Why we love the thrift store

Because it's where you find the "Mao Zedong - Man, Not God" deck of playing cards, of course.


Just $2 for the "inside story of China's dynamic leader and world statesman." Elsewhere on the box there is the injunction "NOT PLAYING CARDS," but who could resist the urge to combine learning about the Chinese revolution with a few exciting rounds of whist?


We also got a nice set of Greek ceramic coasters, flocked on the back. The flocking was moulting right off, so they got scrub-brushed in the kitchen sink.

There were also a number of books from the "five for a dollar" table: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, purchased originally in Canada from the York University Bookstore (according to the old price sticker), Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac, Dashiell Hammett: A Casebook by William F. Nolan, with an inscription on the flyleaf: "B--- H---, Gates Mills, Ohio, 1969 - Early Fall (J. C.)"; and a nice hardback edition of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.


A special note of thanks to the person who has been donating like-new Levi's 505's in exactly my size (31W, 32L) to this particular thrift store.