Junkin'

I went through Thrall again yesterday and I thought of you when I passed the old antique store. Years ago, you found a place to junk in Taylor. You told me about going “junkin” at a store in Taylor and I thought for sure you meant you were vintage shopping at an antique store. You took me to Don’s Treasures and boy was there a lot of junk. One day I almost fell through the floor looking for an old door he had stacked in the back room. He had more junk in those 3 store fronts than anyone could ever imagine. Some of the aisles were cluttered with so much stuff you could not even make it to the end. There were boxes and merchandise stacked from the floor all the way to the ceiling. Don had glass display cases filled with what he thought was valuable. Small silver trinkets and coins. In the end, I was surprised that he made enough money to pay the rent.

You loved going there. Don had such a crush on you too. He was about 70 years old, and he would flirt with you. You ate it up. You never left his shop empty handed either, whether it was a silver tray you later painted for your sister or an old wooden tomato basket, you always found something to support Don. One day you came home sad and told me that Don was getting divorced, and his wife was leaving him. He was selling his store in Taylor and moving to Thrall. I remember you were so excited to show me his new shop he set up in Thrall. We couldn’t find the shop, but you were sure it was in this certain spot. The shop we were looking at was completely empty and it was clearly not a place to junk or antique. We later learned that Don had a heart attack and died. I saw a tear in your eye when you heard the news. He was more than a Junker to you, he was a friend. We found his house in downtown Taylor and saw they were having a yard sale. We were both sad thinking that Don would no longer greet us with a smile when we walked into his shop. Junking was never the same after that.