Going to Pieces

Now Taos is home to a number of millionaires. Movie stars like Julia Roberts and corporate moguls have second and third homes here. Plus thousands of people whose families date back 450 years, whose land has been handed down through the generations and whose combined incomes would barely buy one mansion on the hillside.

As a result, there are galleries on the plaza with paintings retailing for $150,000 and second hand stores where you can buy some beginner's work for $10. There is a store near the plaza called Now and Again. I went there looking for a couch-bed, futon couch, Taos bed (day bed), or some such. A piece of furniture that is both a bed and a place to sit. But not a fold out, miserable-to-sleep-on couch. They had a lot of stuff, but not what I was looking for. A woman was there, consigning a set of Franciscan ware, the old pieces with the subtle colors, identical to the set my grandmother had and used forever. She and I chatted for a long while about her hobby of remaking old quilts into clothing. She suggested that I try to find the bed at a store called Pieces which is right next door to WalMart.

So, on my way back to Derek's place, I stopped there. It is a huge place, probably was an auto parts store at one time. They have everything:  dinnerware, blankets, vintage clothing, furniture, jewelry, as well as an assortment of beginners' paintings. I spent over an hour drifting around the place. I found dishes similar to my Aunt Judy's Rose bone china, a nice heavy bottomed copper cook pot with a glass lid that I needed not but lusted after, a Kelty external frame pack that is identical to the one I had for 20 years and lost in the fire, clothing from the 60's and 70's, wonderful oddball necklaces and earrings, books ranging from religious tomes to treatises on geology, and a wrought iron day bed that almost exactly matches the frame on my bed upstairs at home. Serendipity. It was dusty, so I knew it had been there a while, and it was in pieces, stacked in a slotted cabinet holding myriad other bedframes. I made them an offer and they took it. So for a very good price, I got a nice metal bed with the mattress in excellent condition and a cover which even had flaps to disguise the springs. What a deal!

This place takes "going to pieces" to a whole new level.....