NEWS FROM EXPERIENCED GOODS

Spring 2024

May at Experienced Goods

by Jennie Reichman

There are so many reasons I love living in Vermont, but the month of May is definitely near the top of the list. There are bright, blooming colors everywhere: daffodils, tulips, forsythia, azalea, tiny electric green leaves emerging on the trees. The sun is actually warm, there are peepers making a ruckus in ponds, the garlic is coming up in my garden. It's actual spring as opposed to calendar spring. May is my birthday month, which adds another layer of delight. As a child growing up in Oregon, I could look forward to a bouquet of lilacs, a new dress made for me by my mother, and a tray of cupcakes or other treats she would
bake and bring to my grade school class. These days I make my own new dress and I’m guessing there will be a wonderful baked confection from my co-workers. There will be candles and a rousing version of “Happy Birthday”; and much indulging in sugar. No matter how old I get, I still love feeling special and celebrated on my birthday.

May also seems to be the month when donations accelerate at Experienced Goods. What were modest, unintimidating housewares and clothing piles in the sorting room have morphed into towering mountains that feel like they might grow personalities and make demands. People are spring cleaning in earnest, and we are the lucky recipients of the results of those processes. After so many years of working at the shop, you would think there would be no donation so unusual that it would surprise me, but last month we were given something truly unique: a set of high school lockers. Where they came from and how they ended up with us is mostly unknown, but they inspired some great memories and stories from staff and customers, everything from the panic of forgetting one’s locker combination, slamming a finger in the door, or being physically stuffed into one’s locker by bullies. I remember personalizing my locker with artwork, a mirror (for quick makeup repairs) and occasionally losing homework assignments in the mess that piled up on the bottom. The same donors also gave us a set of post office mailboxes, complete with keys. What fun that could be, especially for a big family that likes to leave each other notes.

I also want to take a moment to acknowledge and offer condolences to our dear manager Karen and her sister Joan (who is our fearless housewares maven), whose father passed away in early April. Karen comes from a large, close-knit family that has lived in the Turners Falls, MA, area for generations, and some of us from the shop attended the wake and memorial service there for Robert Zamojski. I have not been to many wakes, but his was definitely the most joyful, noisy, laughter-filled such event I’ve ever attended. Of course there were tears, and of course the reality of losing a beloved father, husband and friend is harsh and layered with grief, but the abundance of love and support in that room was a wonder. There were reunions of old friends, stories of youthful escapades, even a surprise wedding announcement. I hope Robert’s spirit was sitting in the middle of it all, smiling, absorbing the love and resilient relationships he nurtured over a long, good life. And here’s hoping that all who read this have bonds as strong and enduring as the Zamojski family, whether blood relations or family of choice, and that we remember to appreciate those ties every day.

NEWS FROM EXPERIENCED GOODS

April 2024 at Experienced Goods

by Jennie Reichman

I recently heard an interview on NPR with David Frum, a senior editor and writer at The Atlantic.  He had written a piece for the magazine called “Miranda’s Last Gift,” about the sudden death of his 32-year-old daughter and the grief he and his family are processing. As he said in the interview, Miranda left them with sadness and memories, but also with her dog, Ringo, a temperamental, recalcitrant King Charles spaniel. Deeply devoted to Miranda, the dog wanted little to do with David and his wife immediately after Miranda’s death, but over time and with patience (and after a remarkable act of acceptance on the dog’s part at Miranda’s funeral), Ringo came to see David and his wife not as replacements for Miranda, but as his assistants, specifically Assistant One and Assistant Two. David’s insight into this process revealed that he was better able to write about the loss of Miranda by making Ringo the central character in the story rather than Miranda. Through relating the development of their relationship with Ringo, David was able to touch on the devastation he and his wife feel and describe their process of coming to terms with it. By talking about a smaller thing, David was able to describe and honor the larger thing.  

Several of us who work at Experienced Goods have gone through or are going through the loss of one or both parents or another loved one. Each of us processes these losses differently, but it’s the nature of our relationships with each other that we are honest about our emotions, and feel safe enough with each other to talk about them. We listen and we empathize, we give hugs and make space. We often talk about smaller things while working across from each other or side by side, and those small things ease the burden of the larger grief we carry around that threatens to overwhelm us. This comfortable intimacy is one of the many reasons I have worked at the shop for so long and can’t imagine working anywhere else.  

April is such a funny month in Vermont. It could snow (and often does) or it could be warm enough to buy a new bathing suit (we have them!). Nobody wants to buy sweaters or blankets or snow shovels anymore. Maple sugaring is in full force, the trees are still bare, and everyone is a little cranky and impatient for “real spring.” I think that’s why whatever powers do the deciding made April National Poetry month. A poem is such a concentrated nugget of observation, it can jolt you out of whatever ennui you are dragging around and give you a fresh perspective. Every April for the past several years, Write Action, a local support organization for writers, solicits poems from area poets and asks downtown Brattleboro businesses to post them in their shop windows. Brilliant! You can walk down Main Street, Elliot Street or Flat Street, stop for 2 minutes to read a poem and transform your day. Experienced Goods is one of these participating businesses, so the next time you are bustling through our doors, excited to shop and browse, take a gander at the two poems in our front windows. I admit that one of them is mine; I’m honored to be included in this wonderful annual event.  

I also want to extend another huge thank you to our delightful donors and shoppers. This is the time of year when things slow down a bit at Experienced Goods, and your patronage keeps us afloat and allows us to support Brattleboro Area Hospice. So get a jump on spring cleaning and bring us those treasures you are ready to pass on to others! Shoppers, you know what to do. See you soon!