and bags full of books that cost us only 5-10 cents each–then we’d have to lug them several blocks home. Once we bought many books at a beautiful towered house that workmen were beginning to tear down to put in a fast food place.

The good thing about buying used books so cheaply–besides the fact that we can buy many used books for the cost of one new one–is that I can take the risk of buying a book written by an unfamiliar author. If a book looks interesting, I buy it figuring that if I don’t like it, I can always re-donate it. I have discovered many authors who have become favorites this way.

About a month ago, EJ and I went to a large used book sale at our local library, which is housed in a community center. There was also a large holiday arts/crafts sale in the building, but we only gave it a perfunctory look because we were there for the books. I just started reading one of the books I found there called The Map Thief. I thought it was a novel, perhaps a fantasy, but it turns out that it’s a true story about Forbes Smiley, a rare book dealer who was caught stealing about 100 maps from the rare book collections in libraries and selling them in his store. In addition to describing the life of Forbes Smiley, the book also describes the history of rare maps and the world of map collecting.

I love learning new things (which is why I have a page called “Everything Links“). Sometimes I feel as if I’m walking along through life and suddenly there is a door that I’d never noticed before. I open it and find a whole world I didn’t know existed. Over the years, I’ve learned about the worlds of fighting wildfires, hotels, Great Lakes bulk carrier, Hebrew and Hebraic perspectives, and many other things by either reading about them or listening to people I personally know. Now I have opened the door to the world of antique maps and I’m finding it fascinating.

I was instantly captivated by the author’s introduction in The Map Thief. Michael Blanding said that when he was growing up, he always found that the best books were those with maps in them. “I pored over the ‘There and Back Again’ map in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which both allows the reader to follow along with the journey and also plays an essential role in the plot. Personally, though, I was always more captivated by the sprawling map of Middle-earth in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, thrilling to the long leagues of jagged mountains and dark-shaded forests bleeding off the margins of the page. That open-ended geography consciously raised the spector of other stories in the adjacent territories occurring at the same time as the events described in the trilogy. ” The author also said that he loved to travel on family vacations, sitting next to his father “folding and unfolding the map as the trip itself unfolded.” His love of maps continued as he grew older. He said, “I know I’m not alone in feeling that cartographic allure–since I started working on this book, countless people have shared with me their own enthusiasm for maps. Some love them for the beauty they express, others for the sense of order they represent. Some thrill to their promise of adventure, armchair or otherwise, and others cherish their familiar depiction of a territory close to home. For everyone I’ve spoken with, however, there is something intensely personal about this cartographic connection. Despite the way they express a shared geography, maps are tools of the imagination first, mediating a relationship between an individual and a place.”

I instantly related to the author’s love of maps because I also love the maps in books such as those of Middle-earth, as well as following my progress on maps as I’ve traveled on family trips. I asked myself, “Why do maps appeal to me personally?” I pondered that I love the sense of traveling along with characters in a story and sharing in their adventure. In addition, since I have such a poor sense of direction, I might love maps because they show me where I am and how I connect to the world. But more than that, maps show me the past, present, and future–where I have been, where I am, and where I am going. They help me consider where I want to be and if I’m going in the right direction. They show me how much progress I’ve made on a journey and how far I have yet to go. In many ways, maps are a metaphor for navigating through life, which is often compared to a journey. I think that’s why I like maps.

“We must read, not only for what we read but for what it makes us think.”
~ Louis L’Amour

I might not have chosen this book if I had been buying it new because if I’m going to pay full price, I want to make sure the book is one I’ll like. However, The Map Thief looked interesting at the book sale, it didn’t cost much, and I thought it was worth the risk. I’m really glad I bought it because I’m learning and pondering so much. It was yet another treasure found at a second-hand sale.

Your second-hand bookseller is second to none in the worth of the treasures he dispenses.
~ Leigh Hunt