}`HPLASErJ€(}.mt 10 .hm 3 .h1Grayson Enterprises Ltd. First NA Serial Rights .h29 Dec. 1990 Copyright 1990 .h3Page #. 1,497 words .LS2         HELEN ROBINSON FOUNDER OF THE KANE COUNTY FLEA MARKET   Written and Photographed by June Grayson     Every month since April, 1967, Helen Robinson has thrown the   biggest party in northern Illinois: the Kane County Flea Market.   Let others have their godfathers and their sugar daddies. Illi  nois has its favorite grandmother, Helen Robinson.  She makes an unlikely choice for the successful chief execu  tive officer of a huge, privately-held family corporation - this   sturdy, 72 year-old midwesterner, proud mother of four strapping   sons and fond grandmother of ten teenagers and young adults.  π03  Š Robinson remembers, "I had been to a small neighborhood flea   market and I came home and told my husband - `I'm going to run a   flea market.' He said, `you get the darndest ideas,' but he went   along with me." In April, 1967, she rented the American Legion Hall in the   little town of Wasco, Illinois, five miles west of St. Charles,   invited 14 friends to be dealers, and 400 people paid to get in. Each month more people came, so in July of the same year she   rented one building at the Kane County Fair Grounds on Randall   Road, St. Charles, Illinois, forty miles west of the Chicago city   limits. That month 35 dealers greeted the thousand people who   attended. She has been there ever since.  She has never canceled, no matter how bad the weather or   what calamities of family life intervened. "When my husband took   sick, I took him home from the hospital on Friday, but I was at   the fairgrounds on Saturday," Robinson remembers. Even family   wakes and funerals are planned around the weekend. The show must  go on. If not the first American flea market, the Kane County Flea   Market is now surely one of the biggest. "The Princeton, Illi  nois, flea market started two years before mine, and still con  tinues," Robinson thinks. Dealers in their pick-up trucks and recreational vehicles   start lining up on the roads leading into the fairgrounds on the   π0- ŠFriday before the first Sunday of each month. Expanded some   years ago to a two day session, the fairground gates now open for   customers on that Saturday from 1-5 and on Sunday from 7-4.   Average attendance is still climbing each year. The highest   attendance for one weekend so far has been 25,000. Dealers   from as far away as Alaska reserve the 500 indoor spaces in the   covered buildings on the grounds. Outside dealers can drive up   on Saturday morning, park inside the fences, and set up for   business. The most dealers they have ever had in one weekend is   1500. So far they have never had to turn anyone away, either   dealer or guest. Fortunately, Robinson has always had plenty of room for   expansion. The Kane County Fairgrounds consists of several large   year-around buildings, many covered pavilions used one week out   of the year for livestock shows during the annual July Kane   County Fair, acres and acres of tree-studded rolling green grass,   and parking fields adjacent to the grounds that can absorb the   fifteen thousand cars that sometimes converge here on the week  end. "Of course, the beginning rent was not what it is now,"   Robinson remembers. In a few years, the Kane County Fairgrounds   will move to a new location ten miles farther west with even more   room for expansion. Robinson will move there, too. Robinson has always known the value of advertising. "There   weren't many antique magazines in 1967, but I advertised in all   π0- Šof them, first the Collector News and then the Antique Trader, as   well as all of the local and Chicago newspapers." Now her adver  tising budget is $7,000 a month and her ads appear from coast to   coast in almost every known antique publication, including the   GLASS COLLECTOR'S DIGEST. She continues to advertise in   all of the regional newspapers, as well as the one in LaCrosse,   Wisconsin, her home town.  She met her husband, a tall Texan, when she worked at Camp   McCoy, Wisconsin, during World War II. The Army had sent his   outfit to Wisconsin to acclimate them to cold weather and to   learn how to ski. He had never seen snow before. He earned a   battlefield commission. When he returned from war duty they   married and moved to northern Illinois. They had been married 35   years when Mr. Robinson died in 1980.  From the beginning, the Robinsons have served good food - no   gourmet meals, just your basic heartland fare. "My husband and   sister had always been in food service, so it was only natural   that they would be responsible for the kitchens. That way we   could always be sure of the quality. We serve food that is   serviceable and handy and that you can carry around while you   shop. We don't really make a profit on the food, but it is a   drawing card, especially breakfast," Robinson says.  One part-time kitchen employee concurs wholeheartedly.   "Each weekend I work at the flea market is a really incredible   π0- Šexperience. Everyone has so much fun! We keep one food area   open all night for the dealers. You would be surprised how much   they roam around. When we start frying the breakfast bacon at   three a.m., you can smell it all over the grounds. The dealers   start lining up hours ahead of the five a.m. breakfast bell." The Robinson family has always worked together. "I told my   sons from the first, that if they helped me, I would share my   profits with them." All four sons have been either fully or   partly involved in flea market responsibilities at some time   during the past twenty years and two of them still continue to do   so while holding other full-time jobs. Pat is in charge of gate-  keeping and parking, while Fred is responsible for grounds main  tenance.  The corporation owns its own trucks and service vehicles.   They manage their own garbage disposal and sometime improve the   primitive roads, hauling in their own gravel when midwestern mud   threatens to overwhelm, and wetting down the dirt roads when dust   storms attack. They provide their own security forces, although   the county police will respond to a call for help if a crime is   committed. They run a tight ship. One feels safe and relaxed at   this flea market, the same feeling one used to have in America's   small towns in the good old days.  The Robinsons have always relied on family and friends to   fill the needed jobs - and on the busiest summer weekends   π0- Šthey need 150 workers. They have never had to advertise for   help. in fact, landing a job with the Robinsons is considered a   real plum for local job aspirants. "They pay well and they are   great to work for," says one employee. "Fred won't stand for   anything: one mistake and you're out - worker, dealer, or anyone.   That accounts for the quality of the whole operation."  All of the good old-fashioned values still flourish here:   church, family, home, and hard work. Robinson honed her organi  zational skills on innumerable projects she chaired in Wisconsin   and Illinois Catholic parishes. "I built three churches," she   remembers.  Kate Johnsen Robinson, Fred's wife, says, "I worked here   before we were married. I never missed one month in spite of   four pregnancies, and neither did any of my sisters-in-law. We   would push the babies around in grocery carts if we needed to,   but we were always here."  At one time in a more innocent era, Robinson delighted in   her collection of "naughty boys," as first exemplified by a   Brussels, Belgium, statue of a tousled-haired little   prince voiding in the woods. "I liked them because I had four   beautiful little baby boys myself." Now Helen and Kate both   treasure their collections of jack-in-the-pulpit vases (some of   which are pictured on succeeding pages). Sometimes, buyers rub   shoulders with "Big Jim" Thompson, four-term governor of Illi  π0- Šnois, a long-time friend and another antique enthusiast. What is selling at flea markets now? "Furniture is always   good," Robinson thinks. "Young couples furnish their homes from   flea market finds. Pine and oak are always popular, but now they   are even buying the 1950s blonde furniture that we threw away.   Cookie jars, advertising, costume jewelry, books - especially   children's book by famous illustrators - are other hot items." At an age when others have long ago chosen retirement,   Robinson still seeks new worlds to conquer. They sometimes   organize an annual flea market at Navy Pier in Chicago. She has   opened a retail store open all week in St. Charles called Helen's   Collectibles. And she has staked two grandsons who deal in   baseball cards to a store of their own above hers.  You can meet this midwestern icon any flea market weekend at   the information booth in the main building, sometimes flanked by   a handsome son or grandson. Here is where she acts as mother   confessor to all the dealers and where her strong voice booms   announcements of lost children and cars through the public ad  dress system.  Robinson hopes her family will continue the business after   she is gone, but she promises, "As long as I can sign my name,   I'll be here."   ! # # #