This endearing portrait of three spirited elderly ladies who come across an unusual donated object in an op-shop is a familiar scenario which op-shop volunteer workers and shopper alike encounter with their daily discoveries of quirky donated goods.
Even during my restless years, I belonged to several book clubs, including Reader's Digest and TIME-LIFE, whose publications cost the usual $29.95 (plus postage & handling) which then was a week's housekeeping money (or the cost of a lavish dinner-for-two to which I never treated myself). When it was time to relocate, I would put the books into boxes (which cost money) and the boxes into storage (which cost more money).
Then, twenty years later, when all my travelling was done, I got the boxes out of storage, only to discover that many of those books I had so carefully boxed and stored, could be bought at an op-shop for a dollar or perhaps two (and ditto for all those vinyls, those fragile black things handled with kid gloves lest they got scratched; they are on sale now, unscratched, for just ten cents!)
If I had my time over again, I would buy nothing new as I can hardly image a world without op-shops. Generally staffed by kindly older ladies, they're little rays of sunshine amidst the primarily drab and boring shopping experiences of the twenty-first century. Apart from large, wildly expensive department stores like David Jones and Myers, where else can you go that sells such a wide variety of goods? If you're lucky the ladies might even offer you a cuppa and a biscuit.
I can't remember when I discovered my first op-shop. I remember once seeing a funny shop with funny-looking people going in and out but it was quite some time later, when op-shops had gone mainstream and into main street, that I entered a store which had that peculiar odour created by used clothing and household items within.
In days gone by, if I needed a new belt to accommodate that expanding waistline, I would have gone into a men's wear store and happily paid $20. These days, I go into an op-shop and choose from a range of real leather belts with real brass buckles, and never pay more than a dollar. As for books, I have found books I never even knew existed and I have never paid more than a couple of dollars for them.
Whoever said that you can't buy happiness hasn't been to an op-shop!
