My favorite bakery turned off its ovens and locked its doors this summer.
The legendary Dietz Bakery graced Fredericksburg’s Main Street for 100 years, sending the irresistible aroma of fresh-baked donuts, cinnamon rolls and homemade bread through its screen door, drawing in generations of tourists and locals.
It was a tradition after my Saturday morning workout to head over to the bakery to stand in line for the first rolls out of the oven at 8 a.m. You had to get there early; they always sold out by 10.
On their last day in business, I was lamenting the loss with a buddy. We got to discussing whether the donuts were really that tasty, or whether we were facing the old “you don’t know what you got until it’s gone” syndrome.
I wondered aloud why the owners didn’t just bake more rolls, bread and donuts, since it was obvious they could sell twice as many every day.
My buddy said something profound. “Maybe if they had made more, they wouldn’t have been as popular.”
He went on. “Look at Krispy Kreme donuts. They were fanatically popular. Then the company went public, and started selling them in on every corner and gas station in every town. People lost interest, the stock fell, and nobody gets excited about Krispy Kreme anymore.”
So maybe the value of a product has less to do with its quality than with its availability. I remembered the tale of a new restaurant opening. From day one, the owners turned down every other reservation, telling would-be customers they were booked up. That was not true. But soon word spread that the new restaurant was so popular, customers began making reservations in earnest. Within three months, the place was completely booked up.
People are such fickle creatures. Tell us we can no longer have something, and we clamor for more of it.
This is a roundabout way of saying Club Ed is back! After a summer with no classes, our lifelong learning courses are now open for signup.
We are not 100 years old, but we’ve been around for 35 years.
We don’t bake thousands of pastries, but we do offer several hundred classes each spring and fall, held in Kerrville, Boerne, and Bandera, with hundreds more you can take online from anywhere.
But don’t hesitate to sign up for your favorite classes. It won’t be long before they are gone. And while not quite as sweet as a Dietz donut, our Club Ed classes are just as delicious!
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The Fall 2010 Club Ed catalogs have been mailed to all hill country residents, and are available at area libraries and chambers. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.
Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each session, we offer hundreds of enrichment classes and individual training throughout the Texas Hill Country and online. Follow us at ClubEdComments.blogspot.com, on Twitter @clubedtx, and on Facebook at Club Ed!
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