Supper With Inge at Inn 422

August 16, 2015

Thursday evening, July 30

Inge and I have worked together with TFC (mostly via computer) for more than twenty years.

It was maybe late 2006 or early 2007 when I began doing all bulk mailings for TFC. This included doing the monthly, single mailings of the Highway News & Good News.

Before doing a bulk mailing I run the list through software generated by Pitney Bowes – using the Post Office address listing. One day, several months later, probably in a bit of frustration, Inge replied to several rejections. “If we ever have a month where there are no rejections, we are going out to eat at T J Rockwell’s.”

Rejects happen because new donor addresses are added at TFC’s International Office on a regular basis and sometimes an address is misspelled or placed in an incorrect field. Maybe a donor gives their residential address, but their mail is received at a PO Box. Rejects also happen when people move or are temporarily away.

In May Pitney Bowes began using a new online software that automatically changes addresses when people move – so this has reduced the rejected list considerably.

It finally happened in July. I could not believe my eyes, and double-checked the rejected listing to make sure there were no addresses there – then emailed Inge.

After a few emails, we decided to go to Inn 422 in Lebanon – one of my favorite local restaurants. Inge had never been there.

This was the day Cerwin and Glenn Fahnestock left to take the chapel to Ocala, Florida, and a few days before my week got really busy.

I was in the mood to do something special, and Inge enjoys going to new (for her) restaurants.

I always delight in the atmosphere of this old structure – formerly a home owned by the Colemans – a wealthy local family in the early 1800s. (You may remember I mentioned that they owned the mansion at the Wolf Sanctuary, which I wrote about last week.)