ReSource: Why I Love Where I Work [PART 1]

Jay Jay Jeffery
Aug 9, 2017 · 4 min read
All photos sourced from ReSource’s Website

What a place to work. I missed it.

Just finished a long talk with Tony. The kind of guy who seriously wears a cowboy hat and pointy toed alligator boots, black and white stubble and a big mustache. He lives out of his pickup truck and needs the heater he just bought for $4. He signed my page regarding a cobb house, “The most intricate cobb house in the country,” or so he raves. 5 years in the making. Living roofs and hand hewn beams. For a free meal and a little beer why not? I might just stop by and and offer up my labor.

After I spend the next half hour talking to Hans, an old German gnome who always wears an apron and carries his old cell on a string around his neck that hangs like an ornament within his long white Posieden’s beard. He’ll talk and talk and talk about gardens and flowers, roses and wooly thyme, and his hate for the use of garden fabric. And then with his keys and trusty spoon hanging around the other side of his neck he’ll jingle out into the yard to tell his stories to the next person he can stop to listen.

(That’s Abel, he’s teaching me Spanish!)

The yard, an architectural salvage yard to be exact, has an eccentric culture dripping out the edges like the rust and grease in the freshly donated BBQ grill. “Should we scrap it or would someone buy this?”

And a man with 2 long braided strands of white beard saunders up. “How much?”

“15?” I send out feelers.

“Sold!” He says wheeling away the rickety piece of steel.

And that’s the fun of a salvage yard. The characters, the amazing finds, the excitement when a bargain has been scored, being outside, getting your vitamin D, feeling like your doing your little part in saving the planet, no matter how small that is.

I’ve gotten a welder, an antique drill press, a Stihl chainsaw, and even a stand up bass while working here.

A man walks up. “What are these?” He points to a pile of long shiny poles.

“They’re pole dancing poles. They were donated yesterday.”

“Seriously?!”

“Yeah! The things we get at ReSource right?”

“I wonder how I could use those,” he says walking away to inspect them closer.

There are 6 and a half areas that make up the core of our few acre yard. And we’ve been around almost 20 years now. Regular customers know the prices and the place and it’s history better then me. Always reminiscing about, “that time when.” I’ve been here close to two years with a year brake at the end. 30 hours a week, three 10 hour shifts and decent pay and benefits?
What more could I ask for?

(these are not the stripper poles!)

Sure I have my transvestite admirer who some days likes to visit in short shorts and a wig, his retirement spent on face lifts, beatification, and fake tits but he’s (he still goes by “he” the majority of the time) harmless … I guess. I mean as a woman here you’ve gotta deal with a bit of sexism. Things like, “Are you allowed to be using that forklift?” Or outright, “You can come do some work for me baby.” But hey, you ignore that kind of shit, roll your eyes and move on. Mark the offender in your memory and don’t give them the time of day. Maybe next time charge them a heck of a lot more on that power washer they’ve been eyeing.

Anyways I was trying to get into telling you about those 6 and a half areas of the yard. I’m in the Showroom right now. It’s where the offices are and also our “nice stuff,” you know, antiques, nice wood, full sheets of granite, or stripper poles.

Then another room off the showroom is the Tool Library or “TL” as we say over the radio. It’s where we rent out tools. Pretty cool deal really and good prices too. Only issue is that tools are out of commission now and then because people trash them, use them and abuse them, or leave them filthy … think concrete hardening in a wheel barrow.

(I’m going to continue this post tomorrow … because I find it’s best not to write too much more in a single post)

Look for ReSource, A Great Place to Work Part 2 tomorrow!

Thanks for reading! Maybe you should come visit or find your local architectural salvage yard.

Jay Jay Jeffery

Written by

Living in an 80sqft VW Van. Interested in city planning, live music, herbalism, writing, experience, crypto, and small business

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