By Jennie Reichman The eagle has landed!  Actually, it’s a crow, and unlike Neil Armstrong’s historic visit to the moon in 1969, this bird has found a permanent nest at the new Experienced Goods location, 80 Flat St. in Brattleboro. After many months of planning, renovations...

Given today’s world, let’s celebrate when something goes right! By Susan Parris You’d be hard-pressed to find another place in our town like Experienced Goods, where a wide variety of people interact daily with such good vibes.  All who enter–customers, donors, volunteers, staff–create a shared experience of...

By Jennie Reichman “Home sings me of sweet things, life there has its own wings to fly over the mountains, though I’m standing still.”  Karla Bonoff, “Home” After a whirlwind week of sales and, at the end, a day of “Everything is FREE!,” on Saturday, May 21, we...

By Jennie Reichman Gratitude. A word I have used many times in this column to describe how I feel about my workplace and co-workers, our donors, our intrepid shoppers, the town and region we live in. It’s a lovely word that I don’t want to overuse...

By Jennie Reichman Do we ever stop learning? I hope not. In the interest of keeping our brains functioning well and our lives engaging, new experiences that challenge our well-worn neural pathways are important. I have been watching my two kittens, now approaching adolescence, learn the...

By Jennie Reichman Something I have always wanted to write in an article: “Breaking News!!” It makes me feel like a real journalist, with eyes and ears open to intriguing stories and exciting, important events. So here goes:  Breaking News!! Experienced Goods, our much loved and long-lived...

I have tiny ponies running through my house. Lest you think working in a thrift store has finally melted my brain, let me offer one word: Kittens. Two of them. Five months old, newly adopted sisters, furry, adorable packages of limitless energy.  My friend Hannah,...

Most of you who have been reading this column for any amount of time know I am a foodie and love to cook. I subscribe to both The New York Times cooking website and the print and online versions of Fine Cooking. A new recipe...

I have been watching the Harry Potter movies again. This is mostly because the internet has not been working at my house for the last week and a half (don’t get me started on the frustration of wrangling with the service provider) and the only...

From Jennie Reichman, Shop staff “You kids, get off my lawn!” Those words have become synonymous with jokes about differences between people of one generation (over 40ish) and another (under 25ish). Those of us in the first category either laugh and nod knowingly at those jokes,...