Junkin' Memories: The Early Louisville Years

When I lived in Old Louisville, there was a DAV store a few blocks from where I lived.  Down the street from it was a thrift that supported a neighborhood charity.  Sadly, they're both gone now and have been for quite a few years.  The DAV closed because of shoplifting problems.

I first went to that DAV when I was in seminary.  I took the bus through Old Louisville to get to a job interview and saw it.  I remember going there to buy some props for a scene I was doing in a church drama class.

I used to take stuff over to the neighborhood charity shop to donate from time to time.  One time, I left a couple of bags of donated things at the counter, then went shopping.  I found a huge stash of vintage Peanuts paperbacks there.  When I went to check out, the cashier got all confused and tried to price all the items I had donated so she could ring them up for me.  It took me like five minutes to explain to her that THOSE were the items I was bringing in for them and THESE were the things I wanted to give them money for.

One of my first thrift purchases after I moved to Louisville was a vintage black London Fog overcoat that I paid five bucks for.  I loved that thing and wore it everywhere.  I even bought a hat in a consignment shop near the seminary to wear with it.  When I went home for Christmas that year, my brother took an immediate liking to the coat and wore it a few times.  He then started working on me to pass it on to him.

His argument was that he was a poor college freshman who didn't have any money for clothes.  I tried to tell him that he was in he right demographic to start thrifting, but he told me the town where he was going to school didn't have any thrifts!  (As if!)  Eventually, my mother convinced me that I could always find another one, so I let him have it.  Of course, he lost it and I've never seen another one like it. 

Interestingly enough, when my brother was in seminary himself, he discovered the Goodwill in the nice part of town and would go there all the time.  He told me that he was getting a fabulous brand name wardrobe at a fraction of the cost.  I went there a couple of times when I would visit him and we'd both load up our carts.  For the seminary record:  His was Presbyterian and he graduated.  Mine was Southern Baptist and I dropped out so I could come out. 

Speaking of my limited run at the seminary, there was a convent down the road that used to have regular indoor yard sales and book sales in the basement of one of the school buildings.  I never missed one, if I could help it.  I bought tons of stuff there, including several Madonnas and rosaries that made my dorm mates at the Southern Baptist seminary look oddly at me.  Awesome stuff at awesome prices.  The basement was stuffed with all kinds of stuff!

They even had a rack of clothing that was mostly habits--nothing old, but rather the more modern modified habit.  I wanted one so bad, but never had the nerve to even go over and look through them.  Suddenly, the sales just stopped.  I later learned that the particular nuns who organized the sales got too old to continue and none of the others were interested in doing it, so they just stopped.  I've always wondered what happened to that basement full of stuff.  I've also always regretted not getting a habit when I had the chance.

One last seminary memory:  One Sunday, I chose to attend a particular church, so I could go to some yard sales that were happening down the street.  Seriously.  Maybe it's a good thing I didn't pass muster as a seminarian.