THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607170044
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WENDY GROSSMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 110 lines
CUT-OFF LEVIS for 50 cents. Estee Lauder nail polish for a buck. Barry Manilow's greatest hits for a song.
Golf clubs, Baggies of hair curlers, curly brown wigs, discarded bar stools, staplers, bundt pans. . .
If you dig deep enough or long enough, they can all be found among the piles of junk and treasure in more than 50 thrift stores in Hampton Roads.
It's Monday afternoon, and they're marking down the goods at the Disabled American Veterans Tidewater Thrift Store on Virginia Beach Boulevard. The place is packed with regulars.
Fifteen-year-old Joyce Wells is eight months pregnant, and she's gotta find some baby clothes. Quick.
Around her, little girls slam into strangers as they race around the corners clutching shirts to their chest. Families strip nearly naked in the aisles trying on clothes. Other people flip through tapes and videos, or stare at the row of TVs against the back wall.
Nobody really pays much attention to anyone else. That's why Tomas Rodriguez, a 53-year-old minister in Puerto Rico, likes it. He stands in the men's section buttoning brown slacks around his neck like Superman's cape. It's how he measures them. ``If they fit my neck, they fit me.'' No way he could do that unnoticed at Brooks Brothers.
Beth Lemaster, 38, sits digging through six boxes of 25-cent toys that restaurants give away with kids' meals. Her collection has more than 1,000 figurines. Every day she stops off at a different thrift store.
Just like 72-year-old John Lee, who climbs into his black Dodge van to hit three stores each morning. He has to find stuffed animals for the kids his girlfriend baby-sits.
But Lemaster's toys are for herself. Once a week she drives 15 miles from Chesapeake to come here. Other thrift stores make grab bags of toys, but here she can examine the individual figures. Lemaster excavates a dinosaur from Pizza Hut's 1988 ``The Land Before Time'' collection. She's been looking for that big fella for six months. That set's now complete.
Thrift-store shopping isn't always bargain bonanza. Russ Bruns knows this. He picks a drill marked $34 off the shelf. A week ago he paid $25 for the same tool at the mall. ``Once a week I just come to look around and laugh at the prices,'' he says.
Still, mixed in with the frayed nylon panties and acid-washed jeans, you can find real steals.
``A lot of times you can buy the expensive brands and the tags haven't even been taken off,'' says Bobbie Pearson. She just doesn't understand those people. Why didn't they return them to the store? ``But I guess a lot of people like that clothe a lot of people like me.''
And people like Carrol McKee. This is the third thrift store she's hit today. She comes about every day since she's out of work. Wearing a glittery rhinestone necklace she bought two hours ago for $3.95, she fingers a blue taffeta ball gown. She can't afford it. And where would she wear it? She lets go of the stiff fanned sleeves and takes her 9-year-old daughter to the bathroom.
Moving down the next aisle is Loree Burket, 36, in a ribbed Banana Republic T-shirt she bought for $6 and khaki Liz Claiborne shorts she got for $8 at a thrift store. Almost all of her clothes are designer, and almost all of them have been bought at a thrift store. She's taught her 12-year-old daughter how to comb through the racks for quality items.
``There's an art to this,'' she says. ``I don't buy any junk.''
Thrift stores are her hobby.
``It's very relaxing to me,'' Burket says. ``Some people go to the movies, some people go to lunch - I hit thrift stores.''
Some things found in the thrift store are even better than snagging a Calvin Klein shirt for $1. Many friendships are made while shopping. Doris Atkinson, 70, met a lady from North Carolina in line one day. They call each other every couple of weeks.
It's a friendly atmosphere - unlike the big sales at the mall where competition for merchandise may be fierce. Here, if someone finds something good that doesn't fit, they happily hand it over.
``Hey, Miss America over there - did you see this,'' Jane Jones, 42, yells, waving a gingham blouse at Tanya Postell, 23.
They met about 15 minutes ago.
Since then Jones has piled Postell's cart with dozens of size 3 dresses, a leopard-print blazer and a matching patent leather tote bag, skirts and silky tops.
``I'll send you my bill later,'' Jones says with a grin.
A few minutes later, Jones is pounding on the door to the dressing room. She drags out her friend Mary Patterson, whom she came with, and tries to convince her that the shocking-pink dress splashed with purples and teals doesn't make her look like trash.
Patterson doesn't believe her and slips back into the dressing room to get away from Jones.
Escape is a reason many people come to the thrift stores.
``It's therapy for me - I get away from my husband,'' says Nellie, 73, refusing to give her last name because then her husband might figure out where it is she runs off to each day.
Courtney Kennedy, 17, finds clothes, but she doesn't take them off the rack until her husband has seen them. She frowns as she picks over the clothes. A former beauty pageant queen, she used to donate clothes here, and never dreamed she'd have to shop here.
``I packed up stuff and gave it to this place - now six months later I'm here shopping for the same stuff,'' Kennedy mutters, pulling a white sweat shirt off the rack. She bought the same one last October at the Limited for $40. This one's marked $6.98.
She puts it back on the rack and moves down the aisle, looking for one she doesn't already have. ILLUSTRATION: VICKI CRONIS color photos/The Virginian-Pilot
Joyce Wells shops for pants at the Disabled American Veterans
Tidewater Thrift Store in Norfolk. Waiting patiently is Ny'aih
Burrell, 1, the child of a friend.
Ana O'Neill of Virginia Beach zips up a dress at the DAV thrift
store. Many patrons like her are hunting for bargains, but thrift
stores are also popular with collectors. by CNB