Richard's Variety Store

I am obsessed.
Officially.
I am one of those types that finds something I like and then I stain it. I stain and stain and stain it over and over and over again. Like a good song like anything Amos Lee or a good food item like chicken rotisserie at Eatzi's or vanilla latte at Starbucks. Tonight I couldnt decide what I wanted to do with my time (hence the blog below about indecisiveness). My mind has a good memory, though, for things - so when I see something good whether it is a store, a street, a house, a color, a boy, a restaraunt, a hairstyle - I remember it. So a few weekends ago for Catie's birthday we opted to spending the afternoon playing around Atlanta. We didnt get very far but we did roam around the Peachtree Battle Shopping center....you know, LimeTree, Heliscos (great, greasy Mexican) and more. We casually walked by what appeared to be a little store for your grandmother that would soon go out of business. Little did we know that Altlanta's greatest find was in this very shopping center and it has been there since the birth of the shopping strip 50 years ago. People, there are no places like this left in this city. Richard's Variety store has my heart.
I walk in tonight and go straight to the card section.
Side note: Along with snail mail I love to buy, send, receive, give and collect original cards. You know - the ones you will never find anywhere else. I have a collection and it is bitter sweet when I have to go give them away to people. I know someone else will be so happy and amused with my little find but I do hate to delete it from the collection as they are typically rare cards. Like last year for a former boy I dated's dad's birthday I found the coolest card ever in my collection. It was a svelt young nude man rollar blading down the streets of San Francisco (from the back). It was a great card and the whole birthday party thought it was fabulous. Now that was a card that I had bought nearly 4 years before while residing in Charleston, South Carolina. So you see the obsession here. See good card, buy good card, keep good card until perfect occassion.
Needless to say, I am literally sitting on the floor peeing and crying at the cards as I read them.

The 70 plus year old clerk tells me that Richard's has the best cards in the counrty and that people drive from all over to see their cards. Best in the country! I believe her. I can't repeat some of the ones that I bought because they are not appropriate but I figure one day when I am older and I am a house mom and I need good laughs for my other aging mother friends I can pull out the racy card stash.

Well, After I finish my 75 minutes of bliss in the card section I meander through the aisles of randomness in ADD heaven. Bobbing-head Nun figures, Mad libs - yes, I said it, the original Madlibs....tin-square HeMan lunch boxes, old school Lego's, you name it.....I mean, really, this is such a great place and you are sure to walk out with something worth while. I had to find a white elephant gift for a Youth group leader party tomorrow night (yes, I shop and save the world and kid's souls too - pretty amazing, I know) and I ended up finding ("earmuffs" if you don't know my sense of humor.......) glow in the dark angel snot (actually just glow in the dark silly putty titled Angel's Snot From Above), the original Mad Lib, and an action figure of Jesus with directing hands and all. Perfectly fitting for the party and I secretly hope that Billy, the youth director gets my gift. I am so impressed with my finds. I wanted to get the Transformer lunch box but didnt want to exceed the $12-$15 limit.
On top of the gift and the $47 (no lie) worth of greeting cards I also found a non-mildewing shower curtain, some old school baseball cards with gum in the wrapper, a stuffed animal for a baby shower and the game of Old Maid. If I end up getting fired anytime soon, which could be a possibility, I will for sure seek employment at Richard's so I can play with the rubber chickens and matchbox cars and the random kitchen utensils that were must haves, I presume, back in the 50's. So Richard's is -for sure a new favorite. This is a real one - not a fleeting favorite like other favorites that have come to pass. Tried and true.

Favorite Things About Atlanta (revised edition) (actually, this is the first edition but it is revised from what it would have been a fewhours ago). And there really are but a few.....
-Nuevo Laredo/Taqueria Del Sol (These are tied for sure)
-Capital City neighborhood (my 'hood)
-Richard's Variety Store
-Buckhead Church
-Souper Jenny's
-Chastain Park and the Ampitheatre
-Pastis (okay, so it is in Roswell - but it counts)
-The Starbucks on Peachtree next to Brookhaven ( thanks to Brett and Jason Alexander, no not Britney Spear's 1st husband and no, not the guy from Seinfeld - but the 2 best baristo's in town!)
-The Concourse Club
-Silver Comet Trail
-ALTA tennis
-Brookhaven Marta Station
-Surin of Thailand
-East Andrews - no, not on the weekends when all you people go but on Tuesday nights before 7 for buy one get one - yummy! )

Okay, so there are several more but point is that Richard's rocks and makes the list right away! Don't you just love finding the hidden little places in Atlanta. Check it out. Tomorrow. Check it out tomorrow. And, yes, I do LOVE mail as you recall so do keep me in mind as you brouse the rows and rows of one-of-a-kind cards.