Today, January 18th, is Winnie the Pooh Day. As a Pooh aficionado, when I ran across this bit of trivia I began casting the Red Sunset Merchants Association characters as the inhabitants of A.A. Milne’s Hundred Acre Wood.
If you know Hans Huseby at Footwork’s, you will agree with me that he is indeed our very own Christopher Robin. Like Christopher Robin, he knows the entire woods because he has been here 25 years. Like Christopher Robin, Hans shows up everyday ready to make the best of it with all the characters.
So at the Red Sunset Merchants Association, we count on his wisdom and knowledge of the woods and its characters to make things work.
It’s a pity, but about one-third of the merchants in our community could audition for the role of Eeyore. They are endearing and wonderful, but do lots of complaining. They fire off a few emails about one thing or another, then go back to their thistle bushes to search for their tails.
Pooh once said, and Christopher Robin agreed, “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” But Eeyore rarely listens.
The Hundred Acre Wood is full of bees and they keep Pooh away from the honey. In South Miami, I think the meter maids are like bees. They keep customers away from our stores, which bring in the money, I mean the honey.
But there is hope. When Pooh needs answers to the most difficult questions, he looks for Owl. Without a doubt, our Owl is Mayor Stoddard. We have never been served by such a smart, straight-forward leader. Most recently, our Owl brought new parking meters to the woods, which could keep away some bees, which might make getting to the honey a little easier.
For some real organic honey, stop by the South Miami Farmers Market. It is open every Saturday in front of City Hall. When you are there say hello to our very own Rabbit, David Harper. He is serious about turning as many people as possible into locavores, which means not just eating organic, but local and organic. Thank you Rabbit for what you bring to the woods.
The Heffalump of the Red Sunset Merchants Association is our website, www.shopsouthmiami.com. Like a Heffalump you can’t find it, but believe me its coming.
Perhaps you will dust off your copy of When We Were Six and send me The Hundred Acre Woods as you see it.
For now, just remember “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
— Winnie the Pooh
Amy Livergood Donner is the President of The Red Sunset Merchants Association, a 90 member not-for-profit business association with a mission to foster the economic interest of the area around Red Road and Sunset Drive. Amy can be reached at Amy@communitynewspapers.com.
