Olive Oyl

A while ago I posted a blog about memories and how they build upon each other.
I just returned from a camping trip to a place I have been to several times. This time I made the trip with new friends. The memories of trips gone by were running through my head as I was making new memories.
One of the things I always do there is go antiquing at the local towns that are nearby. Same stores every time. It's a ritual.
This trip was no different. I grabbed one of my friends and off we went.
Some years ago, I purchased a "Wimpy" doll in one of the antique stores. He has been with me every since. I was telling my friend this and mentioned I have always been on the look out for the Popeye doll to go with Wimpy. My friend says "that would be cool to find Olive Oyl." Yeah, it would I reply.
We are walking around in the very store I found Wimpy. Looking, Looking, Looking. Trying on crazy glasses, reminising when we see something we remember from our childhood. Laughing at everything. Then my friend says "oh my gawd!" I look at what he is referring to and there she is........Olive Oyl! Right there on the shelf. We are a little freaked about this. I grab her and immedietely hug her. We are speechless. I buy her immedietely. The old lady wraps her in tissue paper which I find very fitting. I am so happy......and just slightly disturbed.
We wander through stores and every stop we take, something quite random happens. We are having a blast but there is something very twighlight zone going on.
We find full body skeletons made from Pink Milk jugs in the coffee store bathroom and we see a picture of Jesus being kissed by a man on the cheek. My friend says out loud.."hmm, didn't know Jesus was gay" Upon asking the store owner who the guy kissing Jesus is, he looks me dead on and says "don't you know your bible?" This is a topic he does not want me to start on. We find out it is Judas kissing Jesus and this print is one you will "only find here". One of a kind. No shit. Never seen it before in my life.
The outing ends in a store called "Classy Touch" which was just screaming to us...COME IN, COME IN.
The most bizzarre items. Beyond tacky,beyond garish. Angels so ugly we want to run, but we are mesmerized by their fiber optic moving wings! Dolls so out of proportion we are just stunned and by now a little scared. We are starting to feel weird. The final item we pick up is an octopus wine bottle holder, with a face that only a deranged axe murderer could love. This scares us so bad we know we have to get out while we are still alive. At that very moment,in the dead silent store, banjo music starts playing. Out of nowhere!! "Oh, Susannah". The shop owner starts whistling along and I am about to pee my pants. We are the only ones in the store and this is just too much. We knew we had to get out. I pray I can say Thanks to the guy without falling down laughing. I manage to do just this.
Once free on the sidewalk it was like "What the....?? Did that really happen? Our journey must end here. We know this. We can't take any more.
We look one more time at the sign store.."Classy Touch"
We can only reply to this by pushing the bullshit button we found in one of the stores. When pushed, it blurts out "that's not just bullshit, that's horseshit".
We laugh so hard we almost die.
We return to camp and try to tell our adventure to the others. It does not translate well.
It was the best part of my trip. The next time I am at these stores some year or two from now, I will remember our outing, because after all, memories really do build upon each other and this new memory is a keeper.
Maybe next time I will find Bluto.....
jb