There’s this story I have that I love to tell, and although I feel certain I’ve relayed it in this blog at some point, I couldn’t find it, so I’m going to tell the story again. The difference this time is the ending.
When I was younger, maybe 10-12, my parents somehow thought it would be interesting for me to try archery. I guess a neighbor was into it and was willing to teach me and get me all geared up. So I got a bow and some arrows and some gear and I kind of sucked at it. Despite that, I still outgrew the bow that I had and so my parents got me a bigger, fancier one. It was a Bear Whitetail Hunter. A crazy contraption that could alter the pull weight with a series of cams and pullies.
But I still kind of sucked at it. And I never really got any better because I couldn’t really practice. I would have to have my dad drive me out to a range, I didn’t have any guidance as to what I might be doing wrong, and it was just all demoralizing. So my bow and gear just kind of sat around and gathered dust.
When I went to "college", I was broke like everyone else and at a low point, I took my bow and gear to a pawn shop to sell. The sales guy gave me the sad story, you know it’s too bad hunting season is over, we’re going to have to hold this for some time and so we can’t really give you much for it. I took what they offered, $30, but I was not happy about it. A few days later I stopped in to the same shop and there was my bow, up on the wall, but it had a sold tag on it. The price on the tag? $300. I was livid and I swore that day that I would never sell anything to a pawn shop ever again.
That story has stuck with me all my life, and I tell it whenever I can, like the ancient mariner. I’ve kept true to my promise (mostly, I don’t consider selling something I would just as easily throw away, like CDs, to be the same thing).
Yesterday, I was in a tiny town to pick up a synthesizer I found on FB Marketplace and I was killing time by visiting pawn shops. At this one shop, to my amazement, I saw my bow. Obviously. not my bow, but the same model, and I’d never seen that model of bow any time in the past, which made it even more surprising. It brought back nostalgia and a lot of good and bad memories. I looked at the price and was shocked. That was an interesting find and I left to go get my synthesizer.
The FB seller flaked out – wouldn’t respond to any messages – and I left the area disappointed. A hour later he contacts me with profuse apologies and I make the drive back to make the purchase. Sale completed, I returned to the pawn shop because something felt important about that find. I made the purchase for… $19. It had been marked down from $59, and I guess they wanted to just get rid of it. I would not have given it much thought for $60, but $20?
So here I am, with the bow that I sold to a pawn shop for $30 and repurchased from another pawn shop almost 40 years later for $20. And again, I have not seen this bow anywhere else in that 40 years, and I’ve been to a TON of pawn shops. Not trying to be all mystical, but there’s something to that. And the fact that it was formerly at a price I would ignore and was marked down to a price I couldn’t ignore?
I honestly don’t know if the bow is safe to use and I’m still kind of debating what I want to do with it, which makes the whole experience even stranger. If you really want to get heady about it, it’s almost like this was all set up to give me some closure and allow me to forgive myself for that bad decision I made so many years ago. I have my bow back, and I gained $10 in the process. I can now move on in any direction I want.
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