Monday, April 21, 2008

Just Stuff

The road from Surprise Valley over Fandango Pass lets you down gently in New Pine Creek, astraddle north-south Highway 395 running down the east side of the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada from Canada almost to Mexico, and astraddle the east-west running state line, more in Oregon than California. The town has collected existence and stored it everywhere, in whatnots and in roosters and ravens made of whatnot, in homes and front yards of whatnot. In the center of town is Just Stuff, where things used by the past to bring order are jammed up against one another, pots to pot and chair to chair, so the present can reach in, pick out, and buy to order the future.

The store is justly famous, for it was here early in the twenty-first century that the owner first proclaimed the Gospel According to Just Stuff. "I run this by myself, "just an old gal like me. Mom had it when she was a girl. You'd better believe I have a lot of stuff. I'd better have a lot of stuff if I'm going to make it in this business, and a lot for every different taste."

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