Hinky Dink

My mom loved shopping at second-hand stores, which she called "hinky dinks". Growing up, half my clothes, or more, came from second hand stores. She would drag me from the Goodwill store to the Salvation Army store and all the other stores in between, drop me in the toy or book area and go through the racks looking for bargains. I hated it. As a kid I had bad allergies and the dust in those stores irritated my nose and eyes.

My opinion of hinky dinks changed when I visited a Salvation Army store in Hollywood, Florida. It was amazing. It specialized in furniture and housewares. It was full of beautiful Art Deco statues, Louis XVI chairs, a zebra hide chaise longue, crystal chandeliers, a white baby grand piano, Tiffany lamps, Waterford crystal decanters, ivory table lighters, etc. It was the coolest hinky dink ever. But it is, to the best of my knowledge, the only hinky dink like that.

Nevertheless, I still go to hinky dinks to buy stem ware. Wine glasses and cocktail glasses break easily and I don't like spending money on them. Recently, I have discovered that when one has two young boys, plates break easily, too. So, after the Divine Liturgy on Sunday we went to the local hinky dink to buy plates. And boy-o-boy! did I find plates. I got a four-piece set of Japanese dessert plates (standard blue and white Tobe-Yaki pattern), a four piece set of Wedgwood salad plates (red and white pastoral pattern), and a crystal caviar server for $15. The store wasn't as cool as the store in Hollywood, Florida, but I got some great deals. I shall return there often.