Lucky Day 14 - Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th. IT'S A SIGN!!! of something...

Well, anyway, since today was in fact Friday the 13th, i decided to see if it would bring me luck. I have run out of many of the things that I usually do on my 4 day trips to Clearwater. There has always been something that I have wanted to do, an now I have a perfect reason. I went in search of my sunglasses.

While I think it is really funny all the jokes I have been sent regarding my missing sunglasses, I decided that before my new ones come from eBay, I owed it to myself to find my old ones. So, I went to the pawn stores. Now, if you have never been to Clearwater mainland, it is nothing like Clearwater Beach. There are 2 pawn shops on every block. I have always wanted to stop and shop, but never have the guts. Every pawn shop is lined with guns. I always thought it was odd to have working firearms so close to the liqueur stores, but hey, its Florida. Most residents are in wheel chairs. Another quick note, do you know that they have drive through liqueur stores here. Seems kind of odd to go through the drive through to pick up a 40, but hey, sounds good to me.

So anyway, I go into the first pawn shop not really knowing what to expect. But, if you have these crazy ideas of what it would be like and who would be in these shops, you are right. No matter what came to mind, you are right. I will give you a quick overview of some of the things I saw.

First of all, being the naive person I am, I walk into the first shop and ask where their sunglasses they have. Now, I know that they probably don't really have my glasses, but i wanted to play the role all the way in order to fully entertain myself. The guy, lacking educated English and a few teeth to boot, asks me what kind of glasses I am looking for. Again, I naively tell him my story and leave out a few details as to have something to contribute providing this conversation continues. He tells me that he can get them in a few hours. Seeing his store and obviously knowing that he is going to call someone to go steal them, I decline and leave. The last thing that I want on this vacation is a ride in a cop car.

So I walk into the second pawn shop, exact same story. He wants to know exactly what kind and model I had. Like he is going to call around to the other pawn shops and give them a model number and brand. Yeah, in the aisle between small revolvers with no serial numbers and the 12 inch gold chains by the hundreds, that is where last years Revo aviator sunglasses are stocked.

So I finally walk 100 feet and walk into the 3rd pawn shop. I leave the sunglass issue behind me and decide to just experience the pawn shop for what it is. So, in this shop, there is the same guy behind the desk. Uneducated English, missing a few teeth or they are in the dark shadows or already dark teeth, with a ballcap on yet too dirty to tell the team, and a shirt that was never washed except in sweat, grease, and a little mustard. Amazing, I think the three pawn shop owners were triplets. In fact, I think that they get discounts on their clothing when they buy them in 3's.

Anyway, this shop turns out to be fun. There is a guy at the front desk with the owner discussing some merchandise. The guy doing the selling is of another ethnicity. But to avoid discrimination, and any unnecessary issues with this posting, that ethnicity shall remain in my head. Though, he is exactly who i thought I would see here. He has 10 children's DVDs, a couple of gold chains, a ring, and finally an electric turkey carving knife. Now, this guy has not been married, may very well have kids though i am pretty sure not by a sober woman, and is not old enough to have ever used an electric carving knife. I laugh as all three of us know he has some "hot" merchandise. I always wanted to use that word in the right context. I pretend to be naive to what is going on though i knew if he asked to see any of the firearms I was out the door.

While those 2 haggle over the prices of each item, including each DVD at a different price, I take a look around. Though, I can't help but wonder how the owner knows that Sponge Bob Squarepants is going to fetch $5 while Bob the Builder is only going to fetch $3. He must be up on the children's DVD commodities market. Secondly, i wonder, what is so funny about the name Bob that all of these cartoons use the name. i happen to think it is a completely respectful and adult name that should not be mocked in the course of animations.

Anyway, so i look around. First of all, if you ever bought something from a infomercial, I have figured out where it goes after you use it once and give it away really thinking that they person you gave it to not only wants it, but doesn't know you used it once and didn't really want it. Everything from the 3 chia pets to the flowbe was on these shelves. old guitars, cigarette ash trays, and the ubiquitous gold chains. I thought we made a lot of bottles of vo5 shampoo, there are hundreds of the same gold chains everywhere I went today.

Well, I have to be honest. I was looking for one additional thing. Years ago, not that many, when i was young, my dad bought this strange mechanical Monkey thing. It would clap these symbols, and talk. Well, it wouldn't really talk, most like make these strange screeching noises. I thought it was cool when i was younger. I just remember him really liking this thing and how no one else did. It looked a little possessed and scared most children. I have kept it all these years. The only problem was that the battery cover was lost over the years. Now, no one has ever heard of this thing, ever seen one, and I can't even buy extra parts on ebay. I never thought I would search for something on eBay and not find it, but it is the case. So, I am looking for a new Petey the Monkey. I am sure those of you who have laboriously read this far, expect me to say that I found it in this pawn shop or something hair raisingly cool like that. No, I just thought if I was to ever stumble upon something like that, it would have to be in a pawn shop in clearwater Florida.

Well, there were a few other really strange people/stories from my day, but it is late and I am going to go to bed.

Until Tomorrow...