Lehman’s Country Life

This is the second of a three-part series on how to live an environmentally responsible lifestyle. This article will help you make eco-friendly choices as you shop.

Buy as little plastic as possible. Corn plastic, which is a biodedegradable substance, is now being used for everything from travel mugs to ball point pens. Every time you buy something made out of plastic, think about the 2,000 years it will take that item to biodegrade.

Buy local. There are so many reasons to do this. When you stop at a local farm market for corn or peaches, chances are that produce was very recently picked, retaining valuable nutrients (not to mention flavor). Not only does the food taste better, it is better for you. In addition, the fossil fuels used to transport that product from Florida to Ohio, for example, are almost non-existent when you buy local.
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This is the first of a three part series on how to live an environmentally responsible lifestyle. Entitled “How to teach green,” it will help you instill respect for the earth in your children.

“I can use both sides of paper for drawing.” Allison, age 8

“If you turn the water off when you brush your teeth, over a year’s time you can save a lot of water.” Brandon, age 12

The first step is let your children learn about the environment. Learning is the path to caring.

Start simply. Instead of taking your preschooler to a massive nature preserve for a three-hour tour, collect a few leaves from a favorite tree and examine them under a microscope. Let the learning process begin (literally) in their own backyard. Find something they are already familiar with and learn more about it.
Go outside. It may sound simple, but send your children outside. They need to immerse themselves in the environment before they can care about it. If your children are outside at least once every day, they will become attuned to the seasonal changes, as well as the daily changes. When is the sun the brightest? Why? When does dusk fall? Does it change as the seasons change? What color are the leaves? Is the ground muddy or dry?
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Lehman’s very own Vice President of Marketing, Glenda Lehman Ervin, was recently interviewed by the crew of Designing Spaces. The interview featured Glenda’s home and how she has outfitted the home with accessories, available at Lehman’s, that are new but look old-fashioned. Also in the segment is a short history of Lehman’s, a tour of Glenda’s Home and Lehman’s web site (http://www.lehmans.com).

The video is featured on Lehman’s You tube channel (http://www.youtube.com/lehamnshardware). Thanks to Designing Spaces TV for the video.

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Planning a trip this spring or summer? Discover northeast Ohio, which offers some of the best scenery, local culture, shopping and food in the Midwest. Watch Lehman’s video, along with others about local family owned businesses. We’re proud to be a part of the Best of Ohio’s Amish Country.

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Glenda Lehman Ervin, vice president of marketing and daughter of company founder Jay Lehman, was interviewed on Wednesdsay morning on KAXE radio (Grand Rapids, Minnesota) by on-air personality Maggie Montgomery. Ervin explained how Lehman’s unique line of products can help with food processing needs when you want to get close to your food source.

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As part of our grand opening celebration in July, we had six wonderful prizes in our store. Customers were encouraged to register to win one (or all) of these prizes. Galen got to draw the winners’ names, which was fun. But I got the best job! I contacted each of the winners, and arranged delivery for the prizes. It is always a wonderful experience to speak with customers, but chatting with folks from across the country, who remember their trip to Lehman’s with fondness, was a real treat.

One woman told me how her trip to Lehman’s was a tribute to her grandmother, who had recently passed away. Receiving her prize was a bright spot in the first holiday without her beloved grandmother.

Another mentioned he had family in the area and never missed a chance to stop by Lehman’s on his way through Ohio. We received thousands of entries, and some included requests for the catalog and/or to be added to our e-mail list. If you were one of these folks, you should be receiving information from us shortly.

Each prize was worth over $250 and included an electric skillet; cherry rocking horse; copper kettle; collector’s set of Case knives; limited edition oil lamp; and retro stand-up radio. Winners were from Florida, Ohio, Tennesee and Pennsylvania. Vist our web site, or watch for our next e-mail newsletter, for more information on our winners. Although I want you to know — every Lehman’s customer is a winner in my book.

Here is the Prize Winners Announcement.

Have a blessed holiday and a safe new year!

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Thursday evening (last night as I write this) we had the pleasure of hosting the Dalton High School Jazz Band in our 1830’s Buggy Barn. They played a rousing assortment of Christmas songs, from Frosty the Snowman to Jingle Bell Rock.

I had to wonder what the gentleman who built the barn in the 19th century would have thought about all the festivities. I have a feeling he would have been both pleased and honored. The event would have even surprised the Amish gentleman that sold us the buggy barn, as my brother Galen pointed out after the event.

We served free cookies and cocoa in the Cast Iron Cafe and it was lovely to see our store filled with local residents and young people, admiring the antiques on the walls and enjoying the cookies.  It was also interesting to me that, once again, we have teenagers in the store, learning about 19 century history, before they head back to their 21st century lives.  And here at Lehman’s we are able to bridge that 200-year gap using the modern tools that are available to us, like this blog.

We invited the Dalton Jazz Band to perform again and hope to have another concert in the spring.  We’ll keep you posted (pun intended).

Check out the videos we posted on www.youtube.com/lehmanshardware for more about their performance.

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For the past several years, we have hosted the Central Christian Varsity Singers for an old-fashioned Christmas celebration the first Thursday in December in our Kidron store. This local Mennonite school has a world-class choir, led by the tireless Tim Shue, that performs in a variety of venues. We have been fortunate enough to have this 16-member choir perform by the light of their oil lamps inside our store each year, and then move outside for a traditional candle lighting ceremony.

I took photos, but sacrificed good lighting for the ambiance of the performance, which is why this photo is so dark.  The students were dressed in 19th century period costumes and looked wonderful!  The young women had hoop skirts and frilly white blouses, and the young men were actually in top hats and tails, with white gloves.  When was the last time you saw teenagers dressed like that? (Prom night doesn’t count).
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My Dad remembers wringer washers, oil lamps and sock darning balls.  But my daughter doesn’t…so how to make old-fashioned products relevant to new-fangled kids? I ask.   Bring them to the store and explain, not only what we sell, but why we sell, to whom and perhaps mostly importantly, how to use them.  Today when you get a hole in your sock, what do you do.  Throw it away and go buy a new pair, right?  But in the old days, you didn’t because…after you raised the sheep, sheared the sheep, spun the wool and knit the sock, you had far too much time and energy invested in the product to throw it away.  Enter Sock Darning Ball.  Made locally for us, this is a great example of a product our grandparents knew well, but kids today think it a really quiet rattle.

This morning and last Friday morning, I had the chance to give a presentation on Lehman’s and a store tour to a wonderful group of  students from North Royalton High School, near Cleveland.  They braved blizzard-like conditions to drive down to Amish country to learn about Lehman’s.  Not only did they ask great questions, they guessed nearly every single old-fashioned, but new product, I showed them.  From the soap saver, to the wick trimmer, to the lid lifter to the courting candle, they figured them all out.
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I love Christmas. It takes all my willpower to wait until the Thanksgiving dinner has been put away to get ornaments and lights out of storage. I have a staging area where I have all the gifts bought, wrapped, tagged and bowed, ready to be placed under the tree. To me, Christmas is not a day, it is the entire month of December. The music, the baking, the decorating, even the clothes (women, you know what I am talking about -- the red sweaters and the sparkly accessories) — it all brings back wonderful memories of a special time of year.

For the first time, the Kidron store has been decorated with a number of Christmas trees. We have one in each major department, and most are decorated with products from our store.
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