UPDATE to my collection of curious donations to the thrift store.
The two books, below, represents the most baffling donation yet:
a whole box of broken, deteriorated old paperback bestsellers, some of them nibbled along the edges, each one individually wrapped in a tied plastic bag.
Beat-up book donation are common enough, like this Reader's Digest compilation below, but they've never before come wrapped.
Vintage Reader's Digest Condensed books like this one ^ (abridged popular works published from 1950–1997)) have beautiful covers.
I put them out––the intact ones––for 33 cents, thinking someone might want to make book art with them.
Or, who knows, . . . read them?
Another donation with a handwritten note, below––
I love these (and I love this camel)––explaining that this German Christmas decoration came "from Aunt Caroline and Uncle Herman", and in "2008, at this date, object must be over 140 years old."
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I'm going to stop noting unintentional food donations after this entry (unless it's unusual). It's all much the same:
Someone was packing up after a garage sale or a move and left half-eaten food in with their donations, like this corner of pizza, below.
(Funny how it's color coordinated with the objects.)
The two books, below, represents the most baffling donation yet:
a whole box of broken, deteriorated old paperback bestsellers, some of them nibbled along the edges, each one individually wrapped in a tied plastic bag.
Beat-up book donation are common enough, like this Reader's Digest compilation below, but they've never before come wrapped.
I put them out––the intact ones––for 33 cents, thinking someone might want to make book art with them.
Or, who knows, . . . read them?
Another donation with a handwritten note, below––
I love these (and I love this camel)––explaining that this German Christmas decoration came "from Aunt Caroline and Uncle Herman", and in "2008, at this date, object must be over 140 years old."
–––––––––––––
I'm going to stop noting unintentional food donations after this entry (unless it's unusual). It's all much the same:
Someone was packing up after a garage sale or a move and left half-eaten food in with their donations, like this corner of pizza, below.
(Funny how it's color coordinated with the objects.)
Hmm, books individually wrapped in plastic bags -- have no idea what to think of that. Perhaps they hoped they would go up in value over time. I like that they are marked low so that they may bring something to SVDP.
ReplyDeleteBut the camel is so cool! I can't believe someone would give it up unless it didn't have much meaning to them.
I blame the minimalist movement for some of this - the ones who claim they only have 100 items. Boring, boring, boring.
Kirsten
Hi, Kirsten:
ReplyDeleteYes, the wrapped books were the most psychologically baffling donations I've encountered yet.
I added a second photo of one so it's clear how very broken they were--mostly all the pages had come loose...
Not even sure how that happened so uniformly.
Makes me think of the X-Files!
The care given to this one little camel makes me think the donor loved it, eh? I would bet the camel came from an old person who had to get rid of their possessions––reluctantly... to move to a smaller place, perhaps?
Forced Minimalism!
I suppose minimalism is a reaction against the gross materialism of our age, but it can be, as you say, not a very interesting one, to those of us who love things:
Good things are good!