Treasured Valley

-by Amy Pence-Brown

Garden City is full of sweet little surprises and some spectacular Treasure Valley treasures – The Stagecoach, the Ranch Club, Visual Arts Collective and the Woman of Steel Gallery, to name a few. But it’s the Reuseum, tucked in a small strip of worn-down warehouse spaces near Garden City Tattoo on Chinden Blvd. that has truly stolen my heart.

The Reuseum is a technological surplus outlet/electronic gadget haven for geeks. They accept all sorts of donated mechanical contraptions and offer a workshop, classes, and even host an annual robot competition for the reuse and resurrection of these castoffs. The idea is genius in my book; I’m a firm believer in fueling creativity through recycling. I’m embarrassed to admit, however, that I just visited the place for the first time, after following the Reuseum on Twitter and being their Facebook fan for nearly a year now. It’s been on my to-do list for a while, but dealing with the whole post-layoff depression thing coupled with my new holy-shit-I’m-a-full-time-stay-at-home-mom gig, time got away from me. So, last week we spent a lovely, rainy Saturday afternoon in Garden City and met the darling and helpful owner of the Reuseum, David Gapen. He had posted earlier that morning about some new merchandise that had just come in, including a vintage label maker that I’ve been scouring garage sales for for years. He was kind enough to find it for me and make me a deal that I couldn’t refuse. (And it came with faux wood grain tape. Are. You. Kidding. Me?@!@#! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven with all the other obsessively organized kitsch lovers). Of course I snatched that baby up, and I plan to label everything but the kitchen sink with it. Well, maybe that, too.

My husband, Eric, and the girls accompanied me on the journey. Eric, a chemistry professor, was thrilled to find all sorts of familiar gadgets and gizmos that he’s come to know and love through his laboratory research. The girls thought the shiny silver and gold bolts and latches and adaptors and such were pretty cool things to collect and whined for them all. I was drawn to other quirky oddities, including a large stack of paper shooting range targets. My daughters got a kick out of the revolving dark room door that’s for sale and I laughed out loud at the yellow sticky note that read, “TIME MACHINE RIDES $1.” A sense of humor, an environmental consciousness, a killer inventory, a dedication to technological and scientific creativity, and a really nice guy that runs the place? What more could you ask for? Get there soon.

Amy Pence-Brown wants a robot that can knit and wash dishes…