April's Musings

October 2, 2006
"Philadelphia, the city of sisterly love"

I do like the city of Philadelphia. I love the old tight streets, the condensed downtown, the brick townhouses, the mix of black and white people. I love the warmth of the people; they show the friendliness of the South without the "y'all." I like the street carts with $1.75 grilled cheese sandwiches and I like that I can spot Liberty Place by looking up for the tallest building while I am still on the highway. Philly is a great city and tomorrow we open our second store with New Beginnings and old friends there. They call Philadelphia the city of Brotherly love but last week it was all about the sisters!

My sister, Moralea from Victoria, British Columbia—a former retailer, now turned environmentalist but truly a lover of beautiful things, and a great visual merchandiser—gave our new Philly store the final finishing touches it deserved. We tweaked and poked and lifted and hauled and ironed and steamed and moved and moved again the product, the furniture, the garbage! We finished the new fabric borders, the new changing rooms, the striped pink children's walls, the antique furniture, the patchwork voile quilts, the brown velvet coats, the outrageous scarves; we piled and admired all the beautiful items from the many, many boxes.

From the hall a customer hollered "Are you coming back?"
"Yes, we are."
"Hallelujah!" she said.
It made this girl glad inside.

And the folks at Crabtree and Evelyn sent all of us natural creams for our hands and our faces, and we had gifts of chocolate and lots of "good lucks," and "glad your backs." Tomorrow, the day after Yon Kippur we open our doors to our many friends, and friends of our manger Anne Diamond in the Village of Central Philly. Anne, thanks for showing me your village. And Philly, thanks for the sisterly love.

April Cornell

PS. Driving back through the changing foliage of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Vermont was a real treat too. Not to mention those apple cider donuts.