My all time favorite childhood movie, The Goonies is one of those movies that you can totally picture yourself hanging with the gang and taking part in their adventures. What I love best about the movie is the pure adrenaline rush you get just watching the Goonies treasure hunting for One-Eyed Willy’s fortune. The nostalgia of these hunts are provoked every time I walk into a thrift shop. I walk in on the search for a specific item while going though every nook and cranny looking for the ultimate chachkie. It’s my treasure hunt; just on a smaller scale.
It seems like the new trend right now is buying and reselling retro finds from thrift shops onto sites like eBay, but I don’t stroll down the isles of second hand stores looking for treasures to resell, but rather I do it for reasons very personal to me.
When walking into a thrift store, such as Savers, memories of my grandmother flood my heart. Flashbacks of my childhood with her constantly replay in my brain to the point I sometimes got to hide in a corner to wipe away my tears. I go in with the simple mission of treasure hunting for items that remind me of her and everything she collected, because she collected EVERYTHING! I walk up and down the isles carefully combing through the items on the shelf, similar to a detective searching for clues. My eyes know and are familiar with what I am looking for, and when I spot something, I instantaneously get excited knowing I have found something that reminds me her. I recently found the same Corning Ware Tea Pot my grandmother used to own at a Goodwill in Central Phoenix. The thrill of discovering the teapot was unexplainable, and a little emotional as I have been searching for it for some time now, and I bought it on 50% off Saturday – SCORE!
I have purchased several other collectables over the past couple of years; items my grandmother would have owned and now they are in my home as reminders of her irreplaceable personality and style. Since I’ve started this treasure hunt I have also started to collect other cool items that mesh with my apartments character. Records are fun to search for too, because when I find ones like: Toto, the soundtrack to The Big Chill, or even Kenny Rogers greatest hits, I know I totally hit the jackpot on vintage vinyl.
Whatever it may be that you are in the hunt for, I am positive that your local thrift shop has it. If you have never gone into a second hand store, stop by and take a look. I think you’ll be surprised on the things you can find there. Good luck with the treasure hunt!
