Thrift Store Show and Tell: Summer of '23 Edition pt.1

I am so glad it's September. 

Daphne and I were back in our school buildings on August 17, and our daughter started back on the 23rd. August feels too early to be in school, but when it becomes September you can't argue about it. September equals school. 

That doesn't mean I don't miss summer. 

I get to do things in the summer that I can't do during the school year. For example, on weekdays I get to go to lunch with my family. Seriously, I love lunch. My only problem is to remember to sloooow down when I eat. I eat like a teacher. This means during "B" lunch I can consume a ham sandwich, a yogurt, a string cheese stick, and a cup of cottage cheese in three minutes while reading two emails from parents. 

At school, I feel like I'm being efficient. At a restaurant, I feel like I'm being a pig. 

Another thing I can do in the summer is shop thrift stores in the morning. I can stop by a store on the way home during the school year, but the popular items that were put out during the day are usually gone by then. Thrifting is a competition, and in the morning I have a better chance to score.

Here are some my favorite musical scores. (Dad joke)

How talented and cool was Irish guitarist, singer, and songwriter Rory Gallagher?  In 1975 he was a solo artist, and he declined an opportunity to join The Rolling Stones. That's how talented and cool he was. This is his 1973's blues/ rock album Tattoo. There is a rumor that Jimi Hendrix was once asked what it was like to be the best guitar player in the world. Jimi replied, "I don't know. Go ask Rory Gallagher." 

Speaking of the Stones and solo artists... here's Mick Jagger's first solo outing, She's the Boss. It sold over one million copies in the US, and this is one of them. That's all I can say. Like Keith Richards, I haven't listened to this record, yet.

Dark Side of the Moon... nowadays finding this LP in a thrift store is a real challenge. It IS exciting when you do find a copy: First you look at it in disbelief. Then you look around to make sure someone isn't watching you. After that, you calmly, but quickly, pick it up and walk to the register. Keeping your game face on, you hand over your dollar and then leave the store before someone yells that there's been a mistake made. You do not celebrate until you're safely in your car, "YESSS! Dark Side of the MOON, BABY!"

At least that's how I do it. 

This is the 12" single "Bass Mechanic" by M.C. A.D.E. who was born Adrian Hines in Miami, Florida. "He is an American music producer and rapper who pioneered the hip hop subgenre of Miami bass music" (Wikipedia). I found several different 12" singles from this era (mid/late 80's) at Goodwill, but this track is my favorite of the bunch. I can't play it loudly, though. The dog barking on it upsets our Great Pyrenees, Ellie. (FYI: A.D.E. stands for "Adrian Does Everything.")

I spotted this CD of 3 Feet High and Rising by De La Soul at Goodwill. I was pretty surprised when I checked this release on Discogs and saw how expensive it is. I believe that physical media was the only way to hear this because legal disputes kept De La Soul off of streaming services for quite some time. That's not the case now, but I'll still take physical media over streaming any day.

In July we flew to Portland, ME and rented a car to drive through the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, P.E.I., and Nova Scotia. We spent a couple of nights in Moncton, NB, so we could spend some time exploring the Bay of Fundy - in the morning you can see it at high tide and in the afternoon you can walk on the ocean floor. Anyway, while we were walking to get dinner in Moncton, I spotted some CDs abandoned on the top of a public trash/ recycling bin.

I looked at the girls, shrugged,  and said, "Well, I'm not above taking free music." I grabbed Dr. Hook Greatest Hits and slid in into the leg pocket on my cargo shorts. This is the only music I brought home from our trip.

Track 9 is "Sharing the Night Together." When I was a kid, an attractive female was sometimes described as being "really put together." Well, back then I thought this song was about a woman named Sharon. Her last name was D'Knight and she was really "together." I thought the chorus was "Sharon D'Knight's together, Oh yeah." I always wondered what Sharon looked like. 

Technically, this isn't a thrift store find, but it's close enough. I went to a record show last weekend, and I found Prince's second studio album in a $1 box. It's not in the best shape. The cover is damaged near his right shoulder (that's not a wound). Cleaning the LP with wood glue removed the weird, white spots that were stuck to the vinyl's surface. It sounds pretty good now.

The back cover ("Album concept by Prince") features a presumably naked Prince on a winged horse. That's worth a buck right there.

In a box full of Ray Conniff, Vaughn Meader, and various religious LPs, I think the self-titled "It's a Beautiful Day" release would get passed over because its artwork. It's, "Based on the 1912 painting Woman on the Top of a Mountain by Charles Courtney Curran" (Wikipedia).  I think the sleeve looks too much like a record from the 40's or earlier. The use of the old-time Columbia Records logo in the bottom right corner only adds to the illusion. 

Inside that sleeve is a 1969 psychedelic rock record by a San Francisco band that also incorporates notes of progressive rock. I prefer side two. The last track, "Time Is" (9:42), is what I expect to hear playing when I'm in an eclectic record store. 

Happy Trails by the Quicksilver Messenger Service is another 1969 psychedelic rock record by a San Francisco band that has a deceiving cover (Discogs purchase).  From the looks of the artwork, you'd never know side one is a 25 minute live version of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love?" This sleeve features a young lady who looks very similar to the one on "It's a Beautiful Day." Let's zoom in:

It's weird how similar these two records are. If you go by title, it's even alphabetically correct to place "Happy Trails" next to "It's Beautiful Day." 

Seeing the sleeve for The Roaring Silence in stores freaked me out as a kid. I never noticed the band's name because I was so taken back by the mouth inside the ear. Nothing had changed when I brought this home last month. I just wanted the artwork, and I was actually surprised to hear "Blinded by the Light" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band when I dropped the needle. I know that sounds strange, but I just wasn't looking at the sleeve that closely. While I'm on the topic of sounding strange, the lyrics for the first track are "Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night." A "deuce" is slang for a 1932 Ford coupe.

I had just finished flipping through a box of records at Goodwill. As I slowly stood up (and groaned with my palm on my back), a young woman who looked to be about 20 stamped up next to me, shoved two LPs back into the box and tossed a Soul Asylum CD on the shelf above. She then wiped a tear of frustration from the corner of her eye and stamped off. The two LPs were Baby I'm-A Want You by Bread and Double Vision by Foreigner. 

I turned and watched her walk out of the store. As a dad/ teacher my first instinct is to try to help a young person in distress. I wondered if she had left her purse at home? Heck, two LPs and a CD wouldn't amount to six bucks. I started feeling guilty that I hadn't asked her if I could help, but then I stopped myself. What was I thinking?! Some old, stranger-danger man randomly offering money to a young woman would not go over well...

Despite the water stain on the record's sleeve - bottom right - the Foreigner LP was in good nick (the band's name comes from having members from the US and Britain). I bought the record and left the premises in my car instead of in a police vehicle. Thank goodness. 

I really like the YouTube series "What's In My Bag?" It's how Amoeba Music showcases different artists. The artists pick records at the Amoeba record store, and then they show their picks and talk about their influences and the music they love. The videos are short, informative, and entertaining. 

In a recent episode, radio host, DJ, and producer Zane Lowe described his favorite era for funky records,  “… you sort of feel like it’s the essence of the 70s. That's that '72 to '74 period where instruments just sounded incredible. I mean, you can almost go into a record store and look at the back of any album. [If it’s] really released in 1972, ’73, ’74, particularly ’72 and '73 you just almost got to buy it. And that goes for anything. Like that's when Dolly Parton made her funky country. Like everything's just funky. Everything's locked in there at 80 to 100... The drums are dry. The bass is right at the front of the mix. It's generally got a Fender Rhodes, or some kind of B3 organ on it. And it's just fun. It's a funky time, and I love that…"

I decided to test Lowe's theory with The J. Geils Band's Bloodshot from '73. For me, the last track, "Give it to Me" is the funky standout. "Give it to Me" begins like much of the other songs, but then around the 2:22 mark the organ kicks in and the song morphs into an entirely different animal. The lyrics are abandoned and for the next four minutes you're in a funky instrumental with all kinds of groovy solos. This is such a departure from what came before; it feels like you have discovered a hidden track. So cool.

No wonder I like my Sounds of '73 comp record so much. 

With that in mind, Stevie Wonder's Talking Book came out and 1972, and I can't think of a better example of funk song than "Superstition." 

Why did I buy these four thrash metal VHS tapes from 1989 and 1990? For one, they were only $.79 a piece, and they're worth more than that. Two, I doubt I'd have an opportunity to find something like this very often. And three, they'll probably be fun to watch in October. Who knows what evil lurks inside? 

Besides, they make for a great transition to my next post about video and other things thrift. 

Thrift Store Show and Tell: 2023 Edition

I used to shop thrift stores on the sly. When I got my teaching job in '92, the Goodwill was located in a strip mall right next to the Hy-Vee grocery store that employed about half of the UHS student population. I quickly learned that if a student spotted me walking into Goodwill, then I would be mocked in class the next day. There was a lot of "Too bad teachers don't make enough to buy new clothes..." kind of comments being thrown around.

I eventually learned where the thrift stores that weren't in Urbandale were. I had developed a pretty good route. I would usually leave on Saturday morning around nine, and I wouldn't get home until early afternoon. I was on a tight budget, but I would still have to make a couple of trips to get all my stuff into my apartment. 

Things sure have changed. You can now spot luxury cars in a thrift store parking lot. People brag about how little they paid for an item. I don't enjoy shopping on Saturdays because the lines to the registers are so long. And then there's the internet. With websites like shopgoodwill.com, you are not only competing against other customers in the store, but somebody in the back off the store is cherry-picking items to be put in an online auction. You are competing with the entire U. S. thrifting community.

Also, people don't donate like they used to. It's not too hard to take unwanted items and sell them to a speciality store. Half-Price Books and Game Stop are happy to buy your used video games, video game systems, Blu-rays, LPs, and books and sell them for a profit. 

I typically walk out of a thrift stores empty handed; the pickings are so slim. So, why still go? I still get a kick of finding something "cool." It's the thrill of the hunt. You just never know... mistakes get made. Not everyone who works in the back knows what they're doing. I don't have a "Me vs. The Store" mentality, but if an "auctionable" item is mistakenly placed on a shelf, then I think it's fair game. 

The deals are still out there. You just have to be patient and diligent. 

I used to be able to write a "Thrift Store Show and Tell" post about what I found over a weekend. This post is going to cover a span of a few months of hunting, and I won't include everything I found. My topics are music, books, movies, and odds and ends.

Music

I love records, but CDs sound much better than streaming music, so I have no problem picking up a CD for a buck or two.

I've been on a bit of a grunge revival, and I noticed I didn't have any Alice In Chains in my collection. Their 1994 Jar of Flies was a welcome find. I ditched the generic, black CD tray for a clear one to reveal the inside case artwork. 

House of Large Sizes is my favorite Iowan band (sorry, Slipknot). I already have a copy of this promo CD from 1994, but this one is in better shape.

Fountains of Wayne is another band favorite, and I didn't have 2005's double CD of B-sides and outtakes.

I was lamenting that I didn't have any Eagles in my record collection, so finding this 2020 reissue was pretty cool. It's a German pressing.

Here's another reissue: Supertramp's Breakfast in America. I'm not sure of the year.

Stevie Nicks' Stand Back is a double LP compilation from 2019 and was also pressed in Germany. 

Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion (1980). This is one of those records that I buy just because I found it in good shape. Turns out there are more songs on here that I like than I thought.

Billy Idol's Vital Idol is a remix album released in the US in 1987. I remember when this first came out because I'm old.

I bought this just so I could frame it for my wall. I like the psychedelic design, and An Audio Obstacle Course is an awesome title. To me it's one of those LPs that celebrates the act of playing records.

I found this LP while sifting through a pile of 20 dirty and beat up children's records on the floor. It was the only "adult" record shoved in the middle of the pile. I think someone tried to hide this 1967 reissue of The Freewhellin' Bob Dylan in hopes of coming back to get it. Hiding stuff doesn't work out very often.

Honey Cones' Soul Tapestry. I think this is a 1971 DJ promo copy. 

Dick Dale and his Del-Tones. I like to listen to The King of Surf Guitar (1963) and pretend I'm in a Quentin Tarantino film.

I had to take some broadcast journalism classes in college. I recorded an assignment on a cheap Classics IV tape that I bought at a truck stop when I ran out of blank cassette tapes. My professor gave me an F for recording over The Classics IV, but he changed it to an A when I explained that lead singer Dennis Yost wasn't on the tape. He said, "Okay, good choice. The Classics are nothing without Yost." Yost is on 1967's Mamas and Papas/ Soul Train, and that's why I like almost every track on this LP.

On the Temptations' All Directions (1972), most people would recognize "Papa was a Rolling Stone," but I think "Do Your Thing" (written by Isaac Hayes) is the standout track. The outer record sleeve isn't in the best shape, but the vinyl is good.

Here's another LP with a rough, outer sleeve that holds an record that is in really nice shape. Dr. Pepper Presents The Sounds of '73 is my favorite compilation find so far.  

I bought The Beatles' 20 Greatest Hits and Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life even though the records were in terrible condition. The sleeves were what I wanted. They were in better condition than what I had at home. The "new" sleeves are on the left. 

Check out how dirty and scratched the Beatles vinyl is. The "clean" mark at 8 o'clock is from pulling the record out of the sleeve with my thumb and finger. I tried to clean the surface, but the amount of scratches and scuffs made it a lost cause.

Speaking of bad vinyl, I found this Black Sabbath LP unprotected in a box. It did not have a sleeve at all that I could find. I bought the record to see if it could be saved. It's now clean, but the crackles overpower the music at the beginning and ending of each track (Neither John nor Debbie took very good care of this). With that in mind, I've listened to this much more than I thought I would. I wonder if I'll miss the pops and crackles when I find a decent copy?

On the other side of the coin is 1984's Legend by Bob Marley & the Wailers. I found this in the same box. It also did not have the outer sleeve artwork, but it was in an inner paper sleeve. Apparently that was enough protection because this vinyl is in really nice shape. Not sure how that happened, but now I'm on the lookout for a matching outer sleeve.

Books

I was shocked to see Hot Rod by Henry Gregor Felsen just lying by itself on a Goodwill shelf. Obviously someone had removed the book from the stacks, looked at it, and then left Hot Rod behind for me. Thanks, buddy! This is my favorite find of the year. I have been looking for a hardcover copy since I was a teenager. Seriously.

I loved reading this book from our local library even though the story of Bud Crayne was already 30 years old when I first discovered it in 5th grade. I remember my mom getting really upset when she saw Hot Rod on our kitchen table. She had mistaken the cover for a book that she knew was too mature for me. She calmed down when she realized her mistake, but that took a lot of talking on my part.

By the way, Bud Crayne never wore a suit while driving. This cover is a lie.

Now here are some books that should be taken from a ten-year-old... 

I've written about horror paperback books before, and now I have a few more to add to my collection. 

1987's The Dollkeeper: "Despite the mysterious disappearance of nearly a dozen of the town's children, no one seems to notice Emma Prescott's collection of dolls look exactly like the missing children..." (Amazon).

1992's When Darkness Falls: "Unconcerned by the series of wolf attacks that have terrorized the community, a teacher takes a job in Petittville and meets Charlie, a shy misfit who believes the wolf attacks are part of an ancient legend" (Amazon).

1980's The Nest: "It was just an ordinary garbage dump on peaceful Cape Cod. No one ever imagined that conditions were perfect for breeding, that it was a warm womb, fetid, moist, and with food so plentiful that everything creeping, crawling, and slithering could gorge to satiation. Then a change in poison control was made, resulting in an unforeseen mutation. Now the giant mutant cockroaches are ready to leave their nest—in search of human flesh!" (Amazon).

First released in 1985, The Bachman Books by Stephen King is not a goofy, "Paperback from Hell." This is where I discovered my favorite story by Mr. King: The Long Walk.  He wrote it when he was a freshman at college and he hit it out of the park. 

 

"In a dystopian America, a major source of entertainment is the Long Walk, in which one hundred teenage boys walk without rest along U. S. Route 1. Each Walker must stay above four miles per hour. If a Walker drops below this speed for thirty seconds, he gets a warning. A Walker can lose a warning if he walks for an hour without getting another warning. If a Walker gets four warnings, he is shot dead by soldiers. The last surviving Walker earns a large sum of money and a 'Prize' of his choice" (Wikipedia). 

I didn't like the ending until I realized that it is an allegory for The Vietnam War. I bought this 1986 paperback (again) because this copy was in such nice shape.

Movies

My Blu-ray of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly has all of the video supplements that are on this Special Edition DVD set. So, why did I buy this for $2?

I wanted the eight page booklet and the mini posters from five different countries! 

For a movie fan, I think these are the adult equivalent to a Happy Meal toy.

I have a small collection of Spaghetti Westerns, and these two will fit in nicely:

Odds and Ends

My old GE alarm clock radio stopped playing music and would only emit static. I retired it and bought another GE from the 80s. The thing is, even though the previous clock's radio broke, it never lost or gained time. It really was "set it and forget it." So far, the same goes for this bad boy. (I bought Daphne one of the most recommended clocks on Amazon a few years ago, and that clock is currently six minutes fast.) Yes, I could use my phone, but this just feels right.

Speaking of time, I picked up this perpetual flip calendar for my desk at school. It's fun, vintage, and shiny, so it checks all the boxes for me.

I found two new "YETI Rambler 12 oz. Colster Can Insulators for Standard Size Cans." I'm just going to call them "koozies."  The fake advertising cans in the koozies still have their Yeti stickers, so that's a bonus, too.

Char and I spotted a DIY project where you turn an old boot into a planter for your porch. Char found these two boots at Goodwill.

They're boots for a child. I wasn't sure they be right for the project, but Char assured me that they would work. She was right. I have to admit that having small boots outside of our house makes me smile. I get to pretend that we still have a little one living here. (Hi, Ellie.)

Okay, here's the last thing for today. Last weekend Char and I went thrift shopping, and when I showed her this shirt, she told me I had to buy it. It made us both laugh, so it came home with us.

Okay! That felt good. I haven't been blogging for a minute, and I miss it.