Helen Schabinger saved all of it

In the 1960s my mother, Helen Schabinger, owned card and gift shops around Chicago and ran a beauty salon in Alsip, Illinois, on Pulaski. The Rosebud Beauty Salon, the Rosebud Cardshop, the Treasure Chest, and Joe's Cards and Gifts were all hers. She was an award-winning stylist, and her best in show trophy from a hair styling competition stood close to four feet tall. While she built that life, my father grew championship roses. They were a creative pair, and they were good at what they loved.

In 1972 we moved to Colorado. Helen knew the move would cut her off from the Chicago wholesalers she relied on, so she did something most people wouldn't. She brought her entire inventory across the country. Then she went further and bought out the stock of other card shops that were closing, stocking up for a future she meant to build. Once settled, she opened the Crown of Beauty Salon and started again.

She never sold all of it. And she was, by her own nature, a keeper of things. She loved a good resale shop and a Saturday yard sale, and she saved almost everything, down to nearly every piece of clothing from my childhood. It bordered on too much. It also means what survived is a genuine record of decades of taste, from 1960s gift shop stock to 1970s finds she couldn't leave behind.

In 2010 I went through all of it, piece by piece, and pulled the best to sell. What you find here carries her eye in every choice.