Episode 1 - The Cookie Lady

Host Dawn Mikkelson meets Anne Tabat, a relative newcomer to Lake City who has become a familiar presence in an unexpected way—by opening her home to local kids for cookies and conversation. As Dawn gets to know Anne, questions emerge about what draws someone to start over in a small town, and how simple gestures can ripple outward into something much larger. The episode invites listeners to consider what it really takes to build trust and belonging in a place where not everyone starts as an insider.

Transcript

Anne Tabat 0:02

I personally believe baking cookies for kids when they're in middle school does far more to prevent school shootings than almost anything else you can do.

Dawn Mikkelson 0:14

This is Becoming Lake City, and I'm Dawn Mikkelson. In 2022, I moved to my spouse's hometown of Lake City, Minnesota. Population 5,306. Jim's family has farmed outside of this town for over six generations. I, on the other hand, have spent most of my life in larger cities. Becoming Lake City was born of my desire to understand what it means to live in a small town through the stories of my neighbors. Within weeks of starting school, my 10-year-old daughter Evelyn brought home a business card. It read Ann Tabat: Cookies and Conversation, followed by contact information. Evelyn shared that Anne invites kids to her home to bake cookies once a week. As someone who was raised in a time of stranger danger, I was both intrigued and a bit worried. I asked around, and folks assured me that Anne was legit, and that began our relationship with the cookie lady.

Anne Tabat 1:18

If you Google my name, you get my checkered cookie pass about passing out cookies.

Dawn Mikkelson 1:24

During the holidays, I finally had the opportunity to meet the cookie lady in person. We were invited with the rest of the community to Anne's legendary cookie eating party. Anne's three-story Victorian home is stuffed to the gills with people and cookies. This is one of the big social events of the year in Lake City as residents sip coffee, eat cookies, and catch up with their neighbors. It was at the cookie party that I learned that this party was relatively new and that the cookie lady is actually a recent transplant to Lake City.

Anne Tabat 1:57

People say, "What brought you here?" And the only answer is destiny. I grew up in a smaller town and I like the authentic relationships of a smaller town.

Dawn Mikkelson 2:08

Anne moved to Lake City, fleeing the suburban life. More about that later.

Anne Tabat 2:14

This town was a delight. I mean, it was just like every day a new surprise. It was like Christmas. I'd come out and there were pelicans flying over, and I'd never seen I didn't know there were pelicans in Minnesota.

Dawn Mikkelson 2:24

Lake City sits on one of the widest parts of the Mississippi River, known as Lake Pepin.

Anne Tabat 2:29

The lake is a huge part of our identity. We are Lake City. The lake is as eternal as a lake can be, and the bluffs are as eternal as bluffs can be.

Dawn Mikkelson 2:40

I learned that Anne and I share a passion for the sounds that create a sense of place.

Anne Tabat 2:47

So I walk out to my deck and I hear it's the marching band practicing. The high school band has been around for 70 plus years. That's 70 years of memories of people hearing the marching band practice.

Anne Tabat 3:08

St. Mary's is 150 years old, so for 150 years, three times a day the bells of St. Mary's have rung. And everyone that lived in that distance was hearing the bells of St. Mary's. It is part of their sensory memory of Lake City is hearing that. The trains have been coming by since the 1850's, so that is also deeply embedded in our memory of Lake City, in the Lake City identity.

Dawn Mikkelson 3:43

Lake City has a foundation of families who've been here for generations, like my in-laws. But there are other folks like Anne, retirees who see Lake City as a place to make a fresh start.

Anne Tabat 4:07

I've termed "carpet baggers", cause we descended on Lake City from the North, and we're full great of ideas of how we're gonna make you a better community. And we're gonna rebuild you in my image. So my image is cookie ladies.

Dawn Mikkelson 4:09

Small Minnesota towns are notorious for being "nice and friendly". You can put quotes around those words. But newcomers often find that friendship is hard to come by, as long-term residents keep to themselves and are often suspicious of newcomers. What brings everybody together in Lake City is Water Ski days. A weekend of water ski shows, carnival rides, art fairs, all leading up to the big Water Ski Day parade. Thousands of folks come from miles around to cheer the local marching band, dodge Shriners doing their tricks on their motorcycles, and catch a ridiculous amount of candy. This year I watched in awe as the city council float rolled by, with Anne wearing her cookie lady apron. She waved and called out to all the folks she knew in the crowd, which was most of the crowd. Turns out city councillors were already in other community groups marching in the parade, so they asked Anne to represent them on the float. A woman who's lived here for less than five years. How did this happen? How did Anne Tabbot achieve a level of notoriety and honor generally reserved for lifelong residents? Maybe more importantly, who is this Anne Tabbot really?

Anne Tabat 5:31

Here's your coffee. I'm gonna make more because I really like coffee a lot. I should show you my cookie recipe book. I'll show you my cookie recipe book. So on the day that I was born, on August 27, 1956, Grandma Vera gave me and Christine a cookie recipe book.

Dawn Mikkelson 5:50

Wait, this is on the day you were born?

Anne Tabat 5:52

Yes, this is a baby gift.

Dawn Mikkelson 5:53

Oh.

Anne Tabat 5:54

Now tell me, cookies are not my destiny. I was very shy when I was a little kid. When I was in high school, I wore a back brace. So that immediately kept me from being a wallflower because I was the only one in my high school that wore one of those Milwaukee braces. And then my senior year, I had Crohn's disease. That landed me in the hospital for a month, and it defined the next 10 years of my life because I really suffered. But it would go into remission, and so I had a lot of fun in my 20s. The Christmas cookie party has evolved. When it started out, I was working in Chicago, I loved my friends, and I couldn't buy presents for all of them, so I said, "Let's have a party, I'll bake cookies, you bring the beer."

Dawn Mikkelson 6:38

So how did she get from throwing yearly cookie parties to hosting children in her home? Anne married her husband Ned and had three daughters. Together they moved around a bit, eventually landing in the outer ring, Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen.

Anne Tabat 6:53

My big mistake was I wish I had never lived in the suburbs.

Dawn Mikkelson 6:56

According to Anne, the suburbs weren't designed as friendly neighborhoods. Quoting an article from Minnesota Public Radio, Anne said, People live such busy lives. You don't talk to your neighbors, you don't know your neighbors. So she took matters into her own hands.

Anne Tabat 7:13

Fridays, I always brought cookies down to the bus stop at the bottom of the hill and passed them out to the bus driver to say, "Thank you for getting my kids home safely." And any kids on the bus would get cookies, and then the kids getting off the bus would get cookies. I became known as the Chanhassen Cookie Lady, not surprisingly.

Dawn Mikkelson 7:30

Anne created community through these cookies. To the kids on the bus, she became like family.

Anne Tabat 7:36

I did that for 15 years. And the bus pulls up one day in December, just before Christmas, and says, "Can't pass out cookies anymore." And I said, "Well, it was bound to happen in this era of suspiciousness." And he said, "Well, you can, you know, give them to the kids getting off the bus, but I can't take any, and the kids on the bus can't have them." So they're all these little sad kids.

Dawn Mikkelson 8:00

This brought Anne's Friendly Fridays to an end. Eventually her children grew up and moved away, and Anne decided it was time to get out of the big suburban home. Ned started a business in a town Anne didn't want to move to. So they decided to live separately. Anne searched Zillow and found a place convenient for him to visit and was a charming former bed and breakfast. She decided this would be her fresh start in Lake City.

Anne Tabat 8:26

Nobody knows my history or my anthology or what I am. They only know what I choose to share.

Dawn Mikkelson 8:34

You get to reinvent yourself.

Anne Tabat 8:35

You do, and that's exactly what I'm doing here. My mother was a Quaker, so I'm kind of in the Quaker camp. So when I get troubled about big things, I always hear just as clear as anything, "Don't worry about that. I'll take care of that, you bake the cookies." So we have this arrangement. I bake the cookies. And it works rather well. But I do think you start brick by brick, cookie by cookie, person by person. So I'm back up to my old tricks.

Dawn Mikkelson 9:05

Which brings us back to the start of this story when Evelyn came home with that business card. Since her original invitation, both Evelyn and her little sister Eliza had become regulars at Anne's house.

Anne Tabat 9:17

Hello, friends.

Eliza Mikkelson 9:18

Yes.

Evelyn Moechnig 9:18

Hi Anne.

Anne Tabat 9:19

Would you like a cookie?

Eliza Mikkelson 9:21

Of course.

Evelyn Moechnig 9:21

I wanna cookie. Thank you.

Anne Tabat 9:26

Did you have an exciting day? I give everybody my cards. I say, "Look, I am really big into parental authorities, so if there's some reason your parents don't want you here, you're not allowed in my house. So just so you know." Please, you're welcome to have a seat. Join me. If you need more cookies, the cookies are here. You can have another cookie.

Eliza Mikkelson 9:42

 Yay!

Anne Tabat 9:42

Do you want some milk to go with that?

Eliza Mikkelson 9:43

Yes, I would love that.

Anne Tabat 9:44

There's a group of kids that are coming for cookies now. And they're kind of like getting to be friends with a chipmunk where, you know, maybe they'll take a cookie and then they won't come for three weeks.

Eliza Mikkelson 9:56

Someone's here. Let me get it.

Anne Tabat 9:59

It's probably a cookie kid because it's 3 :30.

Eliza Mikkelson 10:02

It's some like high school boy.

Anne Tabat 10:04

Oh, good, good, good. I was hoping they could. Over the course of two years, they have moved from being on the steps, coming to the porch, walking inside the house, coming to the kitchen, and now they're at the point of bringing three or four other friends with them. Cooper! Is it just you today? Come in. How many cookies do you need? Four would be great.

Dawn Mikkelson 10:24

I feel like this is your strength as a as an extroverted human. And I know you don't like the introvert extrovert thing. I perceive that you don't have worries about like, "Oh my gosh, will people enjoy themselves?" These are the things that go through the head of more of an introverted person, is like, "Oh, they're gonna have a miserable time and I'm gonna be so embarrassed and nobody's gonna show up. And if they do show up, they're gonna be like the only people there and they're gonna be really uncomfortable." Like I have this whole like self- you know, talk thing.

Anne Tabat 10:46

I'm not gonna live in fear. I'm gonna open my house to as many people as I can get in here, and I'm gonna learn something from everybody that God sets in my pathway to meet.

Eliza Mikkelson 10:56

You have plants growing in here. And they're beautiful, dude.

Anne Tabat 11:01

So I just put my hibiscus plants inside.

Eliza Mikkelson 11:04

They're so pretty.

Anne Tabat 11:05

Aren't they? I personally believe baking cookies for kids when they're in middle school does far more to prevent school shootings than almost anything else you can do. Because if you're raising kids to think there are adults in the community that like me and they care about me. I don't have statistics, I don't have any way to prove this, but I do believe in my core being it can't hurt. Your fingerprints on this planet are going to be through your interactions, your authentic interactions with people.

Eliza Mikkelson 11:36

Goodbye. See ya! Yes!

Dawn Mikkelson 11:42

Anne's story is one of reinvention and getting a fresh start in a new town. In the next episode, you'll hear a different story of reinvention from a lifelong resident.

Danielle Hegge 11:53

I don't think I was seen as what people felt a teacher looked like.

Dawn Mikkelson 11:58

I hope you'll join me and subscribe to Becoming Lake City as we explore what it means to be of a small town. A place like many in this country, full of beauty, complexity, and the opportunity to understand one another a little bit better.

Dawn Mikkelson 12:15

Becoming Lake City is a production of Emergence Pictures with music by David Ross Wilson at Soundbarn Studios, Minnesota. Logo by Jer Lanska. Special thanks to Marianne Combs for her advice and encouragement.

Dawn Mikkelson 12:30

This podcast is made possible by the Voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.