Thrift store FTW! After my trusty Aladdin oil lamp developed a messy, smelly leak - taking out a sweatshirt in the process - i tried to replace the lamp reservoir at Nichols' Hardware, the beloved local institution where i bought it many years ago... alas, Nichols' had nothing left for Aladdin lamps, save one lonely mantle for a kerosene lamp. I picked up a middling bottle of lamp oil, and left in dismay.Next, i trotted around the corner to the thrift shop to seek a replacement for the now-soaked-with-lamp-oil sweatshirt, and found there a rather nice complete oil lamp, a good haul of vintage sewing patterns and sewing-related Farm Bureau publications (1940s-1960s), an early 1950s edition of the Dan River textile dictionary (i have a 1990s one, issued to me when i trained at G Street - it's decent on general textile terms and fabric names, weaves, and finishes - but it's really great for dating all those obscure fabric-related brand names, so this one will go in the vintage reference library), a sheet of chicken stickers (because chicken stickers), a 1940s square-ish Atlas quart jar, and, yes, the sweatshirt i'd gone looking for in the first place (unworn, still with inspection stickers on it). After cashing in my recently completed discount punchcard for the shop, the entire haul ran me $16 and change, which i ought to be able to cover again once i sell a few of the patterns.
