Adventres at the Salvation Army
If you ever need to feel old or irrelevant there’s perhaps no better place to hang out than your local thrift store where items that seemed so marvelous and useful in your youth are unceremoniously stashed between faded Christian books and stained tweed blouses.
The other day I was at the Salvation Army store at West Boulevard and 41st in Kerrisdale where I happened upon a few objects that show how distant and irrelevant my own youth has become.
The cd rack which was full of albums and singles that I still listen to, I can’t imagine the sad soul who would get rid of Jewel’s “Pieces of You” album or Sugar Ray’s flawless “Every Morning” cd single but it was good to re-add them to my collection at only $1.99 a pop.
I did, however, spot a few items that really are irrelevant and silly.
Observe this very bulky Oritron DVD player manufactured at a time when most DVD functions were accessible through buttons on the player itself. If you lost your remote, like I do all the time, you could still play your movie. Not bad.
It also has another special feature that you don’t see on many players anymore – Y2K Compliance. It still has an official-looking silver sticker which reads “Year 2000 Y2K Compliant” and assures potential customers that it is “certified” by an unspecified “international testing laboratory”.
Still, some people in the ‘90s were laggards when it came to new technology. I was using a Beta until sometimes in the mid ‘90s and didn’t get a DVD player until 2003 and I imagine there are still people out there who only have a VCR so they might appreciate the value of this Safety 1st VCR Lock. For $1.99 you could save hands, sandwiches and other body parts from the unforgiving wrath of a VCR motor.
















