9-22-2026 4:31am

Little Things #12: The Sweater

Lesley Misko Editor

by Julie Cordingley

I had been looking for a green sweater; not just any green, but a sort of lime green. Not an obnoxious lime green. Anyway, I would know it if I saw it.

Hoped to find it at favorite stores: Boscov’s, nada…Kohl’s, nope…TJ Maxx, uh uh. Eventually I was forced on-line, but felt I really couldn’t trust the sites and their color description.

On a whim, I ventured over to Liberty Thrift where the old K Mart in Sanatoga used to be. There were lots and lots of clothes, very nicely organized. And that’s when I saw it: a green sweater, in the correct shade! Tried it on…looked okay…but I wasn’t totally convinced it was “the one”…until a fellow Thrifter walked over from an aisle away (highly unusual in my experience) and said “that looked really pretty on you.” An appreciative “thank you” left my mouth as a SOLD flashed though my brain.

That weekend, my niece was hosting a fundraiser at Lower Providence Library. I invited my daughter Alyson to go with me. Perfect for the wearing o’ the green!

Looking around I saw my niece and my cousin Marnie. Whoa! Marnie was wearing a lime green sweater as well. I laughed; told her I "I had gotten the memo." She and I were the only ones sporting that color.

About half an hour into the fund raiser, she commented that she liked my sweater; and that she kind of had one similar that her husband had bought for her. Although she had liked that particular sweater, its design was too short in the back and she felt she had to constantly keep pulling it down. After staring at it for a few moments longer, she asked where I bought it.

Uh oh!

By this time…not exactly awkward…okay, yes, awkward…it turns out that she had donated it three weeks prior to her Liberty store in Collegeville. I just happened to love the same sweater later in my nearby Sanatoga store.

Shaking my head, and asking myself what are the odds?

Nowadays, if I know we are going to be at the same event, I’ll text Marnie and ask “you didn’t own a bright pink, Jersey Shore hoodie did you?"

It has been over 40 years since a chemist job in Malvern lured Julie Cordingley away from her up state, New York home. She is a proud resident of Gilbertsville! Besides working in industry, at various times she has been a stay-at-home mom, and has just recently retired from Phoenixville Area School District as a (wait for it!) chemistry teacher. It has been a life-long dream to be a writer. She figures she can work at that craft while also traveling with her husband in their drivable RV… a retirement present to herself!