I usually start thinking about this post about two weeks before the season ends. Bill and I discuss what we want to express and I try to put it in words. Nothing about this summer has been “usual” and we’re taking a break to let the words flow.
From the time we decided to open until now and going forward, all our attention has been hyper focused on “Can we keep ourselves safe? Can we keep the people who come through our door safe?” and “How do we make sure the people who come here feel comfortable that we’re doing both of those things?”
We knew this would be a huge responsibility but until we opened the doors we didn’t comprehend the weight of that responsibility. Every summer we have our usual stresses; Will people come? Will it be busy enough? Is the baking our very best? Will the oven and fridges hold out? Can we stay healthy enough to keep up? And so one and so on…
This summer add in covid-19, social distancing, masks, disinfecting, signage… so much disinfecting, so much signage We entered our season and carried on with one thought in mind… we have to get through to next year.
From opening day through today has been absolutely phenomenal. The summer of 2020 will be a summer Bill and I will never forget. The kindness, generosity and full cooperation of everyone who came through our door has overwhelmed us. We lost spring, our summer season was shortened and we don’t know what fall will bring. We decided this year’s success would not be based on revenue but rather on whether or not we would survive the summer, have a fall season and be able to open next year.
Bill and I agree that 2020 is already our most successful year! We have made it through the summer season, are ready to begin our fall season and are already looking forward to our 13th year beginning in May of 2021!
Thank you to everyone who visited us this summer. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. Thank you for lining up in the sweltering heat and the driving rain. Thank you for your patience and your tolerance. (I almost made it through without the waterworks.) Thank you for your overwhelming support, for helping The Little Tart survive our most trying year. Most of all… thank you for your trust.
We love you dearly.
Please stay safe and healthy so we can all come out the other side of this together.