I have Jorge to thank for the accompanying image. He courageously crossed the river of folks that streamed through the store for most of Thursday evening, people out for the Broken Arrow Main Street Tea-Off. I don’t know the history of the naming of the event. Maybe someone was serving tea. I get the tee-off reference, getting things started for the holiday season.
In the past, I’ve been critical of the idea of putting up decorations before Thanksgiving has even arrived, but here I am, looking across at a lighted Christmas tree. In the front window are garlands and lights. Halloween barely gone.
Down the street, in all the years I kept shop at the Oak Crest Center, there was little activity with the Tea-Off. The trolley came rolling around, but no one seemed to get out of it to investigate the stores. I imagine it was partly due to the fact that I was the only shopkeeper still open after seven. The carpet and flooring business stuck it out with me until she shut down her operation. After that year, I just locked the door at my regular closing time.
This year, I was advised to be ready.
Toward that end, I plated up about 100 cookies, decided against the hot chocolate, and waited. It was about ten minutes between the opening of the first package and watching the first cookie being consumed – well before the six o’clock scheduled start time. Needless to say, the cookie stash did not last long.
The lines, however, were extremely long.
Jorge’s photo doesn’t show the true number of guests milling around and making their way down the aisles. It was what comedian Robin Williams would have described as the “human carwash.” In fact, if he had taken the picture earlier, you’d have seen nothing but the back of someone’s shirt. He’s not as tall as the photographer needed to be to catch the setting in pictures.
Looking back on it, I should have anticipated a couple of things. Moving the many chairs out of the way, so people could wind their way through the aisles, for one. Perhaps I should have allowed myself a later start in the morning. Next year I hope to remember what a long day it turned out to be – but I’m not complaining! As it turned out, I sold some books (I didn’t really expect to during the open house event), and just a few moments ago, a guest from last night returned to buy a set of children’s books that she saw as she walked through. (She didn’t want to buy them in front of her daughter since she intends them as a gift.)
Things are a bit different down at this end of Main Street, and with the plans in the works for the pedestrian friendly changes and my own long-range plans involving the bistro, I have a great feeling about the future.
If you haven’t been to the Rose District or McHuston Booksellers in a while, I hope you’ll come round soon!
By the way, that isn’t my round brown head in the picture. I’m strategically placed behind the countertop display that features a head-sized Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip cookie…