Mrs. Teabody Celebrates TYF's Sixth Birthday

The Albert Stoner building is 118.
Good Morning from dark and  still summer-ish Meadow Grounds mountain where a nice cuppa Molkabari is kicking Mrs. Teabody's systems into gear to venture out for the morning perambulation prior to a very busy day at 110 Lincoln Way West. My little enterprise, Tickle Your Fancy Gifts and Tea, has a birthday party today  and there is much to do. As with all such anniversaries, this occasion has given me time to reflect, to look back over the years and to make decisions. To make a plan or two.

As anyone who knows me well will tell you, I am not exactly a cutthroat business woman.  My business philosophy is to make enough money to pay my rent, utilities, and property upkeep, to be able to offer unique and exciting gifts and accessories, and to purchase, serve and sell the best tea that money can buy. Ideally, I will have a little something left over at the end of each month and if I can do something to brighten the world along Lincoln Way, so much the better. I have always believed in small town commerce and I will continue to believe in it and support it.
The Lady of Shalott ventures out to shop at her local.
Main Street America has been dying for a while. Super stores such as K-Mart struck the first blow, and subsequently, WalMarts sprouted up all over America effectively wiping out all manner of small businesses in its wake.  Who doesn't like "one-stop shopping"? And then just as we grew ever more insulated with our technological diversions, Amazon arrived. Amazon is knocking over the remaining holdouts. I have actually watched customers take out their cell phones and photograph items, and I know they will go home and order the item or at least look for it on Amazon. It's easier. It's quicker. You can shop Amazon nude. (And where else can you do THAT, after all?) And who doesn't like having a package delivered to the front door? Yet what will Amazon do for small town America? Will they rent a vacant building along Main Street? Pay taxes? Employ locals? Will Amazon buy ham sandwiches from your scout troop? And when have you ever been inside an Amazon where you've run into an old friend and decided like the lady of Shalott you were "half sick of shadows" and opted to spend time face-to-face with another human being?

"I am half sick of shadows," said 
       The Lady of Shalott. 

How well do you know your own community? Have you ever been to Lions Club Park? I often walk the trail there and I am knocked out by the offerings for recreation. The property is vast and beautiful. Its playing fields are lovingly maintained by the Lions who think small town residents deserve a safe place to play. Fulton County Master Gardeners planted and maintained a pollinator garden there. You should see it. For a few months now, I have observed folks hard at work transforming the old G.C. Murphy building into a new museum for the Fulton County Historical Society (FCHS). The transformation is nothing short of miraculous. Those who work so diligently at its transformation receive nothing in return but the satisfaction of knowing they have played some part in maintaining Main Street. You should see it. Just up the street the Tritles have opened their market .On the last Saturday of this month the FCHS will sponsor a tea at the very rear of their new museum in a room you may not even know about. I have even heard rumblings about PeckWood re-opening. Fingers crossed. If we like these parks and buildings and businesses, we must support them. We must venture forth.
Charter members of "Ladies Tea and Chatter Club"

In a very few hours, I will throw open the front door of Tickle Your Fancy and invite you inside to celebrate six years of tea and gifts but, more importantly, to celebrate a little place where you can have community with real living friends, enjoy a fragrant cuppa. My lovely "lives-too-far-away" friend has dubbed TYF the "Ladies Tea and Chatter Club" and it is a name that suits it. It makes me smile to think of how many lively discussions have taken place during TYF's short six-year tenure as well as all the decades filled with other conversations from years past, of other enterprises. It's a tradition worth maintaining, the little shop.

en·cour·age·ment: noun: the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope. 

As I sat in TYF yesterday with long-time friend, supporter and cook/baker par excellence boxing up her homemade Earl Grey truffles for today's party, the phone rang. It was my high school friend and fellow golden girl calling to wish me well today as she is on her way to Ohio and will miss the party. What these two friends give along with the many, many other friends who have supported my little enterprise at 110 Lincoln Way West  is encouragement. More than a week ago a planter was delivered from one of my favorite girls in the world who lives in Texas, and yesterday three little  birthday cards arrived. These loving gestures  of encouragement humble me and they remind me that in a world that seems to be working hard to be as impersonal as possible, we are, first and foremost, people -- humans with warm and beating hearts--humans with the capacity to give to others support, confidence and hope. Thank You.


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