What's Said at the Turnover Stays at the Turnover

So in my years at the Turnover I’ve met hundreds of people. Some are customers who return year after year, but most are fellow volunteers. And I’ll tell you this. You just don’t know your neighbors until you’ve matched socks and stacked plates with them.

 No, really, that’s not all we do, but while undertaking the routine tasks such as folding t-shirts, putting coats on hangers, or sorting adult books from kid fiction, there is time to talk. And doing so means that I know some of my fellow volunteers better than I would otherwise.   Because we don’t always need to think too hard about the tasks, we speak thoughtfully of the big issues, whether kids, aging parents, health, and faith. We advise and counsel. And, most of all, we laugh.

“Is this the craziest cookie jar you’ve ever seen?” asks one volunteer, displaying a grinning ceramic fox’s face. “It’s straight out of Red Riding Hood!”  Another woman sashays along the hallway as if it’s a runway modeling a bright blue faux fur stole. “Not for my lifestyle,” laughs another, a dedicated soccer parent. We ooh and ahh over that year’s bridal gown – there’s always at least one and takes pride of place on the mannequin in the Boutique Room – and talk about what we wore, would wear, could wear if the occasion arose for each of us.

I enjoy this aspect of the sale because I work closely with people I don’t know well, and we’re often separated by years and decades in age, but I know important things about them. And when I see them during the rest of the year, I am reminded of what we’ve shared or, in a sense, turned over to one another.