Roll out the (Crate and) Barrel

Things sure are exciting lately. Last week I spent my Sunday evening with a crazy Canadian hockey fan dressed in party shoes, party hat, Dustin Time t-shirt and the “all important Crown Royal Black.” A week later? Hanni and I are heading to a Sunday evening cocktail reception at an estate on Chicago’s north shore. We’ll be guests of Gordon and Carole Segal, the co-founders of Crate and Barrel. . From Gulfnews Magazine:

There is something storybookish about the way Crate & Barrel came into being. The inspiration for the store came after college, when Segal and his bride, Carole, travelled across Europe. “We found quality cookware in France and interesting pottery in Denmark,” says Segal. “We were 23 years old, and a year out of university. We didn’t like the gifts we had got for our wedding, and the things that we saw in the marketplace in Europe, and the Caribbean were beautiful and inexpensive. We had never seen anything like these in Chicago.

“A year later, I was washing dishes and an idea came to me. ‘How come there is no store that stocks such items,’ I asked my wife. ‘There must be other young couples like us who don’t have so much money but would appreciate such items’. So I said to her, ‘Let’s open a store!’ Initially, my wife was not so enthusiastic, but I prevailed.”

After spending about $10,000 on merchandise from Denmark, Sweden and Belgium, they only had $7,000 left for making an old and dirty factory site that was to be their store presentable in just 17 days.

“My wife was very clever,” says Segal proudly. “When the packing crates and merchandise came in, we just pitched them over to use as display cases and we said, ‘Let’s call the store Crate & Barrel’”

The Segals have adopted a retired dog from the Seeing Eye and are eager to have their friends learn more about the organization. They invited a number of graduates to join them tonight for cocktails, and I’ve been chosen (along with two other graduates) to give a short talk about our fabulous dogs. Each guest will receive a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound to take home — I’ll sign them in Braille, and Hanni’s pawprint will be stamped in each copy, too.

I plan on keeping my talk extremely short tonight, as I expect a number of guests might want to gather in front of the Segal’s TV set at 6:45 pm. Blackhawk players are going to be honored before the ESPN Sunday night White Sox/Cubs baseball game, they’ll have the Stanley Cup with them, a few will throw out the ceremonial first pitch and then gather to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh inning stretch.

So who knows, it may be another Sunday night in front of the TV for Beth, just like last Sunday. Minus the party shoes, party hat and “Dustin Time!” t-shirt,though. Tonight, I’ll be wearing Marimekko.