Reprint from 2003

Dress her up...

I dropped a bunch of stuff off at Goodwill last night. I'm trying to get the basement organized because I'd like to gain control over a larger portion of the house. The ongoing battle of Me vs. The House is currently a little one-sided. And now, with the kitchen project stalled until the electrician arrives, the basement seems the next logical space to conquer.

At any rate, since I was dropping stuff off at Goodwill, I decided to stop inside and check for Halloween costume ideas. You see, every year Goodwill stores set out racks of new and used costumes. These racks also contain a selection of regular clothing that someone has deemed more appropriate for costume fare than for everyday wear in polite company. A little scary when you consider some of the stuff left on the normal racks!

Anyway, this is the stuff I love! One year I found a brown, velour "track suit" that I used to make a bat costume. Another year I got a blue graduation gown that was the base of a wizard costume I made. My past searches even produced a purple, velour dress that was perfect for the purple witch hat, cape and tights I had. Need a costume? -- Think velour!

The funny thing is, I'm always a little worried that I'll find some of the stuff I donated on the costume rack. I mean, the velour track suit was in excellent condition, and I doubt the original owner donated it thinking that someone would take it home, duct tape brown satin wings to the arms, and use as a Halloween costume. She probably thought someone would buy it and... I don't know, wear it to a job interview or something. Okay, maybe not. But you know what I mean. For instance, I can certainly imagine that a woman might be horrified to find all of the dresses she'd chosen for her bridesmaids on the costume rack. Everyone knows you can wear those somewhere else!

Yeah, right.

Personally, I only donate things that I think someone might reasonably, and somewhat fashionably, be able to wear and enjoy. With that in mind, I would feel sort of bad if some of my stuff was exiled to the costume rack. I know it would just be stuff that I was getting rid of anyway, but still.

It's kind of like having your garbage left at the curb on pick-up day. Oh the rejection! I always wonder what I did wrong. My TV dinner boxes weren't flat enough, or maybe they should have been folded into origami swans? Did the absence of milk jugs in my trash brand me as non-supporter of the dairy industry, and thus a traitor to the state? What? Show me the error of my ways!

Oh well, with any luck I won't see any of my old clothes during my secondhand costume search. Meanwhile, I'm kind of hoping that velour was the "fabric-of-choice" for bridesmaid dresses last year!
:-)