No ToTo this definitely wasn't Kansas!

 Saturday December 17, 2022

I almost forgot, I always say my plan in Florida is to drive south until I get to 80 degrees and sunny. Well it was 80 degrees and sunny when we got to Easterlin yesterday!

We only one task to be done today, but it turned into a day long affair. We could not get into the AirBnB until 4pm to deliver a grocery order that RaeAnne had placed with Target. We decided to visit some of the thrift stores in the surrounding area; it turned out to be quite a few. 

Always a treasure hunt!

The first one was a pet benefit store, it was a little cluttered, but not too shabby. I bought a couple DVD’s for a buck a piece and two audio books on CD, I think she charged me a buck for them also.

The second was theoretically a church benefit shop; I doubt it had any organized church affiliation. It was mostly a warehouse filled with used furniture; the sign in the window promised 3 minute approval for financing up to $6000. We didn’t touch anything and kept a distance that we figured a bed bug couldn’t jump. It was that kind of place.

Yes, its that kind of store

I admit I was suspicious of the third store; its name is “Out of the Closet”. When we turned onto Wilton drive my suspicions were confirmed, all the couples out on this fine Saturday afternoon were males. As we rounded the curve and entered downtown Wilton Manor, the rainbow flags were everywhere, even the liquor store had a giant “Be Proud” painted on a rainbow background covering the entire front of the building. We found a metered parking spot and as I fumbled with the meter Millie pointed out that all the meter poles were painted in rainbow colors. You know, it’s hard to concentrate on electronic parking meter instructions when they are placed so low you have to bend over to read them, if you know what I mean. 

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

As we walked to the store, if there was any doubt about the store or its customer base it disappeared when I saw the “Free Aid’s testing sign. We persevered, there were racks of designer fashions for Millie to browse through and I headed for my usual, the DVD movie section. With my senses on heightened alert, the first thing I noticed was the 2 foot high collection of Will and Grace DVD’s. I also had the feeling, probably paranoid feeling that men kept making eye contact with me. I don’t know why, if they had their gay-dar on, I would clearly be registering in the straight as an arrow side of the meter! I think I bought two DVD’s, I don’t even remember what the titles were, I must have been rattled by the experience.

Who you looking at?

Our next thrift store was a mixed bag, still in rainbow territory, but the customers seemed ok. I did notice that like the pervious stores they had a lot of DVD’s. Everyone is selling them for one dollar now days, we use them in the RV so it’s buying season for us.

The last thrift store of the day was a branch of Out of the Closet, I was prepared this time and didn’t quite panic while in the lions den, so to speak. Like the other stores they had a huge selection of DVD movies. In this second gay run store it dawned on me that they had an awful lot of the DVD’s on the bottom shelves. It was like the parking meters, you have to bend over to see the movies, and yes the paranoia started creeping back in. Were those guys looking over the clothes rack checking me out? I bought one DVD; I made Millie stand behind me in the checkout line. 

Disclaimer: I am in no way offering any opinions on the Gay people, but they are a different breed, that’s for sure. They have a right to live their life and my story is just a bit of humor and was in no way meant to be derogatory. If I have offended anyone, pull up the big boy pants and get over it!

PS: Millie reminded me of this story while we were in rainbow land. It seems there are homeless or undesirable people in every neighborhood. While we were working the parking meter we couldn’t help but notice the downtrodden couple sitting on a nearby bench. They stood out in this neighborhood not only because of their unkept rag tag appearance, but they were a male-female couple. At least we think it was a female, it’s hard to tell sometimes.

Got any weed?

Anyhow, about the time we registered some time on the parking meter the female looking person saw an approaching young person and she bellowed for all the world to hear, “Do you have any weed?” He replied that he did and she could hardly contain herself. We were on the back side of the bench so couldn’t see if any money was exchanged, but in a few seconds she was lighting up what appeared to me to be a crack pipe. All this took place across the street from the city Hall.

It was a sometimes bizarre and sometimes shocking day today for these old simple country folks!

Before we could venture into some other never never land it was time for us to pick up the Target order and deliver it to the AirBnB. The streets got straighter, literally and figuratively as we left Wilton Manor and drove to Target. Soon we were back in the city with all its noise and traffic and panhandlers and who knows what else. Somehow this was strangely normal to us, our town Myrtle Beach is becoming a city with all undesirable qualities common to them.

The grocery order delivered safely to the AirBnB we stopped at an Aldi’s grocery store to get some provisions for ourselves before returning to the campground.

Since dinner I’ve been tapping away at this blog entry.