Cheap or Free

There’s a certain sort of smell that certain spaces hold that I’ve come to associate with treasure. It’s a smell of disuse and age that lingers long after an item is reclaimed to its use. Chaos envelops the walls and isles of my favourite places. Don’t enter such spaces with a goal in mind or a tight schedule, you’ll quickly find yourself lost.

Lives Collected at Home:

Renaissance:

My Favourite afterschool hang out when I was a teenager in highschool. I spent countless hours in the glorious entropy of music, literature and miscellaneous treasures. Any time I entered the door of the shop I would immediately be greeted by the sound of live music. Old men sitting in chairs, chatting and plucking away on guitars or other more obscure instruments. I would always veer off down one of the many eclectic isles to hide amidst the interesting trinkets before visiting the instruments and the quirky men who played them. I would flip through books on art, history, photography, all completely unorganized. There was never any pressure to purchase any of the books I perused, and the one time I decided to buy a book I was offered it for a lower price without having to haggle.

I purchased many of my musical instruments in this magical place, once I would finish pursuing the literature I would meander over towards the old men sitting and playing music. Guitars adorn the walls, behind the counter is where the more obscure instruments reside. I would try the instruments rarely found, the instruments I never heard of or had never had a chance to see in real life. Of course, I would also try the pretty guitars. But I was always drawn to the instruments with distinct sounds, the old men would marvel at my ability to sound almost reasonably competent on any instrument within a matter of minutes. The owner of the shop would always offer me the instruments at discounts, which enabled me to buy beautiful instruments with their own eccentric and unknown history.

A bass string, two melody strings and two drone strings. I had to save up my money for who knows how long to acquire it. It did not cost much however, I was just an unemployed teenager at the time and saving up money took a considerable amount of time. I’ve never mastered the instrument, nor do I ever think I will. However, I enjoy the sound and enjoy using it to play simple melodies. It feels almost meditative to strum the strings and listen to the notes that emanate from it.

An unofficial homage to my great grandmother, Hazel. She was a pioneering woman in her youth, she was an inspiration to me and continues to be despite being gone from this world. She played whatever instrument she could get her hands on: harmonica, guitar, piano, button accordion, in her youth she sang and sang until the tremor that shook her body reached her voice causing her speech to slow and shake. She was one of the most amazing human beings I’ve ever met. The owner of the store would always show off his new stock of instruments to me whenever he obtained anything of particular interest. Upon getting in two button accordions he promptly showed them off to me and got me to try them. One was considerably nicer, little flourishes in the details and in pristine condition. He offered it to me for a reasonable price after I played it for the first time. The other, with slight damage and a simple design, he offered it to me for an even hundred. Initially I didn’t want the instrument, but it made me think of my great Grandmother. She was such a ray of sunshine and made the world so much brighter for having been in it, I couldn’t resist something that made me think of her.

As one can imagine, I love music and musical instruments. I haven’t had the time to practice recently and I’m sure I’m fairly rusty, but for a while I could play the first half of “the phantom of the opera” on my piano accordion. When I would play (that song or others, including original compositions) I would often find myself sitting for a while after I practiced to just rest against the instrument. It has a fair bit of weight and when one’s not used to such endeavors it can be quite tiresome to play. But that being said, I always found the weight of it to be a comfort. The instrument still retains some of the scent of the store and reminds me of the time I spent there.

An instrument I had prior knowledge of before finding at the store, I owned an acoustic mandolin for a few years and played it regularly. The day when I found a red acoustic electric mandolin at one of my favourite stores I was elated. There’s something so cool about playing over an amp with heavy overdrive. There have been times when I was tight on money, and could have used some cash fast, and while the thought did cross my mind, I knew I could never part with it.

The Apostle and Dictionary:

The one conventional thrift shop we have in my hometown. I’ve bought some fun things from there, stuffed toys, dresses, jackets, ties, shoes, but only two books. Seulment deux livres que j’aime. I’ve purchased a few other books for my father, Clive Cussler- one of his favourite authors. I only would classify the two as treasures. The Apostle, a religiously themed novel and an old dictionary, filled with archaic words no longer in common use.

It’s cute and small, there’s no real story to go with it. I just like it. Nothing life changing. I just like it.

Edgar Allen Poe:

One of my favourite poets, I had long wanted to find a complete anthology of his work. Fortunately I managed to visit a short lived used book store that had temporarily opened up in my hometown. I wish it had managed to stay open longer. It had the air of the kind of used book store that bookworms long to open up for themselves, or just move in and live in.

Ben-Hur and the Caine Mutiny:

I found these on the street, more specifically at the base of a recycling center bin. I’ve actually managed to find numerous great books for free in random places. Most often in boxes with the word “FREE” scribbled along the side.

Re-Use it Store:

$120 for the aquarium and some of the equipment. Deals like that can’t be found very often. I love fish and had long wanted to be able to set up a community tank, but with decently sized aquariums costing $200+ for half the size, I thought it would be an unattainable dream. Fortunately for me used stores exist! I can now sit and watch my little fishies frolic through the artificial currents in their tank.

Buy And Sell groups:

Free!! I scored this for free with the bonus of a few of my friend’s favourite loaches. I took the tank home and brought the loaches for my friend. All free. Unfortunately, the person who was giving them away didn’t seem too particularly concerned with the state of it. The aquarium, filled with gravel, was just dumped on its side, freshly emptied of water. The loaches were sealed in a tupperware hidden behind a plant in the shade. They had left a few minutes before my arrival for some unknown reason. And I had to awkwardly scoop the gravel into a plastic bag I was fortunate enough to have in my vehicle and empty the aquarium enough to be able to lift it by myself. It was kind of gross, there was a snail shell amongst the gravel, which I would later discover still had snail cadaver within it. I suppose beggars can’t be choosers and I appreciate the free score, but I would have really appreciated a little consideration.

Trading:

Traded a batch of cupcakes for a free trumpet. Brass instruments aren’t my forte, but they are a lot of fun. A little Ennio Morricone in the afternoon never hurt anyone.

Beekeeping hat:

Tea and cookies were traded in exchange for this. It’s always cool when you know someone who has something that you want, they don’t use it and want rid of it so you can basically get it for free. I like to give something yummy in exchange though, as a gesture of appreciation.

Lives lived Elsewhere:

Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural, The Mask of Zorro:

Found scavenging a value village in a random city at a random time. Value Village was the place where I found one of my favourite treasures, a chromatic harmonica. Unfortunately in one of the various moves of my life I lost it. These books though are excellent reads and always remind me of that awesome harmonica I lost.

The Satanic Bible, The Djinn and the Nightingale’s Eye, and Playgirls of Yesteryear:

I no longer remember the name of the store, rather I remember the full book cases and stacks of books piled in tall towers along the walls, the sides and in any space that would fit them. I remember the old man who was distant but friendly. My sister and I visited this particular book store in Vancouver on a trip from our respective homes to visit each other. I found several books I wanted, but being a person who in general is on a budget, I had to narrow it down to three.

An Anthology of World Poetry:

I only lived in Victoria for a short time, but I spent that little time exploring the city as much as I could. On one of my walking adventures I found a little eclectic thrift store that had a decent book selection. I like to try to buy a book from every place I live and I adore poetry, I couldn’t resist the opportunity that this presented me with.

Библия:

A russian Bible. I honestly have zero idea where or when I got this. Presumably it was free. I’m not religious and can’t actually understand much Russian, but oddly I can read Russian.

I have many interesting books found in many interesting places. Most of my books were free, or purchased for very low cost. I have a stack of books that I acquired when my highschool decided it didn’t actually need a library, but rather needed to put the weight room into the space that the library had formerly occupied. To be clear, the school already had a weight room, but apparently it’s more important for a weight room to consume as much space as possible, rather than provide access to free books for teenagers. *eye roll into oblivion.* I asked the faculty at the time if I could take some books, and was told I could take any that remained as all the faculties had taken what books they wanted so everything else was just going to end up being donated to thrift stores. I liberated many books that day. I needed a friend’s help to carry the stack to my locker.

I have lots of cool and interesting items, some of which I've lost forever, some of which I've misplaced or forgotten. And yet, each item has been cherished for its time.