Pair Get A Charge From Collectibles

Mike Maker and Julie Kindle are looking for a giant Godzilla, preferably one at least 15-feet tall with a crushed airplane in its hand. Such a beacon of weirdness, they say, would be just the right over-the-top touch for their North Monroe vintage clothing store, The Thing.

After all, they already have an electric go-go dancer/drink shaker, an autographed Robert Goulet picture, Glen Campbell curtains that list all his hits, a wide selection of polyester bell-bottoms, prints of Robert Crumb’s “Keep on Trucking” drawing, and a 130-year-old vest.

Opened in early October, the store, next door to another vintage clothing store, Funky Groovy Threads, is already making money. Kindle co-owned Funky Groovy Threads but decided she wanted a business with Maker.

“We started with no money because we didn’t have any,” said Kindle, 33.

The store already has its regulars - the young looking for things old, the middle-aged looking for things of their youth. The regulars, many of whom used to be Java Junkie hardcores, will hang out, trading jokes about Spokane or dickering swaps.

“We attract the weirdos,” said Maker, 22.

Maker, a North Central graduate, likes the family of five-inch porcelain Pillsbury Doughboys under a display case.

He is also a member of the band The Makers, a group of musicians who reject the direction of mainstream rock bands, Maker said.

In a song on the album “Howl,” Maker, well, howls his way through.

While on tour, the band bumped into the rock ‘n’ roll legend Robert Plant.

“He looked like the grossest guy you ever met. He was not of this earth,” said Maker.

As Plant walked away, he gave the guys a thumbs up and said they were a lot like him in his youth.

Kindle earned the “Pack Rat of the Year” award at Deer Park Middle School and ever since has lived up to the honor.

The North Side house that Kindle shares with Maker is packed with rooms full of junk - clothes from people who have recently died, bizarre ‘50s-era laser guns. More junk lies untouched in closets at the store. And they are always collecting more, continually picking through racks at local secondhand stores.

“She still has secret rooms in her house that never have been seen,” said Maker.

They have collected some remarkable things. In the front display case of their store is a pair of Tuffmobile cleats that are “the choice of The Juice,” O.J. Simpson. Autographed pictures of Yul Brenner and Macauley Culkin hang next to a velvet painting of a naked woman. Beneath the pictures is a battered motorcycle.

A drink-holder - a thick gold chain attached to a blue plastic cup - hangs in the corner, near a heavy wood phone booth that formerly sat in the Ridpath Hotel.

The collection makes for visual chaos that can be overwhelming. One day last week, a middle-aged man sauntered in, took a 30-second tour and walked out. Businesses across the street don’t know what to think.

Maker and Kindle say the store is mostly for kicks, to keep them entertained in a town that lacks a youth subculture.

“We don’t actually live in Spokane,” said Maker. “This is our world.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo