On October the 29th, 2015 Niki and I spent the day feverishly trying to get Cub Shrub ready for opening day. As this happened to also be our daughter’s first birthday we then came home for a couple of hours and had cake, took photos, put her to bed, said goodnight to Niki’s mom, and then went back to the store where we spent most of the night. After nine years of really, honestly, absolutely, but definitely this year, planning on having parties for Tigertree’s anniversaries we finally did one for year ten but then went back to our routine for eleven. I say all of that to say we miss celebrating a lot of milestones. I like to think it’s because we are too busy looking forward to look backward but as we have to pull out a calendar to figure out when our anniversary is every year I suspect it’s just an honest blind spot for us.
So I was surprised when I logged into Facebook this morning and was told via a “memory” that we opened the Grandview store exactly one year ago today. I thought those were just reserved for bumming you out about how old your kids are now or how you used to hang out with people.
Store number three has taught us a lot about ourselves as a couple, parents, business owners, employers, friends, and community members. Good in bad in all regards. The illusion of flexibility further dissipates with each new venture, which itself I consider to be more a positive than a negative as it forces a mature business owner to become more disciplined. Departing the nest of our beloved Short North and falling in love with a new community while working to maintain relationships and connections in the old has been both difficult and rewarding.
Thank you so much to Grandview for opening your arms to us and supporting us these past twelve months. It has been a joy to connect with so many new families. Thank you to the Short North crew, customers and community for understanding that so much of our attention has been devoted to the baby and I promise you’ll all be seeing a more regular amount of us going forward. Most of all a big thank you to Emma, our daughter without whom we would have never opened. I hope that when you look back on all of the late nights spent with mom and dad at work that you never forget that work was a toy store and that we almost always bought you ice cream.
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Josh Quinn is the co-founder of Tigertree, Cub Shrub and a girl named Emma. When he isn't busy with store or parenting tasks you can find him in over his head at a house construction or vintage vehicle restoration project.