Even in The Goodwill Project: The tiniest joys mean the most.

I used to have a yardstick.

And I’ve looked for it ten thousand times or more over the past few years.

A yardstick is something all homes had when I was growing up. In particular, I remember Grandma McClish using hers for a million things; whether she was separating tomato plants, calculating position as she taught me how to hang wallpaper, or was measuring a grandchild’s summer growth spurt.

I misplaced my yardstick and I’ve missed it. I suppose yardsticks are readily found at the right place; maybe Ace Hardware or even Home Depot. But it’s never been a top-of-mind priority when I’ve been there. So instead, I’ve spent a half-dozen years or more looking for my yardstick and wishing it was available when I needed it.

And then The Goodwill Project happened. Someone’s discarded, means-nothing donation found its way to a Goodwill Store I happened upon and my happiness multiplied with a single 99-cent purchase.

It’s not a full-on yardstick; rather it’s three tri-colored 12-inch rulers that unfold to a full 36 inches. It must have been a giveaway because it’s branded with “Johnston’s Home Furnishings, 5441 Buford Highway” marks and I love it even better than the yardstick I lost. It fits in my kitchen drawer and it has a lot more history and charm than any yardstick I might have remembered to put on a shopping list.

I googled the address for the apparently long-gone Johnston’s and it’s on the east side of Buford Highway just inside the perimeter. I’ve been around long enough that I wish I remembered Johnston’s Home Furnishings, but I don’t. But the memory lives on and I offer this to whomever might know of, be part of, remember, shopped at, or loved Johnston’s Home Furnishings: My new unfoldable yardstick will be a part of my home forever. A promise made and committed hereforth on April 25, 2021 by Kathy Wilson Florence, Goodwill groupie and yardstick aficionado.