After eating lunch at Azteca, Elsbeth wanted to go next door to Value Village. She must have a sixth sense. They were having a half-price sale on everything in the store. What a bizarre bazaar. It was like a trip around the world.
Burien is getting very cosmopolitan. Every nationality was on hand and, like my Germany-born Elsbeth, looking for bargains.
The store was busy, busy, busy. Crammed with teeming hunters squeezing past each other in the aisles. I even found three great books at a total of a buck and a half.
Then I sat down on a convenient sofa nearby to browse through my purchases while Elsbeth spent an hour feeling the material on blouses.
I loved it. I love to talk with strangers and everybody I talked to was in a great mood. One guy came by, struggling with a dismantled baby crib, including a mattress. He got it for 20 bucks. He was so excited he wanted to get his wife out of there and go home and have a baby.
I talked to a lady from Des Moines who had seven books, under arms and in her grasp. Her name is Arlene Bale. She was raised in Renton, but it turned out we have a number of mutual friends.
She said she reads everything except mysteries so I asked if she reads the Des Moines News. She said she was too busy reading her books. I scolded her until she promised to stop at a newsstand and buy a copy just to get rid of me.
I then gave my books to Elsbeth to check out and sat down to rest again while awaiting her.
A clerk came by and I asked her if she thought she could get half price for my used and tired bones. She looked me over and offered to pay full price and take me home herself. Elsbeth said she was just joking. I wasn't sure.
It must have been the hat I was wearing. It was a gift from Ian Briscoe, a Shorewood citizen and Burien accountant.
He and his wife are motorcycle buffs and rode their Harleys all the way to Sturgis, South Dakota, two years ago to attend the annual motorcycle rally, and he brought me a black Sturgis cap.
When I wear it people now probably think I am a Hell's Angel or a Gypsy King or some other kind of hunk.
Full price! Wow.
