Grammy's Thrift Story

 
Hi!  I’m Amanda’s Grammy, and she has asked me to fill in for her one day while she is on vacation in Ireland. I thought I'd share with you the different things I've searched for at the thrifts over the years. (Amanda says she gets her love of thrifting from me!)

When I was growing up in the '50s, there were no thrift shops- at least not in my small hometown.  Instead they were called second hand stores or junk shops.  I must admit that these stores were of very little interest to me when I was a teenager.  However, today’s teenagers and college students supplement their wardrobes at the thrift shops and are proud of it.

In the '70s, I started collecting Depression Glass and found an abundance of it at flea markets and thrift shops, for very little money.  For the next ten years, I carefully acquired full sets of the patterns that I collected.  

Depression Glass- my first thrifted collection

The '90s were my craft period.  I decided to make life-size cloth dolls. I know you’ve seen them. They stand in a corner as if they were playing hide and seek.  Anyway, this is when I first got hooked on thrift shops.  They always had lots and lots of toddler clothes, shoes and hats.  I made and sold about 150 of these dolls until the local market was saturated with them.  I also occasionally found a piece of my glassware, but by this time my interest in depression glass had waned and I now have an attic full of glass. I guess the old saying is true, “the fun is in the collecting!”

Some of my life-size dolls

Currently, I collect books- and what better place to find them than at thrift stores?   This hobby started after I fell and broke a hip.  I was told to get some exercise daily so I decided to do my walking in thrift shops and try and find ALL of Danielle Steel’s books in hardcover. My niece Lisa had provided me with the most current copies and over two years later, I had found all 89 of them!  I also collect books by other favorite authors and yes, I have read and sometimes reread every single book I own.   

 

Part of my full Danielle Steel collection

 

  Our city (Pensacola, Florida) has at least a dozen thrift shops and I hit them all on a regular basis.  We travel often in an RV and find interesting shops in every city and town we visit.

Thanks so much for telling us your thrift story, Grammy! I love you so much!

 Always,

Amanda