Mrs. Teabody Gets a Pat on the Back

April showers, anyone? Forsythia and magnolia, anyone? It is foolish April up to her tricks and how can anyone do anything but love her? Lovely warm temps the last few days. On Saturday last, Mrs. Teabody's little shop received recognition for excellence in small business at a very public event. Mrs. Teabody was flattered to have friends and family in attendance and was asked to deliver a brief address which follows:


Thank You, Betsy!  I knew there was a reason I picked you and your check is waiting in the car. Thank you to my friends and family and my dear patient husband for joining me me here tonight and a special thanks to  my landlord and friend, Glenn Cordell who  works so very hard to keep the Albert Stoner building looking  so beautiful. No one wants to see any derelict buildings along the town’s main street., and the idea that “Lodge’s Variety Store” would not have a light burning inside is almost too much to bear.

Congratulations to all the honored recipients and Thank You, Fulton County Chamber of Commerce for holding this recognition banquet. For some reason, folks stop patting you on the back around age five, and, let’s face it. . . it is a nice feeling to be honored.

As the recipient of the Excellence in Small Business  award, some of you might be expecting me to share my plans to turn my little tea and gifts shop into a mega store employing hundreds. Sorry. I am not that person.

Perhaps you are expecting me to advise you reagarding hedge funds or some plan to bilk folks out of  their hard-earned savings so that I can live a grand lifestyle. to match my inflated ego. Thankfully, I am not that person either.

The person I AM is a business person of literature. You all know the story of “A Christmas Carol,” Right? Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his partner in business, one Jacob Marley, bound in chains.  Do you all remember what Marley says after Scrooge says, “You were always a man of business, Jacob.”

Furiously Marley spits out the word as if it is a curse:

BUSINESS?

“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business! “

(Hold up solar-powered butterfly and deliver anecdote)

Last year I had the good fortune to travel with my friend Cindy Glessner to the Chelsea Flower Show where we both became enchanted by this little gem. Isn’t it cute how the butterfly flutters about.? It is solar-powered and if you don’t look too closely, it looks like a real butterfly.  I had to have one and I knew some other buddy gardeners who would like to buy one as well. I bought 4 of them at 8 pounds, around $15 each and planned to sell them at cost back home. I carried all four of them in my carry on bag all the way back, and as soon as a fine day arrived I put one in the front garden and watched as it soaked up enough solar power made the butterfly take flight.  Later that day one of my former students came in and over tea we talked about the butterfly. He called me after he got home and said he was coming in the next day to get one for his grandmother.

In the meantime I went online to see if there was any place I could buy solar-powered butterflies  and was stunned to find they were available from . . . Can you help me out, folks? Where do you think I could buy this little butterfly on line? Did someone say, Amazon? Right you are.  And the crusher? For less than $5 a piece.  Including shipping. When the young man came in the next day, I told him I could not sell him the butterfly because he could buy it cheaper at Amazon.

He didn’t hesitate a minute before saying:

“Amazon won’t go away if I don’t buy something from them. You might.”

Business? Was he a man of business to be willing to pay a little more so that a local business does not close its doors? Did he realize far more than some of his elders how important it is to shop locally so we can keep lights burning along our main street?

How very perilous is the life of the retail store in this age of technology and one-click shopping? I know I won’t be the first to talk about what we as business people need to do to stem the flow of traffic across the cyber waves or--for that matter-- just across the mountain.

Those of us who decide to hang out our shingles in this very different time know that we must respond to the ever-shifting needs of  our local customers if we want to keep them on this side of the mountain. If we expect them to visit our stores instead of Amazon

 And our role as people of business goes far beyond the exchange of money for goods.

Every part of a community needs to value every other part. We have a whole new generation of residents who want the best for themselves and their families.

They  want new and now and if they cannot get what they need here, they will go elsewhere.

It’s why Jason Ritchey added bistro tables and a soothing color scheme, turning a pizza joint into a restaurant our town can be proud of.

It’s why George Cutchall and Jim Smith have made the VFW smoke-free.

It’s why Wild Annie chose to reinvent herself as the owner of the county’s premier food truck.

It’s why Rene Earley and Sarah Cutchall and Lisa Culler as well as several others have provided opportunities  across the county for fitness recreation.

It’s why philanthropic groups sprout up like daffodils when one of our own is suffering. It’s Love’s Closet,  Ashlynn’s Angels, Fight Like a Country Girl  and the amazing Lions Club.

It’s why Kathy Kendall practically lives at the old high school/ alumni building, tirelessly coming up with new ideas for recreational opportunities , educational opportunities and other sources of community pride.

It’s why Shain Mellott got together a group of friends and associates to give Fulton Countians a Christmas light show they won’t soon forget.

Innovators. Citizens. Business? Mankind is our business.

When our beautiful Meadow Grounds Lake was being drained, local citizens took action to fight for our common welfare. Ed and Cindy Carbaugh gathered signatures on paper petitions. Troy Hollinshead created an Online petition. Dayton Tweedy and I made the decision to create a Facebook page for Friends of Meadow Grounds Lake holding our first fragile  meetings in the tiny back room of 110 Lincoln Way West, a tea shop, a place of commerce but also a  place where a band of concerned citizens could  fight to regain a county treasure.

The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business! 


Bob Cratchitt argues ineffectively with his money-grubbing uncle about the charitable nature of the Christmas season  by saying:

“It (Christmas)  is a time when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of other people as if they really are  fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.
And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, 'God bless it!'"

On May 1 we Friends of Meadow Grounds Lake will kick off our fund-raising campaign, and I hope you will join us. Susquehanna Bank has agreed to let us hang a mural on their long fence to be painted by local artists,  to build awareness for the cause. We will be selling raffler tickets and bottled water and tee-shirts and the money that flows in will flow right into our efforts to bring back Meadow Grounds Lake. Not a drop of it will go into the cash register, but the good that a refilled Meadow Grounds Lake is of far more significance to our community  than any BUSINESS enterprise could ever be. Senator Eichelberger has just purchased the first raffle ticket and we hope you will follow suit

Being a shop keeper along Lincoln Way West has taught me  what it means to be part of a  business community in many, many ways I could not have fathomed, and I hope Tickle Your Fancy will remain at the A. Stoner Building for many years to come. Like others before me I will strive to keep the light on.

Thank you!