Comments (0) Best Thrift Store - 2008
Goodwill
There are a lot of Goodwill stores in the metro area, but it's worth holding your nose as you drive past the hazardous basements of Hartford, Illinois (they have their own EPA fact sheet), to get to the one in Wood River. Is it the poisonous air that makes the thrift shopping so darn good here? We can only surmise. But here's a small sampling of what our intrepid pickers recently found in this one location (as opposed to the dreary smorgasbord of faded green candles, Target rejects and chipped realtor mugs offered up by virtually every other area Goodwill): NHL curtains from 1972 (dated by team logos and players' sideburn length); Simplicity sewing patterns from 1969, including one for an orange plaid cape lined with fake fur; pantyhose packages from the halcyon days of pantyhose packaging, circa 1966-72 (think "woman on gold velour chaise with Sharon Tate hair wearing only nylons and two strategically placed palm fronds"); oddly shaped but really cool obsolete industrial tools; heavily embossed hardback books from 1895; old fuses with nifty box graphics. Etc., etc., etc. You may feel slightly giddy on the drive home, but whether this has been caused by fumes from the local refineries or your thrift-store scores is for a healthcare professional to deduce.
