We’re really grateful to the Cameron Chamber of Commerce for welcoming us so warmly to Cameron. They hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to bring publicity to our little business and help us meet other business owners, government workers, and neighbors. We held the ceremony last Friday and could not have been more pleased and surprised to see the large turnout!

Mandi and I had decorated the office house up in a patriotic “USA” theme, since it’s close to Labor Day, and Mandi devised an All-American theme of snacks including fries in cups of catsup (real cute), home-made macaroni and cheese, mini corn dogs, red-white-and-blue ice cream (I contributed that, thanks to Blue Bell), chocolate chip cookies, and cheese with US flag toothpicks. We’re leaving the outside stuff up for Labor Day.

Between our publicity and the great work Melanie Reed and her team at the Chamber has done, we managed to bring in a lot of nice, friendly folks. Of course our upstairs neighbors at Andress & 3 were there, plus Jeremy and Courtney from the Bling Box, Rose from KMIL The Ranch radio station, Richard Crowe and Glen Laurence (our wonderful bankers from Buckholts State Bank), Monica and Bobby Schiller from the Milam County Community Theater (of which we are a sponsor), Lindsey Vaculin and the team from the Cameron Herald, Gene and Rene Goecke of Carquest Auto Parts and many of Lee’s new friends from the Rotary Club, a couple of bonus county officials, and George, an interested neighbor who’d been following our Facebook adventures. Whew!

My head was spinning from keeping all the names and faces straight, making sure people got food, and mingling! Melanie said it was one of the biggest crowds they’d had, and credited the convenient time we chose (4 pm on a Friday), since it made it easy for people to drop by after work and before other important commitments (like the football scrimmage).

What Made It EXTRA Fun

Did you notice anyone not referred to in the long list of attendees above? That’s right. Lee had said he had to “run errands” around 2 pm, since it was pretty hectic with me, Mandi, and two of her kids running around getting ready. Well, people started showing up starting around 3 (Melanie and the wife of one of our contractors, who I wasn’t expecting), and Lee didn’t come back. Actual guests started arriving before 4, still no Lee. By the time the room was full, and we were ready to cut the ribbon…still no Lee. No answer on the phone, either. We did “find my iPhone, only to discover it was in his office. Hmm. It’s not like Lee to miss something this important, so I stood around smiling and making excuses to all these really great folks who’d come by to see him, all the while wondering if he’d gotten into an accident or something.

We went ahead and took the official ribbon cutting pictures (and forgot to get any phone versions, so what we have is the newspaper photo!). It was fun, though, because I got to hold the giant scissors! What an honor!

When it was all over and everyone was chatting, our friend Jeremy went back to his store, and on the way checked with the police and sheriff to be sure there were no accidents. Thank goodness that was a negative! So, Larry and Val Andress, bless their hearts, drove all the way out to the ranch, where they saw his car! They honked the horn at him, and at that point he realized he had somewhere to be.

Poor Lee had lost track of time (and phone), plus he had gotten it into his head that the event was at 5! He screeched into the driveway exactly at 5, and did get to meet with a couple of people! This is one of those ribbon cuttings that won’t ever be forgotten!

We re-staged the ribbon cutting with the people who were still there (thank you, friends!), and took a picture of poor, lonely Lee wondering where all the people were. Late to his own party! We hope you enjoy the pictures, anyway!

Hermann says please like and share!