What is a monkeybox?

When I was a little girl, we had a pet monkey named Amanda. My Dad worked in the produce business, so each night he brought home that days culls in a big box - spotty cucumbers, pithy apples, limp celery, moldy oranges and the like. We called it a monkeybox. It was really just trash, but my Mom would take each piece of fruit and trim it, pare it and cut it up to make a beautiful fruit platter for Amanda. Even though it was deemed trash by one, it still had life left in it and was good for the purpose we needed it. That's how I live my life - thrifting, yard saling, looking for another's trash to be my treasure.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

She's Just So Happy

Today was my day to work at the Flea Market.  Before today, we only had window units and fans cooling this store, but as summer is getting fierce - the A/C guys came and installed Central Air.  Unfortunately, they didn't gt it installed until after I had been there all day and after they had to turn off the breakers and leave me with no fans or window units running.  It ended up being about 95 INSIDE the store before I finally got permission to go home.  Next week should be a whole new ballgame with nice COOL air blowing around.

Before it got beastly hot in the store and before my mood got completely shot to heck, a sweet young couple came in to look around.  I was in the process of putting items in the store on our Facebook Page and I had just posted a photo of my hutch with a reduced price of $125.00 on it.
The couple walked around the store and when the saw my hutch, they just stopped in their tracks.  She said, "Oh, honey.  It's just what I've been wanting!"  The looked at the tag that I had just marked down to $125.00 and they started talking.  They were trying to budget in gas for a trip to the Children's Hospital.  They were looking at their calendar seeing when his Disability check would come.  Meanwhile, she kept caressing the hutch with such love.  It really got to me.  I know it's just a piece of furniture, but I have had love for pieces of furniture too.  I understood.  They asked if we had layaway, which we do not.  They kept adding up figures and talking about what money they needed and when they needed it.  She sighed and said, "I just wish we could, it's exactly what I want."  He said, "I know, baby." Then he said, "I'm going to figure it out."  That's when I decided to step in and make it happen.  I told them they could have it for $100.00 cash right then if they could swing it.  At first they asked me to hold it until the weekend, but then the husband said, "No, she wants it now.  I'll go to the ATM and get the money," and off he went.  

He came back about an hour later with five crisp twenties, a man to help load it and a truck.  He handed me those twenties and said, "She's just so happy."  When I went to ring it up, I forgot about tax, so I lowered my price to $90.00 to cover the tax.  So, in the end, I sold the $150.00 hutch for $90.00.  I lost $60.00.  But, the idea of the wife being happy and how proud her husband was for being able to get it for her.  Well, that's worth a lot more than $60.00.  

12 comments:

  1. That's the kinda stuff that will bring you good karma when you're looking for new inventory :)

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  2. And that my friend is why I LUV YOU. You know it all comes back around.

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  3. Your Mama raised you right, Miss Shara! What an absolutely wonderful thing to do.

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  4. THAT gave me chills!
    (and a BIG SMILE!)
    You are one special lady Miss Shara - not bad for an 'overheated grump' ! ;-)

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  5. I do that occasionally when I'm at the flea market and some little old lady pulls up to my booth in a wheelchair or a Hispanic couple unable to speak much English comes up and moons over something on my table. They ask the price, I tell them, they go "ohhhh" and then I melt (which is really easy to do these days when I'm outside in 100 degree heat) and give them a giant discount off a $5 item. So I totally know how you felt doing it, Shara. Small acts of kindness make us better people.

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  6. And now I'm "just so happy." Awesome!

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  7. That was so nice of you. You don't run into to people who truly appreciate when you do something nice for them but when they do it's awesome.

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  8. That my friend is why you are such a special person. I agree that the happiness you brought them was worth a loss on the item! Big Hugs to you! Linda

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  9. That was a very nice thing for you to do. I'm sure that your hutch has found a happy home where it will be loved and appreciated.

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  10. You're a good person, Shara.

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  11. Lovely story--thanks for sharing because it's good to hear the happy stuff, too (even if you didn't end up making a lot of money).

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  12. That is a nice story! Sometimes reseller/bloggers seem greedy, so your sweet gesture is really refreshing!

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