Emma's Stuff

So let me tell you about Emma.

She lived in Chicago with her husband and son back in the 40s and 50s, and Emma loved to shop. From what I can tell, she could have given the rest of us a serious run for our money. I mean, she LOVED TO SHOP. And she never ever threw anything away. EVER. Even after the three of them moved to Phoenix in the late 60s, it all got boxed up, labeled, and put away in the house in Sun Lakes, Arizona.

Emma passed away, peacefully, a number of years ago, leaving it all to her only son. He had since moved to Montana and become a very successful eye doctor. One day he realized it was time to come back to Arizona and clean out the house. It did not take long for him to realize what a daunting task it was going to be, because Emma pretty much saved every single piece of clothing she wore from the 40s up until her passing. Not to mention the hats, shoes, purses, etc. So, he tried a few consignment shops in snooty Scottsdale, thinking the good quality would impress them; I mean, she had bought it all at Marshall Field and other fine establishments, so you would think, right? Nope, nobody wanted that old stuff. Too old, nothing older than 5 years for them. Thank goodness. Because one day he found Hollywood Regency on the internet and the rest, they say, is history.

The first time he came in, he brought us about 25 colorful wool knit dresses. Beautiful, late 50s, early 60s. Red, green, purple, black, white, etc. Great condition, we bought almost all of them. About 6 months after that, he walked in with some insane number of hatboxes and I really had to try hard not to drool, they were THAT GOOD. Bought all that. This time he told us about his mother's house and the sheer amount of stuff to get rid of. He had to go back to Montana and promised to bring more. By now we were DYING to see what else he would trot over to us. Almost a year later, he calls the shop and says he has a full carload, can he bring it over. OF COURSE, no problem, bring it!

We bought over 80 pairs of shoes and probably close to a hundred pieces of clothing that time. This time, we set a date for us to come to the house and just get it done. Date set, we're ready to go, Heidi gets sick and can't go. He had told us there were vintage linens there, so I reset the time and just plan to go alone, concentrate on linens for myself (that's my main thing-textiles) and then shop for the shop.

Best laid plans......

continued in next post!