Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Crazy Grandma and her favourite suit

I was out driving tonight and went past the MCC. This stands for "Mennonite Clothes Cupboard" or something like that. I didn't even know there was one in town here. The only time I had ever heard of one previous was in NB with Grandma. MCC is like Good Will or Value Village but small scale. It's cute. Or at least, the one in NB is. MCC is Grandma's favourite place to shop. She loves it there. It's almost as good as garage sales for her. Grandma loves to save money and get a bargain. She is the cheapest woman I have ever met, but has no problem doling out hundreds to her grandkids or anyone else in need.

Grandma makes rugs out of old polyester dresses. She cuts pieces into 4 inch squares, folds them and then sews them to a base. I think she used every dress my Mom ever had in the sixties and then moved on from there. She now scours second hand shops for old pieces of material that she can use. Once at the MCC, she found this pink houndstooth material that she liked. It was all rolled up and was marked for 50 cents. So, she bought it and took it home. Once she got there, she unfurled the roll and found it was a suit jacket and a skirt. She tried it on and it fit. (I swear this was magic - just like the Travelling Pants) Now she wears it all the time. And will tell anyone who asks (or can't run away) exactly how much she paid for it.

8 comments:

  1. All right - grandma needs a blog like yesterday.

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  2. This is what I'm saying. I only share her story because she can't.

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  3. The funny thing is that Mennonites keep telling me it stands for Mennonite Central Committee. I think. But we add all kinds of other CCs to the M.

    The image of your grandma with a blog is hilarious. Because you'd first have to explain the concept of a "blog" to her. And why you'd want Internet People reading all your thoughts.

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  4. There's nothing like a bargain shopping Grandma to make you feel bad about your spending habits. She once went through her closet and told me the cost of everything in it. Her most expensive item was purchased for her 40th? 45th? wedding anniversary for $35. The total cost of the entire contents of her closet? Less than the outfit I was wearing at the time.

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  5. oh man. i'm sure i could feed entire third world countries on the cost of my shoe collection alone.

    an entire outfit for 50 cents? i don't think i have anything that i've bought for that cheap. but i'm a materialistic whore, so it's really not that surprising.

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  6. There are MCC thrift stores in Lanigan, Saskatoon, Regina, North Battleford, Herbert, Swift Current, Rosthern, Hague, and Warman - and that's just in SK. I looked it up. I had a bunch of friends who liked to shop there (and any other thrift store, really) in high school. I think one guy found a nice powder blue suit there.

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  7. Oh, and the one in NB is called the Mennonite Community Closet, which could possibly where you got mixed up.

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  8. So, the North Battleford one is the Mennonite Central Committee's Mennonite Community Closet? Great.

    Did you know that 10,000 Villages is also an MCC store?

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Crap monkies say "what?"