Jenny and I were in a small town in Georgia before we had children, and we asked a lady passing by if there were any thrift shops in town.

This lady looked at us curiously for a second, and then said “You mean where the poor people shop?”

“Where the poor people shop….”

I guess that maybe that used to be how it all worked.

Now I see all these people with their smart phones out….scanning bar codes and querying the internet….making sure that an opportunity to profit off the “used to be cheap” stuff at thrift stores doesn’t pass them by.

Smart phones at the thrift store.

That gets me a little P.O.’d.

You don’t even have to have any “head knowledge” about what might be worth something…you just have to know how to “google” stuff.

That killed thrift storing to some degree.

The people working at the thrift stores have to price the merchandise up because some dealer might pay a little more for something that they’re going to profit off of….and it would be a shame for the store to not share in some of those profits.

The people who were going to buy it to use it….well, they’re just going to have to pay a little more thanks to the smartphone wielding dealers.

All these new “middlemen” out there are killing the big deal scores we used to find so easily.

I shouldn’t complain….we still get some great deals….and they usually come when we’re looking for something that we actually need.

What do you call that? Divine Providence?

A “look at the birds of the field” kind of situation….

It’s just different now.

We’re so “connected”…and so solitary… with our devices shining a weak blue light on our faces as we each sit in our separate areas “together”….updating our Facebook pages and checking our Twitter feeds.

I blame the Walkmen.

Remember Walkmen? With the analog cassettes? Remember how weird it was to see all the people with headphones on….listening to their own music in their own little worlds?

I blame the Walkmen for the beginnings of all that separateness….and I guess that before that it was the transistor radio held up to a walking man’s ear….and long before that it was the little movie where the cards would flip down if you put a penny in the machine.

Remember those card flippers? What were they called? I’ll have to Google it quick….A “MUTOSCOPE”….THAT WEIRD! I didn’t know what they were called!

I blame the mutoscope for our alienation.

Nah….can’t blame the mutoscope.

And I can’t be mad at all the people scanning with their smart phones.

That’s just the way it is now.

If you’ve got it….scan it.

“Analog Man” Joe Walsh