Second-Hand Childhood and Teen Years

My whole life I’ve been interested in second-hand items. I likely inherited this passion from my mother, I spent a lot of time with her growing up and I fondly remember long drives around the county together looking for garage and yard sales to snoop through.

We would spend afternoons, sometimes entire days, rummaging through other people’s belongings looking for those perfect items that really stood out to us; some of which I still have on my shelves to this day. We would drive up and down the long Range and Township Roads following our mental maps that we had carefully plotted out by using the Sherwood Park News’ classified ads. We would start our mornings over coffee, circling all of the locations we thought were “goldmines” with blue pen before we departed our home. I, the navigator, and her chauffeur, put many kilometers on our family vehicle but I remember all of these trips fondly.

Today, her house is decorated beautifully with antique furniture and knick-knacks that are curated, cleaned, and carefully cared for. Lots of the items have in-depth backstories or family ties that she will happily discuss over a cup of tea or coffee with loved ones. If you are lucky, she may even offer to regale you with a story of growing up on the farmstead that used to be located just across the field from where she now resides. Plenty of the items in her collection were used on that very property a hundred years or more ago.

I continued the childhood tradition of thrifting and antiquing long into my teen years. I furnished my bedroom with second-hand couches, desks, and electronics at every opportunity.

I would purchase old stereo equipment from garage sales and thrift stores, take them home, take them apart, and reconfigure them into my own rendition of primitive “surround sound systems.” I was the only one of my friends with such a cool setup in my bedroom and I boasted about it often to anyone that would listen. I had six huge tower speakers, each standing a few feet tall, carefully positioned around my preferred sitting spot and used gaming chairs. My stereo system included wired connections to earphone jack inputs so I could plug nearly anything into it using my home-made cables and cords. I also had a HUGE used 36” Television I had been given by my grandfather when he upsized, an 8 track player, a record player, a cassette deck or two, two VCR’s, a microphone system, and eventually a DVD player when that became “all the rage.” All of it was capable of playback AND recording of one another.

I could use the beast to manually edit and cut videos that I made with my neighborhood friends. Together we would shoot skits and record memories of my friends using; you guessed it, second hand video cameras and recording equipment. We would then spend hours watching over them all, mixing and matching them in all sorts of funny ways, adding music and voice-over comments. It was a marvelous time to be alive and I laughed, often to tears.

When MP3’s became popular, I began to purchase used computer parts. Not wanting to be left behind by tech, I bought hard drives and sound cards mostly, often from friends or yard sales, and I began upgrading my homemade PC using only locally-found components and borrowed software. This too, eventually got wired into my “Frankenstein” entertainment system so that even the “city folk” in Sherwood Park could hear what was going on downstairs.

My poor, poor parents.

Now I must add, this all sounds very impressive (to me anyway). But if we were to compare this to modern-era technology there would be all kinds of coding and knowledge required, but this was back in the 90’s and 2000’s, the technology wasn’t quite what it is today. Most of the wiring that was required was about as complicated as three wires can get; only two and a ground. I also have a super-hero father who is highly academic and inspires me to learn. So he took plenty of time to teach me the basics and walk me through some of the troubles I ran into along the way so that I could avoid some (but not all) of the shocks and jolts.

Second-Hand Adolescence & Early Adulthood

As I became an adult, I tried my hand at becoming more independent, and I moved out of my childhood home. In order to save money I frequented thrift and second hand stores, as well as used the developing internet to find furniture for my home.

Over time, I became very interested in aquariums and fishkeeping. This was also another inherited interest from my father I believe, but I started collecting them at every opportunity. I joined the Aquarium Club of Edmonton and began to learn all about fish breeding. I attended and volunteered at lots of their auctions, purchasing and upgrading so I could learn more and more. Eventually, I had 13 tanks operating at once, each one with its own biome that was self-sustaining. It was a fantastic hobby that I kept in perpetual balance. I would purchase breeding pairs of fish from other breeders or auctions, then I’d sell their offspring at auction or to fish stores to fund it all.

When I got a little bit older, I decided to follow another childhood passion of mine, this time much more strange.

I had always been interested in weird things. If you know anything about me, that’s pretty obvious after only a few minutes of speaking with me. So, as a child, I was fascinated with legends of monsters like the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and Werewolves. The interest never seemed to go away as I got older. I really enjoyed scary stories, especially ghost stories, and my knowledge grew and grew as I read more and more. I also loved talking with other people about personal experiences they might have had, especially involving anything considered paranormal or supernatural.

One day, I decided that I wanted to find more people that I could hear these kinds of stories from. Using my knowledge of second hand shopping and being part of a social club, I posted an add on; the newly formed, Kijiji looking for people to meet with and explore the dark with. We can then fast-forward a few months, by then I had a gathering with well over 50 attendees each meeting each month. So we doubled them, offering two meetings a month. Still we had attendance ranging from 30-50 people bi-weekly. Eventually, some of us began to form an investigation team so that we could visit local locations and homes to see what we could see for ourselves. We only had one problem, we were broke and had no equipment.

Once again, I took to the internet! I scoured classified ads and garage sales, I put the word out to everyone I knew. Over five years we collected 4 or 5 handheld night-vision video cameras, an entire CCTV system with 36” screen, voice recorders, thermometers and other measurement devices, as well as all of the cables, totes and bins required to haul it all around and connect it. We did most of it with my second-hand 1999 Saturn SL2 that I eventually traded in for a second-hand 2009 Ford Ranger. We also hosted auctions that consisted of second-hand collectibles, books, toys, and equipment to help fundraise for ourselves as well as for charities. We would collect gently used toys and host movie night battery drives so that they toys could arrive under the trees with power, ready to be played with on Christmas Day.

Second hand purchases made a big difference in the lives of many back then.

Second-Hand Adulthood:

As life progressed, I obviously got older and my tastes became more refined. No longer an active ghost-hunter, I began to collect Odd and Unique artifacts for fun. I never truly lost my interest in the macabre so I mostly focused on collecting items that most people would consider disturbing or off-putting. My collection has continued to grow to this day, to a point where I have a few real (legally obtained, ethically sourced) human skulls, pieces and parts of various skeletons, wet specimens of various small animals, and taxidermy (including a penguin and an iguana). On top of that I also collect Military Artifacts; specifically relating to the 31st Battalion (Vimy), and “post-mortem photography.” (Do not Google that if you are at all squeamish, it’s just a fancy word for photos of dead people).

My tastes are definitely not everyone’s “cup of tea” but I also understand that everyone has something that makes them special. Thrifting, purchasing, and selling second hand items has always been a foundational part of my journey. I love learning the backstories of items and I love to collect. I love putting groups of similar items together in one place so others don’t have to search for them. I also love being able to pass on knowledge, especially about items to their next keepers.

I have never been a person that participates heavily in consumerism. I’m a bit of a modern-day hippie. Perhaps I am a bit too frugal, but I really do have a hard time purchasing items that are new when I KNOW I can get the exact same value; if not more so, from a gently used or well-loved hand-me-down. It’s why I drive a cheap “beater of a vehicle” that I bought from my neighbor across the street and I fix and maintain it myself. It’s why I buy my cell phones second-hand off of Facebook Marketplace. It’s why I’m able to extend my budget far past what others are capable of with their regular store trips and get the most bang for my buck wherever I go. Hell, even the landscaping in my yard was collected from nature, propagated from another person’s plant, or pulled from one place and brought home to mine; I don’t know any other way.

Personally, I think Thrifting is the way of the future, especially with all that’s happening in the world right now. . It may seem like a thing of the past but there are plenty of people just like me out there. We are the ones that want to do the right thing for the environment just because it’s the right thing to do, not just because of money. We are the people that know the value of something repairable and in learning new skills. People that understand one person’s “garbage” could be another person’s treasure and people that love a good story because they can see personality in everyday items.

I will keep trying to find “my” people, and I hope that you do to. I enjoy this thrifting and second-hand journey. I hope that I get the opportunity meet some of you in person as well. If you made it this far, I have a feeling we would get along just fine. 🙂

Thank you kindly for reading! I hope that it has been as enjoyable to you to read as it has been for me to write. I hope I’ll get to do it more and more. Please let me know what you think, I love to hear from people too! If you want to reach out to connect, have questions, requests for future topics of blogs, or would like to book my services please visit the rest of my website and see what I have been up to. Things change often, so please keep coming back!

I’ll see you around the neighborhood.