The thrift stores on Long Island are absolutely stellar. I got 3 books today: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, A Casual Vacancy, and the Gasparilla Cookbook. My theory is that thrifting never really caught on here so the thrift stores are all teeming with unfound, quirky little treasures. In Florida all of the thrift stores, especially in Orlando, have always already been picked over by cool kids, poor yet trendy college students, and themed costume party-goers.
My favorite here is called Island Thrift and they have not one, but 4 colored tags on sale each week and the discount is 50%. In other words: every item in the store is color coded, and if you pick up something with a tag the right color, it’s half off. Much of the store is a little overpriced for a thrift store (all of my books were labeled $4.99) but most of the store is 50% off (I only paid $2.50 each for my books).
So, here’s a fun story: I’ve been missing the first Harry Potter book for years. I gave away my original set of the first 4 in high school to a girl who wanted to read them but didn’t have her own copies. I didn’t really like the way they were bound, they were part of a set and were bound in plain black instead of the classic bicolored binding/cover with the diamond pattern. I also gave them away because my high school boyfriend promised he would replace them with the real copies. Funny thing about high-school-boyfriend-promises: they don’t often count for much. He replaced 3 out of 4 of them and now about a decade later I finally have every book.
I probably started reading Harry Potter when I was 8, I’m not sure if I even totally comprehended the entire thing but I loved reading back then and I kept up with it. Then as the new ones were released I was old enough to fully appreciate the story. I would go to the midnight releases and then spend the whole next day devouring the new book. As a teenager, I got into the habit of reading the whole series every summer while floating in my parents’ pool. Florida summers are like that, so hot you can’t move much, so you just melt into a comfortable spot on the porch and embrace the heat.I couldn’t not buy the Gasparilla Cookbook when I saw it. I love Florida in such a special way. It’s home to me now. I thought the cookbook needed to be in a Floridian’s hands. Even though I’ve only been to Gasparilla, I love it just for being a funny part of Florida culture. If you don’t know, Gasparilla is a pirate festival that happens every year in Tampa. Everyone dresses up as pirates, goes down near the water, gets drunk, and watches a pirate ship sail by followed by a parade of other party boats.
I’ve been living on Long Island 5 months now. I thought I’d leave in January but I got into a groove here and I’ve grown to like it. I’m also anxious about going back to Florida. I think about that Avett Brothers song about running “to” something and not ‘from” when I think about moving back. It seems like there’s nothing I should run “to” there, it would be more like running “back.” And it all seems tied up in these feelings for a person who taught me how to love Florida, not just live there. When I find out what my next adventure is, I’ll leave here. For now, I’m working and writing and spending time with extended family. And tonight, maybe curling up with A Casual Vacancy, a glass of wine, and my dog on this very cold and rainy Sunday in December.
Side note: I really love the handwritten notes in books when people give them as a gift or otherwise. Here are pictures of the ones in these books (click to view).
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| "Gift from Martha 1993" |
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| "started 12/3/2012 / done 1/6/13" |
