“Our Lady of the Cape”, “The Sea Captains Thrift Shop”, “The Emerald House”, “High Hopes” “The Rainbow’s End”, “The Second Coming”: the thrift shops of Cape Cod have charming ,evocative, sometimes humorous names. There is even a brochure available, “Touring the Thrift Shops of Cape Cod,” updated and expanded in 2009 – a banner year for the thrift shop business. On the occasion of a 50% sale, or fill a bag for$3.00 sale, the parking lots can get crowded, elbows bumping as patrons make their way through the racks.  For the last few years, when my sister Sheila and her family come to visit us in Falmouth, a few trips to the area thrift shops are always in order.  This year, like others, we stopped in Falmouth, Mashpee and Centerville to find our treasurers, and once more, were not disappointed: used hardcovers for my sister, an Armenian ceramic plate made in Jerusalem for me. The Cape offers some special things, clothing, décor, housewares, much of it with nautical designs. The items come from the usual places – churches, hospitals –but also from the down-sizers, the wealthy second-homers, or sometimes the year-rounders cleaning house or looking for extra cash in spare times.  

 My sister is new to the game: she looks through the clothing, but particularly likes frames, tins, prints, old jewelry, things shecan use for her card-making and scrap-booking projects. Her twelve-year old daughter, Jessie, joins us to find that unique hat or tee shirt that no one else will have, or to collect materials for some of her art projects – a colander that can be turned into a turtle, for example. Last year she spent a few days with artist Susan Beardsley, maker of marvelous creations from scrap materials— sometimes, literally from the dump – what is called “found art”, discovering the joy of reusing and recycling old stuff.         

Me, I’m an old timer at this enterprise. My older sister, Maura, and I, were denizens of thrift shops for many, many years during college and then after.  Some of my most precious garments were thrift shop finds – a cream colored, beaded cardigan, a fringed red “flapper dress” perfect for a Halloween costume.  For a while, I was content with Marshalls/TJ/Maxx – the prices were almost as good, and the same excitement of hit or miss.  Then, it was all the same, and a lot of it was not good quality. I sought out our local thrift shop “Wearovers”that is stuffed to the rafters with good quality, well-designed clothes, JJill and LlBean, Talbots, etc. a few years old, but in good condition. And, more to the point, better fitting, in many cases, especially the pants – the newer style hipsters, while I can wear them, I don’t care to — makes me feel that I’m trying to hide my age. Now, I stop regularly, and I’ll go there first, if I’m looking for a pair of navy pants, or gray shorts, or a periwinkle sweater.  There is, for me, a kind of nostalgia,for the time when I could not afford a nice dress or coat at a department store; it just wasn’t possible. But at the thrift shop, there was always hope.

 It’s clear to me that recreational shopping is important fora lot of people, and that some people are truly addicted to shopping for the high – of the find, or the great bargain, or just seeing some new possibility for themselves, their look.  That, of course, is the appeal of Walmart, or Christmas Tree Shop, and they have their place. But for the unexpected, for the satisfaction of using and reusing something of value, and for the pleasure of thinking who might have chosen this item and lived with it, there’s no place like the thrift shop.