A Story for Saturday?

Today, when my mom, dad and I were coming home from getting smoothies we saw a few of our neighbor boys selling lemonade. Since Jake and I used to do this all the time as kids, and being the nice people we are, we decided to buy some. Of course, the kids are always so pleased to see somebody drive or walk up to their lemonade stand. I'm not sure if they are happy because they are looking forward to having another quarter in their jar, or if they are just hot and bored and just want to pour another cup of lemonade.

It brings me back to the days when my brother, Jake, and I were little. My parents would always make us a pitcher (sometimes more) of Kool-Aid, and we would always sit out on the street with our nicely set up table, trying to sell our Kool-Aid. Of course, if it were up to us, we would have sold it for $1 per cup. But my parents always talked us out of that, convincing us that we would make more money if we sold it for cheaper, like .10 cents per cup. At the end of the day, splitting up the coins evenly between Jake and I, we always thought we were rich. Not realizing until later in life, that it was our parents all along who contributed most of the money for our Kool-Aid.

I remember that Kool-Aid was not the only thing Jake and I tried to sell. I remember most of the neighborhood kids taking out all of our pads of paper and markers to draw pretty pictures. When we were all finished we rolled them all up and put them in our red wagon, and walked door to door trying to sell them. Of course all of the parents of the kids in the neighborhood bought one of two, but I remember one lady in particular who just pretended to get so excited about our posters. We would sit there and show them all to her, and she would end up buying almost all of them. It brought a smile to all of our faces, including hers.

My mom tells me that Jake and I used to try and sell rocks also. We would take rocks from our yard and try to sell them to people. Now, even though I don't remember this, I wouldn't put it past us.

All these memories makes me realize how much fun kids can have with very little. And how much simpler life was back then when all we had to worry about was if we would have enough lemonade or Kool-Aid to sell. I wish I could go back to these days sometimes. When the stress of life was nothing compared to how it is now, 10 years later. But when I look back and remember these fun times, it's almost as if I were back there. Sitting on the street sidewalk selling my lemonade, without a care in the world.