“A Woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing.
She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself” - Maya Angelou
I popped the back hatch on the Tahoe and rolled down all the windows for the pups and mosied inside. Wow. This is what most of the estate sale companies would call “a hoarder’s paradise”, only when I think of hoarding I think of disarray and mess and collecting for no reason. This store had purpose, it had order, AND it was color coordinated. Never seen THAT before on such a scale, but it made perfect sense to me; most of the time you go into a store looking for something for your home or collection you have a specific color in mind. As a fellow organizational freak I instantly liked whoever owned this store. I approached the person behind the counter and exclaimed, “You have great stuff, are you the owner?”
Turned out it was. Cassie and her visiting sister from Los Angeles Melissa were running a very well executed operation here, top notch. I approved and began digging for treasures. During my excavation we all chatted and before I knew it 2 hrs. had passed like nothing - don’t you just love it when that happens? I told them of what I was doing, blogging and traveling the country, we chatted about Hunter Thompson & the recent passing of Maya Angelou, whom Cassie had devoted a corner of the front glass counter to. She pulled out a small, hard back book on Maya and after quickly perusing it knew I had to have it. I had been thinking of Maya quite a lot recently, after a friend of mine had posted a quote/poem of hers on my Facebook page and told me it had reminded her of me and my quest (post above).
I also had to ask about the store name, Mugwumps. It was familiar to me, but I didn’t remember from where. Cassie (correctly, I later found out, after doing resesarch) told me that one of the definitions for the name is a political one. A “Mugwump” was a fence sitter, one who has his “mug” on one side and his “wump” on the other. It’s also an older generation term of endearment. In fact, Cassie relayed a story to me in which someone came to her store one day, stood in the doorway, and literally started bawling. It turns out the young girl’s grandfather had recently passed away and "mugwump" is what he used to call her. It’s origin, however, is with the Algonquian Native Americans from Mass. For the complete story, please visit http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-mug1.htm - it’s quite interesting!
But the reference that suddenly caught my attention was when she referred to Wm. S. Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch. Now, I didn’t give 2 hoots about Bill Burroughs and his use of the mugwumps term, but his name jolted my brain to its wine cellar and instantly pulled the memory of the story of when Hunter met Wm. S. out of the handy nook it was stored in.
For anyone who doesn’t know much about Hunter S. Thompson, this is a typical “Hunter”story and one of many that I cherish. It’s shows so many sides to the man that most never examined. Hunter was always looked upon as being “crazy”, but few people knew what a Southern gentleman he really was - kind, thoughtful, and enjoyed making people happy and entertaining them. And he loved to blow shit up. Immensely. He highly recommended it. I’m thinking of trying it. You can enjoy the story here:
http://www.burroughs100.com/features/when-hunter-s-thompson-visited-william-s-burroughs
Finally, alas, I needed to get a move on AND it was lunchtime and my stomach was talking to me. I paid for my little mound of treasures and Cassie walked me outside. She showed me her incredible talent for barn wood & metal art and as I spotted a restaurant across the street we wished each other well and parted ways.
So if you ever find yourself on Rt. 89 between Rts. 12 & 14, close to Bryce Canyon, when you go through a little town called Hatch (named after a local polygamist farmer), make sure you stop at Mugwumps. You won’t regret it. For me, it was just the Universe acting in its own divine way, ensuring no accidents in our lives. I was meant to find Mugwumps, Cassie, and the book about Maya - it would serve as great inspiration & strength to me in many ways over the summer and I was very thankful for it. I love it when a plan comes together, don't you?
Until next time, I am somewhere out here; living small and loving it largely.
Eli
For complete photos of my whole 2014 adventure, follow me on Facebook @: https://www.facebook.com/eli.hunter.94
