Sweet Charity...

I was reading about charity shops over on Power,Corruption and Lies , and I agree with Mighty Meadow- great places.
I make no secret of the fact that other than my shoes, socks and underpants, about 80% of my clothes come from charity shops, and over the years the majority of my books have come from the same source. They are also a good barometer for the economic well being of a town, the poorer the area the more charity shops, so coming from South Wales there have always been plenty to choose from. Going right back to the punk days, what better place to find an overcoat or a jacket that nobody else would be wearing? I was hooked from about the age of 16.
Mighty Meadow is also spot on about the potential to unearth great sounds for next to nothing- although Oxfam for one have wised up to this and weed out the rarities to sell either online or in specialist shops, but as for the other charities, there are still treasures to be unearthed for loose change, and sometimes you will chance across sizeable collections of decent CDs- I can’t help thinking how did this come to be here? What about the Happy Mondays CD? Did somebody die young or did it belong to one of those unfortunates who grow out of things like music? Did someone really decide that this New Order LP was rubbish? Or honestly think that they just didn’t have the space for this KLF record?
But now I find myself about to embark on a ruinous path- but one from which you, my readers, might well benefit. I've started looking at the vinyls. It's madness- we're talking LP records.
Just six months ago I was giving away vinyls as part of a process of downsizing. In fact the depletion of my collection has been going on for 15 years or so, so that whenever I look at my records I think more about what’s not there- the ones that I sacrificed over the years for beer money or to pay for a football trip.
So much for the downsizing- I'm sure that in six months time the office of Burning Aquarium (aka my living room) will be stacked to the ceiling with scratchy records in tatty covers.
Fuck it, it’s only a couple of quid a throw innit? I’m not going to miss it…
There's a story, ostensibly about charity shops (written by my namesake) here.