Nostalgia in a thrift store

A few thoughts on finding sentimentality with the past when dealing with a fraught present.

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In the past few years I have found myself visiting thrift stores in greater frequency. I’ve always known that they were around, but I never actually visited any before. I suppose I should appreciate the fact that my family never needed to visit a thrift store, although I must say such a mindset also isn’t a good one to have given that you can find a lot of great, and honestly historical things in a thrift shop.

Given my age I’ll just say that I don’t go to thrift shops for electronics, furniture, dishware, or other fares. At least, that wouldn’t be my first thing to look for when entering a thrift shop.

Rather, my attention tends towards books. It’s here you can find a plethora of literature, from children’s books, historical and religious books, and even review guides for professional schools such as MCAT review books. I came across a whole MCAT review series one time, which may or may not bode well for the individual that dumped them onto the shop. I don’t think others would mind, given that it’s a pretty good steal to grab a whole set for around 10 bucks, especially given that whole sets can cost near $150 based on a quick search on Amazon.

However, I find that my attention points towards something rather unique whenever I go thrifting, and that is towards textbooks. Sometimes I find new ones- a new biology textbook going for 3 dollars is really not something to stick one’s nose up at. I've come across books on constitutional law, physics, and really any subject matter. Even with a lot of the scrutiny that can come with textbooks for their culling of information, there are still a ton of otherwise useful information that one can gather from popping one of these bad boys open.

More interestingly, however, are some of these older textbooks that can make their way onto the shelves of these stores. It’s one thing to get rid of new books, but to get rid of such historical pieces of literature is something on it’s own.

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In a recent visit with a friend we came across a weirdly titled book- The Fundus of the Eye¹- publication date, 1962. I’d post a picture of the cover but there’d only be a green rectangle (one of those types of books).

Now, you may be asking yourself what the heck a fundus is. We asked ourselves that as well, and of course this is where you insert dad jokes about it being something related to “fun” (why else call it fun?).