Life Well Lived

Another action-filled week has flown by so quickly, allowing us but a moment to catch our breath before it starts again. Tuesday saw the opening of the California Gift Show and my week was split between attending the show and attending to some events outside the store.

I was very lucky to have been invited to Senator Carol Liu's Women in Business Awards Luncheon at the Pasadena Hilton on Thursday. Two of my friends were honored, Donna Chaney and Rose West. Donna is one of the creators of the Business Builders Boot Camp at the Women's City Club I joined last year; Rose West is the owner of Altadena's Curves. Both ladies deserve the highest congratulations and it was an honor to be in the audience!

Today Scott and I joined several friends to celebrate the life of Steven Patrick. Steve was married for an all too brief four years to my friend, Debbi, and he passed away from an aggressive form of cancer in April. It was an inspiration to see how many people were there, and even more inspiring were the stories told by Steve's friends of his character.

He wasn't the type of guy to see a glass as half full or half empty. He always saw the glass as full, his friends said. This quality, this undeniable optimism, is what attracted so many people to him. There's a lesson for us here, especially in these challenging times. Life is a gift that shouldn't be squandered....live exhuberently and with purpose. After all, as Abraham Lincoln said, "it isn't the years in your life, it's the life in your years".

Have a great week, my friends! Next week we'll take a look at what we saw at the gift show, the new trends and what that you can look forward to seeing at WFS in the coming months.

Lori & Scott

Windows To The Soul....Windows Of Opportunity

"They say that the eye is the window to the soul. But it is the soul that is the window." - Andrew Hamilton

Those of you who read Altadenablog or our Facebook Fan Page will have already seen our new faux windows. They were painted this past week on the front walls of our store by local Altadena artist Gary Thomas. Maybe you've driven by and seen them or caught a glimpse while coming out of the pharmacy. I'm told that if you look at them from across the street you can't tell they're not real. If you haven't seen them yet, I'm personally inviting you to drop by and have a look. Gary did such a wonderful job and we're awed by his talent!

Fake windows might not seem like such a big deal in the relative scheme of things, but to us here at WFS, it's huge. The windows give just the right whimsical touch we'd been planning on for two years. They give our store what it had been lacking on the outside - a personality that reflects the warmth of the inside! It's different enough from anything else in the area to call attention to us and to the fact that we are an independent Altadena original.

Actually, this is the first step in our long awaited plan of action. We've been under a lot of pressure to get signage on the front (apparently, the $1200.00 light-up at night sign on the top front of our building wasn't sufficient). I resisted putting up any more plastic signs as Lake Avenue is littered with them. Deep down, I'd rather be anonymous than be tacky, but that wasn't the best idea for staying in business. The windows, then, are our answer to the plastic and our using a local artist to paint them was our contribution to stimulating our local economy. Just think if this idea were to be contagious....if instead of a plethora of plastic signage, we had local artists painting local scenes on our community's buildings, what a wonder it would be to drive up and down North Lake Avenue!

Delving even further into that idea (dare we??), why not imagine that all us business owners here working together for the good of the community? Can we imagine an Altadena for Altadena residents, a strong and healthy community where doing business in town is a pleasure? I can imagine it....I can taste it....and I know there are many of you out there who can as well. If we all joined together and contributed to the beautification of North Lake Avenue, if we all joined forces to call attention to the need for redevelopment here, would the County Supervisors listen? I think they would, and I'm praying they will. Never has the time been better or the results more needed. Stay with us while we work our plan.

Enjoy the week ahead, my friends, but stay cool...it's supposed to be a hot one!

Lori & Scott

Hahamongna Heartache

As the famous Joni Mitchell song goes, "They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot...." and that's pretty much what's slated to happen to Hahamongna Watershed Park.

If you're not familiar with the wide open vistas of sere grass, old growth oaks and little creeks, check out the link in the group below that says "Save Hahamongna" for more information. Then see this link, http://tinyurl.com/264f4hc, that outlines the proposed plan for this fabulous urban playground for animals, birds and man.

Not only a favorite of hikers, equestrians and dog-walkers, Hahamongna also plays a big role in the Pasadena area's flood control plan. It's quite an important place and it's one that should be preserved as is.

Many of us community bloggers have agreed to write about Hamahonga today to alert you, our readers, about the City of Pasadena's plan to turn Hahamongna into a sports mecca. Soccer fields and such are great and I agree that they're needed, just not in Hahamongna.

Here's the thing - natural, open spaces like Hahamongna are rare in Los Angeles County. We keep going at the pace we've been, it'll be just as the song says...."you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone". I know, because I've seen it happen.

Scott and I live on a bluff in Westchester that rises above the eastern end of the Ballona Creek Wetlands. This is the house I was raised in and this is the house we moved into when my parents passed over 14 years ago. The land that Ballona Creek once encompassed has been built into Playa Vista, residential and business planned development that sprawl across this once empty riparian corridor. Despite resident's efforts, only a tiny piece of it was "saved" as a habitat for birds and animals.

What was once a clear view to Toes Beach in Playa del Rey is now cluttered by condos, townhomes and apartment buildings so close together, one neighbor across the way could hold hands with the other. Office buildings have sprung up and we even have the new L.A. Clippers' training facility. To be honest, I prefered the vacant land to the present cadre of buildings - and I'm sure the many bird and animal residents do, too. We lost a great portion of unspoiled, natural wetlands and in turn, now have to deal with more people, traffic, light pollution and noise.

I would hate to see Hahamongna suffer the same fate. The park as it is now is too valuable a place to lose to enterprise. I'm thinking the light pollution factor alone would make the city think twice about this. Not to mention that the park runs just south and parallel, in parts, to JPL. In these days of foreign theats from other countries, would I really want to have such a venue as proposed so close? No, I don't think so. Let's just let it be. Let's not have to kick ouselves in the shin because we paved Paradise and put in a parking lot (and a soccer field).

The following is a list of Pasadena and Altadena bloggers who are writing about Hahamongna today. Please visit them and see what they've got to say:

http://altadenaaboveitall.com/

http://altadenahiker.blogspot.com/

http://athinkingstomach.blogspot.com/

http://eastofallen.blogspot.com/

http://margaretfinnegan.blogspot.com/

http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/

http://www.mendolo.com/

http://misterearlmusing.blogspot.com/

http://www.mylifewithtommy.com/

http://pasadenaadjacent.com/

http://pasadenadailyphoto.blogspot.com/

http://pasadenalatina.blogspot.com/

http://www.savehahamongna.org/

http://theskyisbig.blogspot.com/

http://grrl.wordpress.com/

You can contact your city representatives here: http://www.savehahamongna.org/council.htm

Read this morning's article in the Pasadena Star News here:
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_15451344?IADID=Search-www.pasadenastarnews.com-www.pasadenastarnews.com

Until next week, my friends!

Lori and Scott

Roll Out Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer....

Those days of pretzels and, er, wine? You betcha! WFS officially rolled out summer in Altadena on Saturday evening with an awesome, interactive wine pairing seminar!

Presided over by OddBallGrape.com bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and her husband, Michael Holland, the happy attendees learned which type of wines to serve with traditional 4th of July barbecue and party foods. We tasted eight flights of wine with wonderful dishes prepared by local eateries Bonnie B.'s Smokin' BBQ Heaven and Amy's Patio Cafe and boy, let me tell you, the food and the wine were spectacular!

Barbecue foods are infamously hard to partner with wine. Beer or mixed drinks are the usual choice at barbecue parties, but what if you don't like beer? It's a nice gesture for the host(ess) of a party to offer more than one choice of libation, and wine, when chosen correctly can compliment your menu perfectly and please the most discriminating guest.

We all had a great time listening to Anne and Michael and it was nice to see so many people taking notes, asking questions and sharing their experiences with different wines and foods. Lots of laughter flowed, new friendships struck and it didn't feel like any type of seminar I'd ever been to! This was really so much fun that we'll have to do it again for all the seasons and make it a tradition. Huge thanks must be given to Sarah, manager of Webster's Liquor, who worked with Anne and Michael to get the wines just right and without her this evening wouldn'tve happened.

That's the other beautiful thing that happened last night. This first collaboration between Webster's Pharmacy Corporation and Webster's Fine Stationers went off without a hitch and I am so thankful for that. This shows that working together we can create a memorable evening of knowledge, fun and community in our neighborhood, which is so important for independently owned businesses like ours. We love giving back to our town and all our customers who've been there for us all these years! It's you all that made this evening so special. Thanks for taking a chance and for having faith that it wouldn't be a flop. I look forward to working with Webster's Liquor and planning the next fete!

Have a wonderful week!

Lori & Scott

FATHER'S DAY 2010

 

Reading through what my friends have written about their fathers on my Facebook feed, I’m feeling the love they’ve expressed.  As I subject you to my tribute, I’ll invite you to leave one about your father here in the comments.  Everyone should write about their parents at some point in their adulthood, I think.  It’s almost like a cathartic and adds another layer of understanding to your relationship you have or had with them.

Last month, when I wrote about my mom on Mother’s Day, I hadn’t really planned it.  I sat down to write my usual Sunday blogpost and that’s what came out and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  I said I’d write about my dad on Father’s Day in that blogpost and write I will.  But it’s not the same as it was with my mom.  My dad was more…..complex.

Bob Elliott was born Robert Irving Elliott, Jr. in 1917 to Dr. Robert Irving Elliott, Sr. and Ann Louise Babcock Elliott.  He lived at 511 Main St., in Chadron, Nebraska – a two story Victorian with a deep porch.  If I was a house, I’d want to be one like that, loved so much there are sketches of it, a framed painting and years of nostalgic reminiscing.

It’s hard to talk about my dad without first talking about his parents, my paternal grandparents.  It was they who formed the man who would become my father, they who molded his character and somewhat enigmatic personality.

In 1917, Woodrow Wilson was president and the world was at war.  Life went on largely uninterrupted in Chadron, NE, located just underneath Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.  My grandfather’s parents had immigrated to Nebraska from Illinois as my grandmother’s parents had done from the east coast, seeking new territories to settle.  The Babcock side of my father’s family had been in the U.S. for years, a distant cousin having fought in the Revolutionary War, while the Elliott’s came over from England (and France, on my paternal great-grandmother’s side).

My grandfather finished graduate school, taught school for a while, was superintendent of schools for two different counties then won the election for Nebraska’s Deputy State Superintendent of Schools. He later became the President of Chadron State College.  Chadron State was formerly called Chadron State Teacher’s College and my grandfather was instrumental in transforming it into a fully accredited four-year college.  He was President there from 1916 until 1940.

My grandmother taught Latin.  She just didn’t teach Latin to school children….she taught advanced Latin to teachers, and later, taught college level Latin.  She had a degree, also, and that certainly wasn’t common for women in the mid to late Victorian era.  In 1910, she and my grandfather married, rather late in life, as they were both over 30, also not that common for the times.  My father was their only child.

I never learned much about my father’s life directly from him, other than his talking about his old home, the college and traveling with his parents.  Most of what I’ve learned about his early days, I’ve read from my grandmother’s many (many!) journals and from his best friend, my late Uncle Sandy.  I know my grandfather’s position warranted much travel, mainly to Washington, D.C. and New York.  I know that while in New York, staying in a hotel while his father attended more graduate studies, he contracted diphtheria.  He had to be quarantined and the doctors didn’t know exactly when he’d be allowed to go home.  I remember him telling me that his father was none too pleased to be kept waiting because of a sick child.

He also traveled to California with his parents, so his dad could take part in some continuing education at USC.  It was there that his father told him that after he completed his prep school at Chadron State, he would be attending USC.  He graduated from the USC School of Commerce in 1938.  He lived over by The Pantry in Los Angeles, which, along with Phillippe's, became his favorite places to eat.  He also loved the old Biltmore Hotel downtown almost as much as he loved his church, The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.  My dad was an usher there for 30 years or more, serving with the likes of Gale Gordon and Rock Hudson.  He admired his friend, Dr. James W. Fifield, greatly, and was a member of the church’s Freedom Club.  Dr. Fifield married my parents in 1947 and baptized me in 1957, and my dad was a pallbearer at his funeral.

My dad was a staunch right-wing conservative, a member of the Conservative Book Club Of America and once flirted with The John Birch Society.  He wasn’t the type of guy you took to a party and trust to be silent on the subject of politics. He quoted Nikita Kruchev’s line, “we will bury you with your own shovel” quite often and his favorite books were “The Naked Communist” and “Kissinger On The Couch”.  When I was around the age of 14, he tried to explain to me that the Beatles’ “Hey, Jude” was a song about heroin – poor guy just couldn’t get past the lyrics “let it under your skin”.

This didn’t make him very approachable when I was an adolescent.  He was the ultimate task-maker, the rule defender and my mother’s last resort.  We were the classic “wait until your father gets home” family, which was also not very conducive to good relations.  There was such an age gap between my parents and my sister and I – they both were raised in a different age and they had a hard time understanding what was happening in the 1960s and 70s.  Of course, when you’re 16 and wanting to go to a party, you don’t understand how your father’s upbringing could have anything to do with the fact that he won’t let you go.

My father must’ve been raised with a stern hand.  Parents had different criteria for children in the early part of the 20^th Century than they do now (seen and not heard comes to mind and is something I was told often when I was young).  Back then, kids mostly did what their parents told them to do without question.  Thanks to the youthful uprisings in the 60’s, that changed and left many older parents befuddled.  Education, naturally, was important to my father’s parents and so was important to him.  I ‘m sure I cut him to the quick when I refused my paid-for USC education and got married instead at the age of 18.

Having lived through the Depression also left a permanent mark on my dad.  I really never understood why so much, since his parent’s position in life wasn’t affected by it.  He had a real fear of the stock market and I can only surmise that others in the town must have suffered losses.  He did, however, teach us by example how to be accountable with money, although I didn’t appreciate that until I was older.

There was much that I didn’t appreciate about my father until I was old enough to understand him.  I’ve reached a deeper understanding now after raising my own child and maybe I’ve just grown wiser over the years.  I can look back and see that he was a generous man, had great family loyalty and a high level of personal integrity.  And to his credit, his extreme political views mellowed out over the years, so he was capable of expanding his mind. 

He never quite got over his reluctance to communicate on a personal level with his children.  I wish I’d known him better.  But if he were here today, I would tell him thanks for raising my sister and I with such high standards.  I could say to him that I thank him for passing on to us his great love for the U.S. and what it stands for.  Most of all, I’d say to him that yes, dad, I get it now…..I understand what you were trying to tell me all those years ago.  Rest in peace, dad, I love you.

Ask Not What Your Community Can Do For You.....

Forgive me for using a variation of President John F. Kennedy's famous inauguration speech.  I thought it appropriate that we substitute the word "community" for "country" for they are eventually the same ideal.  Broken down to the grassroots level, what you do for your community today strengthens your country tomorrow.

This is also a question that Scott and I asked ourselves before taking over ownership of Webster's stationery department.  Weighing the pros and cons of buying a store that wasn't really a store, one that was already in financial trouble, against the potential good we felt we could do in our community.  We took this on not because we thought we were going to make a ton of money in the endeavor, but because our family and community needed us to do it.  In whatever permeation Webster's is in now, at least we're still here. 

If  I had a dime for every time I've heard customer's say, "what would we do without Webster's?", I'd be able to buy lunch at Amy's Patio Cafe for 10 of our customers!  We're doing our part to ensure that Webster's remains in the community, not only as just a part of our historic scenery but a contributing member of Altadena's community.  That's why Scott and I , along with Ben McGinty, Molly Tierney, Steve Salinas, Lance Anderson and Jeff Kline formed the Altadena Arts Coalition.  That's why I'm sitting on the board of the Chamber of Commerce and it's also why Webster's Fine Stationers supports our local non-profit organizations.

We've also been very active online and love helping promote our community member's businesses and other worthy causes.  We've also enjoyed getting to know more of Altadena's residents as well, through our Facebook page and other venues, as well.  We envision a time when all the businesses in our Upper North Lake neighborhood work together for the benefit of all and we're working toward that end.  Until then, however, it's my pleasure to let you know (if you don't already) that Amy's Patio Cafe will be open on Saturday and Sunday nights for dinner during the summer.  Lauren will also be assembling box dinners for your enjoyment at the Sheriff's Support Group's Summer Concert Series, commencing soon.  Find out more information on her Facebook page and become a fan!

Speaking of working together, save the date of Saturday, June 26th, when Webster's Liquor and Webster's Fine Stationers will be holding a collaborative event you won't want to miss!  This fun and informative mini-seminar on pairing wines with popular barbeque party foods will feature local wine experts Anne Bannon and Michael Holland, just in time for the spate of 4th of July parties on the horizon.  The seminar is free but space is limited....when you receive your invitation be sure to respond quickly!  More information will be forthcoming next week.

This wraps up quite a week of excitement!  Last week we had a surprise visit from Tom Hanks, and our friend, Karen Klein, author of the blog Financially inKleined and reporter for various newspaper & magazines, wrote this article that appeared in BusinessWeek.  We love that the shop local message is being carried out here in the San Gabriel Valley!  Just remember, my friends, when you spend a dollar at an independent retailer, 70 to 80 cents remain to work within your community.  That's opposed to only 20 to 40 cents on the dollar if the same purchase was made at a corporate-owned big box or chain store.  Shop local and you'll find that stimulating the local economy has never been so rewarding!

Until next week,

Lori & Scott

COMMUNITY ARTS

Altadena’s such a great place, don’t you think? This past weekend was so jam packed with fun things to do, I’m sure lots of folks had trouble deciding which events to attend!

Friday evening before driving home, Scott and I stopped at McGinty’s Gallery At The End Of The World to check out their quarterly Art Bender Weekend kickoff. Visiting the Gallery is always a treat for us and we love the easy feeling of its laid-back, eclectic interior. Even more than that, we truly enjoy the sense of camaraderie that Ben and his artists create for Art Bender….each one unique, but each one distinctly Altadena. Many of our favorite local artists were showing this weekend – Molly Tierney, Dave Lovejoy (who gets around a lot, as you’ll discover next paragraph), Heather Campbell Morrow and so many others!

Saturday brought Art on Millionaire’s Row, an exhibit of local art and local eateries presented by our own Altadena Library. It was hot….not brutally so, but a harbinger of temps to come as summer progresses. We caught the Jitney, Pierre DuPuy’s antique trolley type car, on the corner of Mariposa and Lake and rode in style to the Library down the street. It was nice to see a good sized crowd attending.  We met Dave Lovejoy at the suspension bridge at the front entrance to the Library where he was working on an interactive art display. His son was helping by manning Dave’s booth, filled with his exquisite pottery.

Our favorite painter of mermaids, angels and fairies, Karen Bagnard, had her booth set up near the center. With her mister in hand, she was keeping cool as her beautiful cards and other offerings were flying off with satisfied customers. She was also selling older drawings…originals penned and not used, perhaps….for $5.00 per piece to benefit the Library. We thought that was pretty great so we invested in some fabulous Halloween themed drawings that you’ll be able to see exhibited closer to the holiday this year!

Inside the Library itself, in one of their meeting rooms, was an exhibit of paintings and photography by locals, including the Library’s own Camille Dudley, Edward Beckett and John Balian. The artwork was fantastic and I’m still blown away by them all! We enjoyed speaking with Mr. Beckett and Mr. Balian and John will be bringing us a couple of his paintings to hang in the store. I’m so excited about that! All in all, we met so many truly gifted and talented artists and I’m hoping we’ll be seeing more of their art in the future.

It’s so gratifying to see our community come together like it does for these events. Today, Scott and I attended the Bright Future Scholars graduation celebration at the Pasadena Civic Center….wow, what an excellent way to spend an afternoon. If you’re not familiar with the Bright Future Scholars, please click here. If you’ve been following our blog then you’ll know that we have been supporting the Scholars since we took over the store. Now that we’re a bit more together than we were back in 2007 & 2008, we’ll be planning more fund-raisers for this very special Altadena non-profit.

We’ll talk more in depth of our plans and what it means to the Altadena community next week. Until then, here’s wishing you a wonderful and productive week….

Scott and Lori

Memorial Day Haitus

As we pause to remember those who have died defending this country, we'd like to remind you to keep our disabled veterans in your thoughts as well.  There are so many that need our help.  You can find out more about them at their website.

Scott and I hope you have an enjoyable day off and a wonderful week ahead!  Don't forget that Art on Millionaire's Row is next Saturday!  Sounds like it's shaping up to be quite an event.....find out more at
Altadenablog

Until next week,

Lori & Scott

Independents For All!

July 1st through July 7th is Independent’s Week and I’d like to take a few moments of your time to talk to you about why that’s important. I think the American Independent Business Alliance sums it up pretty well on their site’s home page:


“Think of your favorite shop, restaurant or service provider. We'll bet it's a hometown business. Independent locally owned businesses are essential to a vital local economy and community character. They use the goods and services of other local businesses, serve as community hubs, and are vital components of healthy neighborhoods and strong city centers. They're where the locals go. They're owned by our friends and neighbors, or maybe even by you.

The threat to our communities is real. Dependence on absentee-owned businesses and corporate chains carries many unhealthy consequences. It's not just local businesses that suffer -- our communities are losing social, cultural and economic strength, a place for entrepreneurship, and the ability to determine our own futures. But we have a choice.”

Yes, indeed, we have a choice, and I’m asking that you consider making it. There have been so many studies done on the benefits and effects of shopping at locally owned business and all have hard data to back them up. You may investigate yourself, starting at AMIBA’s link, above, because, as their home page states, “community matters”.

All of us at Webster’s Fine Stationers think community matters, too. For almost three years now, we’ve been engaging you via this blog, our newsletters, our Facebook Friend Page and Twitter. We’re reaching out to you in real time, hoping we snag your attention long enough for you to hear our message. Help us keep our town economically healthy by investing in it. Patronize your local businesses, reduce your carbon footprint and let’s keep Altadena moving forward! Those of you who’re reading this that aren’t from this part of town, county, or even this state; this applies to you, too. No place in the U.S. is safe from the encroachment of huge, corporate businesses and nothing is sacred to them.  You might think that what you do doesn't matter, but it matters a great deal.  A movement is born one person at a time.

 

To jump-start the celebration of Independent’s Week, we’re hosting a Very Special Afternoon With Altadena’s Own Andre Coleman! Author of A Liar’s Tale and Blackbirds, Vol. 1 and ace reporter at The Star News and Pasadena Weekly, Mr. Coleman will be here Saturday, May 29th to discuss his books and sign any that you purchase here at the store. We’re staying open late for this event, which starts at 4:00 p.m. and end at 7:30 p.m. We’d love you to join us, meet Mr. Coleman and enjoy a lovely afternoon with complimentary libations, hearty appetizers and stimulating conversation!

We have many more informative and fun in-store events like this planned throughout the summer months, so keep an eye on your inbox or Facebook page for further information. There’s never a dull moment at Webster’s Fine Stationers!

Here’s to an excellent week ahead!

Scott & Lori Webster

CATCHING THE BUZZ

So many things happening in beautiful Altadena lately! The spring weather has been gorgeous and everyone’s gardens are looking lovely. I’m really missing getting out in our garden at home, but hope to have some time off to get in the dirt later on. At least my roses are still blooming nicely with all the rain we’ve had. My special baby….my beautifully scented old Bourbon climbing rose,  a Zephrene Drouhin, is finally doing well. But, until I can satisfy my gardening cravings, I’ll just have to settle for helping you satisfy yours!

Now in store are adorable, 100% organic and compostable grow kits for lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, edible flowers and basil. These kits are all-inclusive, contained in their own planter made out of rice hulls. Once the plants are started in your home you have the option of planting them in your garden, pot and all! They’re already to go, including a pretty ribbon and to-from tag, just perfect for gifting. Other kits are available without the planter, but still containing all you need for starting organic sunflowers, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries and pet grass inside for transplanting later. Raising your own vegetables is becoming more and more prevalent these days – who wouldn’t want fresh, organic produce available from their own garden or container garden? Compostable container kits are $24.99, recyclable grow kits are $19.99 and pet grass (dog and cat) are $9.99.

We’ve also gotten in many new summer entertaining items and have changed the store décor to an elegant beach theme. Come in and see our fabulous marble servers, summer themed napkins and shell motif serving platters! Sparkling glass apothecary jars full of shells, summer-scented candles, stunning blue swirl art glass vases and absolutely beautiful punched tin lanterns from Mexico will transport you directly to Margaritaville….no ticket required! Be sure to take a look at the lightweight, fair-trade scarves from Open Hand Designs, as well. They’re the perfect accent for your summer wardrobe and what could be better than purchasing something that helps someone else? We’ve got beautiful fair-trade jewelry, also, and just arrived are wonderfully fabulous, real stone necklaces, pendants and bracelets from Tobias & Alysha, a local  Los Angeles company. These stones are selected carefully for their healing, magical qualities and are made by family-owned, fair trade exporters in India.

Have you caught the buzz yet about the new restaurant opening on upper North Lake Avenue? The vacant building that housed the defunct CJ’s Wings is now a Mexican eatery called El Patron and we hear they are really, really good! Scott, Leilana and I were lucky to meet the owner a few months ago while she was shopping at WFS. She was asking us about the vacant building up the street, and then told us of her plans to open a Mexican place there. We are so thrilled she was able to arrange it and we welcome them to our Upper North Lake family! Wow, all the buzzing about this new place is great….kind of makes me wish that when Scott and I opened WFS, there could’ve been that much excitement. Unfortunately, I guess everyone was too shocked, or mad, at the changes to Webster’s to celebrate our new ownership and the promise it represented.
We’re still dealing with those issues today, almost three years after having taken over the old stationery department at Webster’s. Almost three years of Webster’s Pharmacy Corporation not saying a word to the public about why they decided to break up the stores. The parties responsible for the changes decline to comment, let alone mention our store. It’s just Scott and I, and our crew, feeling like voices in the wilderness, explaining it to customers time after time. It makes you wonder why they don’t work with us to promote the entire complex, even though we’re separate stores….you’d think that would be a no brainer. We like what Seth Godin says in his latest blogpost and believe it to be apropos to what’s happening here.

Every holiday or occasion, we talk to hundreds of people who visit our store and ask us about what happened to Webster’s. This past Mother’s Day we actually kept track and it was roughly every other person who came in who asked. That’s actually staggering, my friends….every other person shopping at Webster’s last weekend hadn’t been there for nearly three years! For a store to survive it needs loyal customers and shopping with any store only once every couple of years won't help much.  We would love you to be a loyal customer and have been hard at work to regain your trust.

We’ve also been working hard to bring you information on the importance of shopping locally, supporting your local businesses and thereby, your community. I know that there are many of you out there who do, and we thank you, but the number of people who don’t are greater. We need to get the word out, to let people know we’re trying very hard to be more relevant to the residents of Altadena and nearby areas by the products we carry, the knowledge and services we offer and by our involvement in the community. Please help by spreading the word. Do what Webster’s won’t and tell your friends and neighbors about Webster's Fine Stationers! That would help very much and we’ll keep doing what we do best - serving you and our community with with genuine pleasure.

Have a wonderful week!

Lori and Scott

My Mother, Helen V. Elliott - A Tribute For Mother's Day

My mom was born in Grinnell, Iowa, on a farm, in 1911. Second to the oldest of five children, her parents both died when she was 11 yrs old. Not long after they passed, she lost her youngest brother, and then the farmhouse and everything in it to fire.  She and her sister went to live with their grandma in town and her younger brother stayed with family friends closer to school. They helped out their grandma, Hattie Eichhorn, at the tea room she owned, and learned the fine art of cooking and baking.  All the siblings could cook like champions, except for the oldest boy, Shirley (old family name), who took off on his own after his parents' death.


My mom married her high school sweetheart right after her college graduation and lost him two weeks later in a motorcycle accident in the mid 1930s. She later married again to a scoundrel who drank and cheated on her. In the early 1940s, an era where women didn't do that type of thing, she was strong enough to divorce him and escape with her friend to California.  There she met and married my father (we'll talk about him on Father's Day).

Her health was never that great. As a child, she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis so badly that her legs had to be wrapped up and she was bed-ridden in the winter. Possibly because of the rheumatic fever, she was never able to bear children and had to have a hysterectomy shortly after her first husband was killed. She and my father adopted me in 1957 after having waited on a list for almost 10 years....she was 46 years old. They adopted my sister 17 months later.

In the very early 1970s, my mom decided she wanted to go back to work. This was not the norm for wives and mothers in our neighborhood and my father was dead set against it. This was the only argument I ever saw my parents have and she won. She worked for Fashion Fabrics in Westchester and eventually became their West Coast Regional Manager. By this time, my dad had semi-retired and worked out of the den at home. My mom loved what she did, but truth be told, she was very glad to be out of his way as he watched all his sports on every TV in the house!

She was diagnosed with colon cancer in March of 1981, two months after her granddaughter, my daughter, was born. They found cancer in her liver simultaneously. She had a partial colostomy and steadfastly refused chemo treatments. She did a round of radiation, called it good and went back to work as soon as she could. She loved being surrounded with fabrics and made most of the clothes my sister and I wore when we were young.  She tried to teach me to sew, but I was much too worldly for that....now I could kick myself in the butt for not learning.

The cancer eventually made its way into her bladder and she had it removed when she was 79. After recovering, she went back to the fabric store - a different one in the local mall, because Fashion Fabrics had closed all their California stores. She finally stopped working at 81 and she passed away in 1994 at age 83.
 
My mother was an incredibly strong woman, despite her health issues....or maybe in spite of them.  From Scandinavian stock, her resilience to adversity was legend in our family.  She was the epitome of perseverance, grace and hospitality.  She and my dad were open minded enough to want to adopt children back in a time when it wasn't that common.  She never lied to my sister and I about our adoption, either.  I don't remember a time when I wasn't aware of it but she made sure that we knew that she loved us more than life.  And to start raising children at the age of 46 showcases her strength of character....she was 48 when my sister was born.
 
This is my mother's story.  I'm sure there's a lot more, but she wasn't a woman to talk of herself much.  I can only hope that I mirror her outstanding qualities.  What a compliment it would be for someone to say that I remind them of my mother!  Happy Mother's Day, Mom....I miss you! 
 
I hope you and your family enjoyed Mother's Day.  Have a wonderful week!
 
Lori Elliott Webster
 

If You Want To Get To Heaven, You Got To Raise A Little Hell

I never read it in a book,
I never saw it on a show,
but I heard it in the alley
on a weird radio. 
If you want a drink of water,
you got to get it from a well, 
if you want to get to heaven 
you got to raise a little hell......

----Steve Cash and John Dillon
      Ozark Mountain Daredevils, 1973


To me, this song has always been about wanting something enough to fight for it.  It urges us to be vocal about things we care about, maybe make a stir about what you think is important.  Thirty-seven years ago, in 1973, kids all over the world learned to be vocal about things they cared about and people started taking notice.  Things changed because so many young people demanded it.  Opinions were challenged and mind-
sets were changed forever.

As I've said before, time is a circle and what goes around, comes around .  People are again starting to stand up for their core values, especially when it comes to issues like affordable medical insurance and state policies on immigration.  People are also becoming more aware about their neighborhoods and local communities, keeping tabs on and working towards their area's fiscal health.  Of course, in this time of financial uncertainty, it's more important than ever to know where your community is headed.

There were a few things that spurred me to write this blog post.  First was the fact that sales have been down this past month at the store pretty dramatically.  April is traditionally a slow month because of tax time, but I attribute it to more than that.  Economic issues, certainly, but intertwined with that, I've heard, is a general uncertainty about what's going on at Webster's.  If the store were more communicative about all the changes, i.e., if someone other than I talked about it, perhaps  the situation would be better understood..  Until that happens, it leaves Scott, myself and the rest of our crew as the de facto mouthpiece of not just our store, but Webster's in its entirety.  I wish I could give you the answers you want to hear, but I can only tell you that we're all committed to making WFS the best it can be.

Another thing was Altadenablog's posting of this article about Don Thomas' return to Altadena Hardware.  Reading the comments, I noticed a common theme - uncertainty about what was happening there.  Also stated more than once in the comments was a thing I've heard repeatedly since we took over the old stationery department - that the inventory is not as complete as it once was.  I had to leave a comment about that, which you can read at the link above, but I'll paraphrase it simply here.  If patronage drops off, when people stop coming to the store (our store, or any store) because of an ownership change or a change in the economy, that means that the store is not making the money it once did.  Yet the store is still responsible for paying its employees, the taxes and if it can, the rent.  If there's enough left over, it's invested in inventory.  If you don't buy, we can't buy, it's as simple as that....we independent retailers don't have a huge corporation backing us, the way the big-box stores do.  Speaking of big box stores, Greg Sweet, one of the commenters on the thread on Altadenablog I've linked above, posted this fabulous cartoon video from JibJab.  Thanks, Greg, for sharing this funny yet truly sad commentary on this fact of American life.....one I think we can change with some education.

That leads almost perfectly into the third thing that inspired this post.  We had a customer in today, a young man looking at a Moleskine notebook.  The price of the notebook is $21.99.  He asks crewmember Sean Fitz Gerald if we "match prices", which left Sean a bit nonplussed.  I walked over and asked if I could help, and the young gentleman tells me that he could buy this particular specialty notebook off the Internet for $9.00, and could I match that price.  He wants to support local businesses, he said, but it's hard when things are priced higher than big-box stores or the Internet. Where does that extra $10.00 go, he asked....in my pocket?  No, I had to tell him, it certainly doesn't go in my pocket.  Right now, all money received for purchases is going toward paying our employees, keeping our taxes paid and refreshing our core inventory of home office products.  Well, he says, I thought I'd give you the opportunity to earn my business, but I see that you won't work with me.  This young man has now put me in the position where I feel like a highway robber and that I need to justify my prices....even though I know that our margins are deliberately kept to a moderate level.

It's like there's some sort of unwritten law against having your customers familiar with the way retail sales operate.  I say, the more informed you are, the better!  If we in the retail industry were more forthcoming about how we price things, how we buy and what the requirements for retail buying are, we'd have more savvy customers who choose where they shop and recognize what value truly means.  That Moleskine notebook the gentleman asked about cost me about $9.00 to buy....it's also what he wanted me to sell it to him for.  We don't have the customer volume to make it worthwhile to sell things below margin, let alone make no money on it at all.  We do run specials, I told him.....heck, I just spent the evening before handing out 20% off coupons!  Join us on our Facebook Fan page and take adavantage of the promotions there. Become a regular customer and I might be more amenable to working something out  But whatever you do, please realize the value of shopping locally!  Spending your dollars at independent businesses is what keeps the wheels of your town turning!  My employees go out and buy things from other local businesses.  The store buys goods and services from other local businesses, we contribute to our local charities and so on and so on and so on....do you see what I mean?  Now multiply that by the number of independent businesses in your area and you'll see that the amount is substantial.  What if the majority of people in the community shopped locally?  The results would be staggering!  You can actually see how it works at The 3/50 Project and The American Independent Business Alliance.  I urge you to take the time to educate yourself....your community will thank you.

Economic recovery won't really kick in until we jump-start it from the bottom up.  Meaning, help won't come from the top and trickle down, it needs to happen at the lowest rung of the demographic totem pole.... in your local community....and spread upward! Until people realize that spending a few dollars more in locally owned businesses, where the money actually works for the town and isn't sent out of state or even out of the country, we'll continue to face hardship.  I know that some folks out there truly don't care about  things like this.  Like the young man I spoke with, they don't want to be educated, they just want what they want.  He wanted that notebook at $9.00 and was frustrated that I wouldn't "deal" with him.  When I explained that buying off the Internet gives nothing back to his community, he just shrugged. I'm not going to reach everyone, but that's okay.  I'm not trying to reach out to those who don't want to learn, I'm trying to reach out to people who do.  I'm trying to reach out to you!  It's time to raise a little hell, don't you think?

Have a great week, my friends!

Lori & Scott