Hi all, long time no post.
Earlier this summer I went on a road trip of sorts to east of the Cascades (eastern Washington and North Idaho) to try and finish up some stuff with Dad’s estate. I went with an old high school friend who needed to do some similar things as she her mother just passed and her father isn’t doing well. Despite the emotional heaviness aspect of the trip she was a great partner on a roadtrip.
I was picking up somethings the estate auction guy had found and saved for me. At the end I stopped sorting and just had to walk away from all the stuff. I got a flat $ amount for him to clean out stuff and sell. If I couldn’t find it, or remember I had it, so be it. The estate guy ended up donating a huge amount to a local conservation group. That made me feel better.
When we were in our hometown, she wanted to walk around downtown as she hadn’t been there in far longer than me. We actually ran into another person we went to high school with.
One of the shops we stopped at was a “vintage” clothing and music store. She was looking for records. I was poking around. I recognized this Raggedy Ann laundry bag, that I was 95% sure came from my room. She said it can’t be. I’m thinking how many Raggedy Ann laundry bags are around. Then the red coat plaid, which I definitely recognized. The blue wool coat they tagged as from the 90’s, It was from the 80’s. I remember, and Hello, the shoulders. I then saw my giant fleece from REI from the 90’s. It was one of the items I seriously hemmed and hawed about keeping. A different friend earlier in house sorting, said I should get rid of it. I was tempted to rebuy it. At that point my friend made me get out of that section before I found more stuff, I think I spied some jackets from Dad.
At that point she ordered me to go to the front of the store where they had vintage and fake vintage band tees. I told her I was going to look for Siouxsie and the Banshees, she said good. I didn’t find any.
I’ve heard of people accidentally rebuying Goodwill donations. This was a whole different level.
I was very grateful to have my friend with me. We’re hoping to hang out more in the future, she lives not far from me now.
I’m still thinking of the REI fleece to be truthful. And telling the store to relabel the blue jacket.

ETA a pic of me loosing a battle with a hotel ice machine. I did put up the yellow slip warning sign, Safety First