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Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Not Playing with a Full Deck

Fourth in a Series: Curious Donations to the Thrift Store

1. "Why did you put out a deck of cards with one missing?" a customer asked one of the thrift store volunteers.

The volunteer replied that people use playing cards for art materials.
True, but we have dozens of decks of cards, some with cool card backs, and this was just a standard Bicycle deck.
I took it and put it in our little free box.

I didn't throw it out because I like that the donor had noted it had a missing card--the 3 of diamonds. They had also donated a full deck.

2. I pulled this audiocassette, Contraception: Why Not?, out of the dumpster––but only to photograph it. Then I returned it.
The organization One More Soul is online now. 
I understand why people oppose abortion––but contraception?
This is their stand on contraception:

"The joining of love and life in marital sexual intercourse—the marriage act—is a God-ordained joining not intended for Man to separate by contraception."
[Another sentence that's tempting to rewrite.]

3. It was I who donated these two books, with their silvery titles––atomic weapons and Oil in the Soviet Union. I'd bought them a month ago for 12¢ each at the books-per-pound university resale warehouse because I love the design of their spine titles. 
I'm surprised no one has bought them for their beauty, as well as their still relevant ominousity. 
[Update: I looked up atomic weapons and it sells for some $20 online, so I'll give listing it a go.]

4. And how 'bout a letter signed by J. Edgar Hoover? 
A young man bought this for $40 out of the glass case where I mostly put expensive books. 
He said it was cool. I didn't quiz him further about why he's want it, though I wanted to.

4 comments:

  1. That letter is so stilted as to come across as written by a visitor from another planet - definitely curious if not cool.

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  2. SPARKER: Ah, that'd explain it:
    it wasn't a Man who wrote it.

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  3. Was the offender's real name "Racobs," I wonder? That looks like a typo to me. Still, that letter is a cool bit of history. I bet Hoover's autograph is worth something to collectors!

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  4. STEVE: I googled "Marion Ward Racobs" and found it--lotta odd looking names out there.
    Hoover signed a TON of papers, which seems fitting for someone who wanted to control everything, eh? So his autograph is not particularly valuable---the $40 I priced it at is about standard.
    It is a bit of history--and it's from the year I was born!

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