Recipient: Sheila Turner Occupation: Secretary for the City of Highland Park’s Public Works Responded On: February 14, 2005 Bill Received At: Sam’s Club 335 North Milwaukee Avenue Vernon Hills Originally Dropped At: Walgreens 320 Waukegan Avenue Highwood, Illinois On: February 4, 2005

 

Sheila Turner's Comments

In your household how do you economize?
We buy in bulk, because there’s six of us. We don’t spend time shopping. And therefore when you don’t spend time shopping, you don’t tend to see things that you just can’t live without.

I am not a big “Let’s just go to the mall for three hours every Saturday” (person), and so I’m just not as enticed by that. Because when I go, I always find things that I just can’t live without.

I have been since, I don’t know, I guess the beginning of my time, very comfortable going to re-sale and second-hand stores and I have no problem with purchasing clothing that are appropriate … or different miscellaneous household items or garage sale items. So we will use those avenues.

I would think that the North Shore, and Highland Park and some of these Northern Suburbs are a great place to go to resale shops because there's so much wealth, and I think, to some extent, waste, in these communities …
I have done resale shops since, and I think it’s because as a child I grew up on a farm, and we would go to auctions when neighboring—either a family was moving for some reason or possibly there was a death and that had to be dealt with … and so I don’t know if that’s where it started, but I have always had no problem with going and checking out resale stuffs.

Coming from where I came from, there were wonderful items, but they weren’t always as trendy. Whereas on the North Shore, the items you find at the resale shops are very trendy. They are very current. And again, I can only assume that’s because they just have the ability to put something in its place. I am only guessing.

Are your kids ok with wearing clothes from a resale shop?
Actually my kids find it quite fun to go to the resale shop. It is like an adventure. We go, we laugh, we find some things that are honestly like, you wouldn’t wear it in a nightmare. But it’s an adventure. We have fun with it. But at the same time they find that they can find off the rack some item that has a price tag completely attached, still there, remaining on the item. Most recently I can think of an item that was in the $90 range and it was for 3 or 4 dollars.

In our society do people choose a husband or a wife partly based on considerations of money … if so, is that ok?
When I was young I would say, “No.” When I was young, I would have said that would have been a crazy thing because I was viewing the world from what I was watching. As I’ve years behind me, unfortunately “yes.” And I say this based on people who have said to me, “At the time, I was dating this person, but his potential just wasn’t there.”

And I’ve met men who have said, “She’s not the image, and she doesn’t have what I need to get where I need to go.” I was shocked when I heard it, but I’ve heard it, unfortunately, multiple times. So I think now that I’m older, yes, unfortunately, some people make those choices. I think they shortchange themselves because you have to be married to your best friend or you don’t stay married. Or if you are married, you’re not happy and I don’t think money replaces happiness. And that’s what they’re trying to equate it to and it’s unfortunate.

Did you tell me [in a previous phone call] that your husband is in the military?
Yes, my husband is a marine.

People who are in the military, who are doing work that everybody agrees is absolutely crucial to this country...are they fairly compensated?
Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding no. The youngest and the newest, whether you're young in age or young in your position—in any of the military branches the price that is paid in compensation, compared to what they're doing—there's not much of an equation.

As you move up in rank, you do gain, obviously some pay. But I think for most Americans they would be quite shocked at even the amount of pay someone in even four, six, or eight years is getting compared to that in a civilian job.

But it's something they love to do, or they wouldn't be there. And the ones that do it for different purposes quickly realize that was not their best choice.