A Return to Fall
Seems obvious, in a four-season place like this, that Fall would return each year. Nothing really new about that. And indeed, I'm so built into the "return to fall routines" that there is a real comfort in seeing September show up on the calendar again
As a child those fall dates were all about back-to-school excitement - including an annual bus trip into downtown St Paul (from suburban St. Paul) with my grandmother, who'd help us complete our supply list with stops at Daytons, St Paul Book and Stationery, and Park Square Chocolate Shop, well, not that chocolates were actually on our list, but we loved watching the bakers through the window as they rolled out chocolates and taffy. I loved attending school and for the most part had very favorable experiences that built on each other year after year. Then, my professional years as a teacher just continued that on-going routine - though, yes, some years with a bit more trepidation in my preparations, including those first few years in Minneapolis where I'd sit in the HR hallway each morning during the last week of before school start up, waiting for an assignment to finally appear for my spot on the seniority list.
As a parent, those fall routines stretched through my transition into the operations here at Butter, so it really wasn't until both of my children had completed college (2016) that the fall took on a different pace. Nowadays, my fall routine is limited to the shifting of a couple of my staff from summer to fall school schedules and the awaited return of customer patterns that drop away during the summer.
But since 2020, Septembers have not felt anything like those of the pre-pandemic past. And last year especially, as we made the painful choice to be closed both Saturdays and Sundays, the excitement and energy of restarting "fall routines" was only partly there. There was still much that was tentative or on hold, and schools were trying to ease in again with hopes that a Covid year wouldn't reappear.
So, this year, imagine my relief, when the school fundraiser request letters started arriving. I'm hearing from organizations that hadn't been in contact since 2019. I've had conversations with performing spaces about returning to intermission support. With the start of a new Children's Theatre Season starting up September 12, this seems more like the fall seasons I remember.
Momentum is showing up in other places too. We celebrated the arrival and "landing" of the huge cisterns that will support water conservation at the Sundial Apartment Building behind us with some shared water use also being planned for our boulevard plantings. Our internship efforts are finding more footing and will offer us another opportunity to bring a resident of Nicollet Square onto our staff at the cafe. And our diligent watering of the Nicollet Avenue pollinator pathway is helping us feel pretty good about having most of them survive the winter ahead.
And while I really do love the fall season, the past couple years have planted a bit of dread in seeing September show up. If we don't get it right here at the cafe, the winter's challenges become overwhelming to our business operations. This year the re-connections and new connections are chipping away at that dread.
The bounty of our community supported agriculture farms, now leaning into melons and squash, also encourages us to celebrate the wondrous miracle of our earth's ability to sustain us. As we gathered in the back lot at the end of August to mark great progress toward supporting our city's response to a changing climate, the possibilities for equitable investment in weatherization, renewable energy, and training for new jobs, brought me joy.
This fall, I'm still walking this green path with a pretty heavy load, but also with a little lighter step. Thank you for your support in helping us be the community gathering space and resource we long to be.