A Sort of Homecoming

Believe or not, op-shopping is not all sexy velvet jackets, unquenchable desires for more ties and vague hopes of blog related accolades... there's a lot of tough, soul-crushingly boring groundwork that goes into any successful venture into the world of the "slightly too big/slightly too small, why does everything smell like mildew and mothballs?" that is often known as op-shopping. Yet, as tends to be the way in this modern world, less exciting and generally more demeaning tasks can often be outsourced to those desperate for the work whilst we lie back a reap the rewards. Typically, it's developing countries that get to drink from this golden challis; yet in this case the lucky recipient was my Mum.

My mum had pushed her IT skills into uncharted territory by creating a master spreadsheet of just about every op-shop from Adelaide to Mt Gambier - just in case they happened to drive through. In this age of the internet and Googling your wife to remember her birthday; one might think that such a list could quickly become obsolete, instead I prefer to engage with the symbolism of such a hand crafted list. I mean, what are really saying about yourself when you reach into your iMan-Bag and whip out your iPhone from its $40 iSock to look up nearby op-shops on Google Street View before sauntering over to barter down someone that closely resembles your dear granny on the cost of an oh-so chic third-hand couch? The good-ol', down-to-earth dog eared and torn piece of paper (usually printed by a dot matrix) says that you're not some faux op-shopping Brunswick St phoney, but that you're a hardcore Smith St op-shopper who's only one bad roll of the dice from becoming a junkie... either that or you can't afford an iPhone.

So like any self respecting, independently-minded fellow of roughly my age, upon arrival into Adelaide airport I was greeted by my parents. Rather than retreating home for some catching up, chit-chat and general interrogation about what I've been up to and why I haven't been calling, I was instead whisked off on a op-shopping spree. So luggage still in tow we went our journey.

Red Cross - 181 Trimmer Parade, Seaton, Adelaide (the Google man didn't drive down this street)


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If I could describe an op-shops as cute, then this would probably fit the definition. Staffed by tottering little old ladies, this place had the highest density of crocheted items anywhere on the planet. I wondered at time whether the staff produced it themselves; a sort of voluntary, non-profit sweat-shop if you will. My suspicions were further aroused by the giant quantity of knitting wool and needles available. The store itself wasn't that big, not much in the way of men's clothing or anything like that, but it was very neat and organised. Despite this, it wasn't bereft of bargains; my parents managed to find some matching
tea set items for pieces that they'd recently broken. Given that the tea set probably came into their possession in the 1970's, it's probably the op-shop equivalent of finding your own message in a bottle on a beach somewhere overseas.

Findon; where the op-shop planets align. Well, it would seem like that if you've ever stumbled across the set of three op-shops there all within a stone's throw of each other.

Salvos - 115 Findon Rd, Findon, Adelaide


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This Salvos is certainly on the larger side and it's got plenty of goodies. Plenty of ties and what not..it's not quite Savers sized, but it's not far off.

My parents continued their run of good finds by coming across a perfectly good slide projector to replace their old one; same model and all. Makes you wonder if my parents have decided to set up camp in the late 70's forever. Later on that night we discovered a bunch of slides in the unit already, a couple's (presumably the former owners) happy snaps from a trip to Canada during what was probably the early 70's. It was a strange view into someone else's world, trapped in another time - unfortunately there was no photos of velvet jackets.

When I was in the store, I was busy coming across interesting clothing articles; have you ever wondered what life would be like in Australia if the communists took over? Look no further than the work of the "State Clothing Corporation". Actually, it was that sort of Castro-chic that seems to have been doing the rounds for the last 10 years.. unfortunately it didn't fit.



Ever thought long and hard about clothing sizes? Perhaps Slim-fit and XL should be considered mutually exclusive.



My book-keeping not being what it should, I really didn't keep a particularly good record of what I got at each store - so here's my best guess at what I picked up here.







Goodwill - 156 Findon Rd, Findon, Adelaide


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Across the road from the Salvos is a Goodwill Store, much smaller in size. It's a strange little place; the towering racks of clothing dwarf you on both sides and nearly made it possible for me to lose my parents in about 50m2 of floor space. It's not a place for modesty either; the doors on the change rooms are low enough to see straight over the top (breathe easy; I discovered this from perspective of looking out ... rather than looking in). The view from the change rooms also gives you a clear view of the street. Needless to say that tall women should probably just go with their instincts when it come to gauging whether an item fits and guys over 6ft shouldn't really enter the store, for fear of being labeled a pervert.

I ended up getting these brown pants -



Vinnies - 127 Findon Rd, Findon, Adelaide


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I had found the staff at the Goodwill a little indifferent as though I'd walked into the perfume section of David Jones and sampled everything I could lay my hands on before leaving without a purchase, so the quaintness of the little Vinnies store was refreshing. The staff were friendly to each other and us; giving us a smile as we flipped through the offerings.

I picked up couple ties, one of which was so amazingly outlandish in its colours and size that it was instantly a required purchase for a friend of mine who has habit of turning such ties into dresses. It is clearly not the other one I got, pictured here -




Salvos - Henley Beach Rd, Fulham, Adelaide


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The adventure continued on at a frenzied pace; next stop another Savlos. I didn't find too much of interest inside. Other than this classic album that must have brought a juvenile smile out of me -



I couldn't actually bring myself to buy it. My rationale being that if I did buy it, I would only end up hoarding it away somewhere with the rest of my records. All this would achieve would be to deny some other fellow op-shopper the few infantile giggles that I got out of it.

Goodwill - 285 Henley Beach Rd, Underdale, Adelaide


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This store had a bunch of brand new clothing, most of it had a little too much "street-cred" for me; my days as a street hoodlum eyeing off the sneakers of weedy looking teenagers just waiting to be rolled are behind me. Yet as I sifted through the racks I got the feeling that there'd be some good just around the corner. I only came away with the one shirt in the end, there were a few other good things that didn't fit, but the place had potential.

Here's the shirt -


By now most sane families would think that enough was enough, yet armed with the spreadsheet-to-end-all-spreadsheets it was difficult to drive down a road without pointing out that if we just took a slight detour to the left then there'd be another chance to uncover jigsaw puzzle heaven (jigsaws are to my mum what ties are to me). So we made one last visit for the afternoon...

Salvos - 154 Sir Donald Bradman Dr, Adelaide


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Time waits for no man, especially when he's trying to get into an op-shop late on a Saturday afternoon. We hurriedly parked the car and power-walked our way into the store. Somewhere in all the excitement we lost Dad, but he showed up eventually. I tried on a few things, it was all a bit sparse inside and they were closing the store around us and I left empty handed.

One would be forgiven for thinking that seeing 6 op-shops in an afternoon would at least somewhat abate my need for op-shopping... at least for a weekend... naturally this was not the case as the next day we headed out to the Barossa Valley to visit ...

Angaston

Many a great thing come from the Barossa, Jacob's Creek is probably not one of them, but at least there's Angaston to make up for it.

Heading down the main road, I visited the op-shops and second hand stores with an efficiency that would make perpetual motion possible.

Angaston Abbey - 18 Murray St, Angaston


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This place is a combination of antiques and second-hand clothes. The clothes sit somewhere between "second-hand" and "vintage" and the place has the sort of musty incense smell that makes me think that there's gold just around the corner. Unfortunately there wasn't something there for me that day, it wasn't too fussed though, because I still had other options further down the road.

Granny's Attic - 40 Murray St, Angaston


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My original velvet jacket goldmine, I somewhat manically flipped through the clothes looking for another repeat performance. The best I could muster was a slightly-smaller-than-I'd-like-can-I-actually-wear-this-?-nah-I'd-rip-it-if-I-even-so-much-as-twitched velvet jacket, which sadly, I had to pass on. There was plenty of ties though and I managed to pick up three of them, adding to my growing, but mostly unworn collection.



Salvos? - once Shemmeld Lane, Angaston


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Diverging off the main road, I set out to find the Salvos that I knew was hiding out somewhere on the backstreets. I didn't have a map, but in a town the size of Angaston that's hardly a handicap. After a few wrong turns and the channelling of my grandfather's surveying skills I eventually found it. Well, I found a disused, graffitied and hole ridden portable building that used to be the Salvos, there was no op-shop in sight.

OARS - 61 Murray St, Angaston


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This store was absolutely crammed with goods. My original notes tell me that it was in fact: "Messy as all hell". Somewhere in between trying on some pants and returning them I failed to quite see the step and almost fell over; it's particularly embarrassing when old ladies ask you if you need help walking, soon they'll be safely guiding me across the street to earn scout badges. Despite this, I did end up getting the pants, so perhaps she can get the retail badge if such a thing exists.



Given the sorry state of the once Salvos store, I enquired of the little old lady at the OARS store if she knew what had happened to the Salvos, she said that it had closed and now was the "big" store in Tanunda.

Tanunda

Salvos - 2/ 63 Murray St, Tanunda


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A few visits to wineries later we made it to the big Salvos store in Tanunda and well, it wasn't that big, but it was big enough to be home to this shirt with a slightly oversized collar.





... So there you have it. I might have to change either my op-shopping habits or my blogging habits before I attempt another post... The op-shopping should be more tiring than the writeup.