A Letterbox Note
Dear Ann,
I don’t look in my letterbox every day as I can usually see from my car whether there is mail for me or not, but it was two nights before the Toronto Spring Fair was to be held in the middle of November & a Friday so I casually went to have a look.
There was an envelope inside just with ‘Mrs. Hodgetts’ hand printed & in the bottom corner was the date & time the envelope was placed there. I recognised the printing immediately. It was from John Smith alias ‘Em’: knowing that person it was very characteristic to have written time & date of delivery.
That happened to be the previous day when I hadn’t checked the mail. The note inside the envelope was in a different handwriting from the envelope. The note was from the local Council informing me they had received a complaint about my business. The writer, Lisa, asked that I ring & speak to her.
I was naturally disturbed about the contents in the note & rang David who laughed it off, telling me not to worry about it. However, he had second thoughts on it too & rang Lisa the following Monday, which turned into a lengthy phone call.
The outcome was that David said it was best for me to contact Lisa myself, as she was merely doing her job.
I did that by driving to the council the following week & made an appointment to see Lisa on the 3rd November. I thought I would get my birthday over first!
I can’t say I was jumping over the moon when I arrived for the interview, but I wasn’t altogether in a flap about it either. I felt reasonably calm as Lisa was only doing her duty & I hadn’t sold any puddings on Etsy, which was the real thing in question & also Toronto Spring Fair.
She didn’t keep me waiting for long & we went into a private room where we had a long talk that I think we both felt was good. I had decided to be very open with her & just tell the truth as we went along as there was nothing to hide.
To begin with I told her how all the people in Newcastle with a business selling Christmas Puddings on a commercial basis were trained by me. The Adamstown Pudding Kitchen was the first business.
I asked had she seen the ABC Compass programme telling the story about how it started that was shown nationally on television twice before last Christmas. In it the ABC reporters & camera men had me making the puddings in my own kitchen here while they told the story of how it all began, by Dawn Hodgetts who had said prayers for the safety of her brother serving in Vietnam.
When her prayers were answered she built up a strong business making puddings made from her Gran’s recipe & after doing this for some years she then gave it to the Church to raise funds for the needy. This was given to the Church with the profits I had already made.
The Adamstown Pudding Kitchen took it from there. They built there own kitchen after Dawn taught them all she could. In the years they have had the business, raised over one million dollars for the needy.
After telling this story (Lisa had seen half the video) I added that I am very proud indeed of what the Church has done. It was wonderful for me to see the video & ABC sent me copies of it for myself & also copies for my friends in Burbank adapted for the American television system, which was very kind of them.
I then went on to say that I built up the business again after giving the business to the Church. I called it “Newcastle’s Pudding Lady.’ We made about 50 tonnes of home made puddings annually, supplying all the major food halls plus hundreds of other stores throughout Australia.
I had also given to the Church the hundreds of letters sent to me thanking me for the best Christmas pudding they had ever had so that they could keep in touch with those customers. As could be seen, I then looked further afield for other business including fetes, fairs etc. as well as stores & over the years built a thriving business that was sold to the new Newcastle’s Pudding Lady.
It was during the time I had the business that I trained two very dear friends who also became interested in the puddings. I could see the potential so I trained them & they eventually became agents for us & ultimately opened up Newcastle’s Pudding Lane in business for themselves.
I made a special note of saying how pleased I am that all three of the businesses mentioned have a thriving business today. I also told her about Mandi’s Kitchen as well, so that she had all the facts.
Of course all this was said to Lisa much quicker than writing it down. Then I told her about my illness in 2015 where I was diagnosed with cancer that meant my family got the right people in to do my house work & garden.
Having been an active person all my life & living on my own, this left me with all day, every day to do nothing in & I was terribly bored. It was at this time that my granddaughter told me about Etsy, which I thought a great idea as it would fill in some time as a hobby which is all I wanted. I really needed something to do & this seemed a great answer.
However, I did inform Lisa that it had not been successful. I also informed her that the cancer had disappeared, but it did not give me back anything to do. I mentioned the fact that if I had a business I would be going to wholesalers for my ingredients instead of buying them at our local super market.
She asked me if I had I done any markets & I told her I had booked into Toronto Spring Fair, which – at the time of the interview – wasn’t being held for two weeks. She mentioned at one stage that if I made puddings in my home as a business I would need to take up the floor as part of the rules & regulations.
I quickly replied that firstly, I could not possibly afford to do that & secondly, I did not have a business & didn’t want one. This was only a hobby, like many other people do when they are retired.
I did ask her how the ladies got on making sandwiches, slices & cakes for fairs & fetes as there are hundreds who do that regularly. She just said some were exempt. So I did ask how to get exempt as I think what’s good for one is good for another.
She replied that she would ask the health authorities & would give me a call within a day or so. As I write this we are now in a New Year & I have heard no more from Lisa.
That was the crux of the interview that probably took about an hour. However, I respected Lisa for the job she had to do on receiving a complaint. I feel at the end of the interview she respected me.
For myself I was pleased that I could tell her very truthfully exactly how all this had come about & I am sure she knew as well as all she has heard about me would make her realize I was telling the truth. I did not even intimate that I knew where the complaint came from, my statements were all positive.
Two of my friends at Michele’s – David & his wife, Roslynn – couldn’t wait to find out how my interview went with Lisa. I told them. David said “I think when she went to the health authorities & told them about a little old lady of 87, with a history of cancer, who is selling a few puddings  would just say to her “Go away!””
He may be right, as Councils have more to concern themselves about. It really it is a mountain out of a molehill, but I did want to share it with you. When you read my mail on all of this – I have more to write to you about yet -Â I certainly think you will not have time to be bored.
But I must tell you about a lovely young lass who has had a birthday. More to come!
Love to you always my dear friend. Dawn X O X O