Poor Helen, Chapter 3

After Helen went to VTI to be a hairdresser and then worked in a couple of other shops, dad set her up in business.  The arrangement was he’d buy the equipment, pay the rent, utilities, the other beauticians’ commission and the supplies and she’d get 50% of the profits.  There was a new strip mall being built in Marion at the time and he rented a suitable space and let Helen pick out all of the equipment, flooring, etc.

Helen hired 2 or 3 or maybe 4 other gals she knew and trouble started almost immediately.  Helen refused to fill out the sales tickets.  She wanted a cash operation with no paper trail.  Dad wanted to know he wasn’t being cheated.  Every time they fought he’d react by  stopping  in at the shop more often to check on things.   He made me go with him that summer to sell insurance, thinking it would be a useful thing for me to learn.  So I would awkwardly be along when he went to the shop.  Helen wouldn’t speak to him, just staring past him like he was nothing and soon the other hairdressers followed suit and wouldn’t speak to him either.

Eventually he closed the business and let her have some of the equipment and called it a lesson.  She set up a shop in her home.  Poor Helen, she didn’t recognize a gift horse when she saw one.