07/05/2021
I’m tired. As I should be. We had a fantastic holiday weekend thanks to the support of all of you. So I will get some sleep before my son and I head out tomorrow to meet with local farmers and refill our stands with the fruits and veggies of their labor.
But before I go to bed I need to take a moment and really thank all of my great friends who took the time to find me this weekend. It meant the world to me that you took the time to track me down. I value positive relationships and I am proud to not be doing business with the current management of the market formerly known as Morningstar. But the fact remains my family poured our hearts and souls into that market when the owners values lined up with ours. I intentionally have not talked about it on here much, because I don’t feel living in the past is the correct way to have a positive future, but by many standards my family lost everything when my friend and former employee became the manager of the market. I said by many standards because my family still has each other and that is everything to me.
However I do miss my customers dearly. Together I feel we were able to do some very special things at our little family market stand. Again, I was overwhelmed by the amount of you who stopped out to say hello. I was not scheduled to even work on Saturday until 7am when a coworker called off sick and still so many times I would turn around from restocking a display to hear….hey Kyle… and see a smiling face. Or I was talking with a new customer, developing a new relationship …. and I turned around to see a lady I met 20 years ago when I first started going to the market formerly known as Morningstar and our conversation never missed a beat. We were unloading the second truckload of watermelon and there was David. David and I talked for over a hour about grandkids and crabbing, as I piled up delicious sugar baby watermelons my friend Steve planted in Georgia months ago with the intention for us to sell in thomasville. The list goes on and on. You may recognize the two people pictured on this post. Two of my dearest friends. The first one is Andy Lentz. His family owned Morningstar when it was Morningstar. Our friendship was built on the shared belief that our customers were our community and treating our community fairly was the best way to establish a sustainable business. The second picture is of my friend I met when he won the giant pumpkin in last year’s coolest name contest. I have gotten to know Kyles family and with people like that living in our community….our community is a great place to live.
So anyway…. I do need to get some sleep. But I needed to share about my weekend. As always I recognize I have the greatest job in the world….and I had so much fun this weekend doing what I love. But I am a little sad tonight because I also recognize that so many of the friendships I formed at the market formerly known as Morningstar will no longer be sustainable. I want each and every one of you to know I love you … and always will. As long as it is Gods will I will continue to serve my community doing what I love. My community has just moved a couple miles down the road and has grown to cover all of central Pennsylvania.
PS. Did you get to try any of these watermelon? They are all sooooo good….but those sugar babies……wow.
