still growing up after all these years I have crossed over into a zone where I thought, as a kid, I�d never see myself. I have just made a list of all the yard sales and Goodwills I plan to hit on Saturday morning. Back in the day when I was a snot-nosed kid, my folks didn�t have a lot of money, and it seemed to me that all my wardrobe that wasn�t my Catholic school-girl uniform came from yard sales. This did not help my already freakish reputation at school of already being a giant who made straight As who was shy (I really was!) and didn�t know how to make friends. Most of the other kids came from the snooty area of town and wore Nike tennis shoes and shopped at Gayfer�s, which was the place to shop and the place to get your hair cut, in their labyrinthine salon with over 50 stylists. You�d think that wearing a uniform 98% of the time would dissuade snottiness, but these kids would diss your shoes. I was in an advanced academic program wherein I would go to another school one day a week and play D&D and explore the arts and build geodesic domes and learn computer languages (in the 1980�s) and otherwise get to do some really fun stuff. I didn�t have to wear a uniform, either. The thing was that I had to return to my regular school for about an hour at the end of the day, because the program didn�t last as long as a regular school day. Most of the other kids got to go home, but I had carpooling issues. Anyway. This gave my classmates ample time to figure out ways to make fun of my clothes. I suppose it was all jealousy, but you don�t think of those things when you�re eleven. So I vowed to never, NEVER, NEVER again wear second-hand clothes, and I would get all my clothes and my hair cut at Gayfer�s. Which I did for a while and then I went to college and got a Master�s degree and proceeded to persue a career in which I was working with paints all day long. Why would I then need clothes from Gayfer�s if I was only going to trash them? And anyway, by then I had discovered Nordstrom�s. The difference was that I had to pay for everything now, and I mean really pay, not have a credit card that Daddy paid. Well, actually, Dad did pay the credit card that kept my 1983 Ford Tempo on the road, but that�s different from a �clothing allowance�. So I discovered Goodwill and their $1 color ticket day. And I found Eddie Bauer and Nordstrom�s and Ralph Lauren labels. I found jeans that fit. And realized that �retro� and �vintage� were good things. And then I found out about Goodwill�s Half Price Saturdays. It�s amazing what I�ve been finding. I bought the Hubster and myself an entire snow wardrobe, including ski jackets, for about $20. I�ve been finding PartyLite candle holders still in the box and eBaying them. And I�ve bought more yarn than I can probably ever use, but give me time, as I�m now popping out a pair of slippers in about 12 hours. And I look forward to these sales. I�ve also started scouring Craigslist looking for free yarn and yard sales in my area. Hell, my mother and I took a little walk in my neighborhood while I was convalescing from surgery and found a yard sale and excitedly called Hubster because the guy was willing to sell me 250 square feet of laminate wood flooring and supplies for $100. And I laugh at chicklets who insist on Juicy� couture and $300 jeans. I get ticky if I have to pay $30 for clothing anymore. I�m so glad I got over myself. And those kids from Catholic school? Don�t know what happened to nearly all of them. I went to a different high school than all of those kids. I hear that some are married, some are divorced, most went to college, some went into the military. Some have kids, others didn�t, others were rumoured to have become pole dancers. Others completely slipped off the radar, and I suspect that a small number are passed on. I hope they got over themselves too.
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