local color.

There are several steps to true thrift store patronage.

1. Entering a thrift store, perhaps accidentally.
2. Buying something used as a joke or costume.
3. Buying something that you would actually use/wear on a regular basis that you happened to notice while looking for a joke or costume.
4. Entering a thrift store while not searching for a joke or costume.
5. Buying multiple items on multiple trips to the thrift store because you're financially disadvantaged.
6. Buying multiple items on multiple trips to the thrift store because money's a bit tight.
7. Buying multiple items on multiple trips to the thrift store when you have no financial restrictions other than personal thriftiness.
8. Entering a thrift store with the intent of looking for a specific item (e.g . jeans) when you have no financial restrictions other than personal thriftiness.
9. Buying a gift for someone else at a thrift store when you have no financial restrictions other than personal thriftiness.
10. Entering a thrift store while on vacation in a town other than your own.

I know these steps, for I have taken them all. You may be horrified. If so, we probably don't hang out much. There may be more steps yet; I'll let you know when I find them. I see the ten steps as an evolution of thought. You start out with the idea the new is better, then work up to the idea that used is just as good, but cheaper, til finally you start thinking that something is better because it has been used.

While I could probably write long, passionate entries about each of those steps, I'm still in Kansas mode, and so it's the last on which I'll concentrate: Thrift stores are the best places to get souvenirs.

I'm a big fan of used items anyway. I like things which are unusual, I like things which have a history, and I like things cheap. It's a win-cubed situation. Each trip to a thrift store is a treasure hunt through the trash of other men. And so to pass up the opportunity of visiting the trash piles of people in a completely different part of the country is more than I can bear.

But there is something more genuine about thrift store souvenirs. This souvenir shot glass is a remembrance of my visit to Kansas, but this used flannel work jacket and this university football practice jersey are relics of daily life in Kansas. We are remembering the place itself instead of just our limited experience as outsiders. Yeah, there's a space museum there, but so are there hundreds of people who pass by it daily on the way to work.

Perhaps you need the nine steps before to appreciate the ideas behind the tenth. I would not be in the least surprised that most people don't give a crap about the daily life in their vacation destinations, and that's fine. You can still have a great time in Kansas eating at Applebees (*shudder*) and buying t-shirts at the airport. I guess I just want to soak up every bit of new experience possible, the stuff that I cannot get at home. I want local color, not Anytown gray.

If you don't get it, you don't get it. You take your vacations your way, and I'll take mine. Just don't expect any used presents from me, bucko.