Lemonade!

A few weeks ago, B. and N. set up a lemonade stand at the end of our driveway.  The Minnesota State Fair was happening just a few blocks away and there was a decent amount of foot traffic past the house.  After a few hours of selling Kool-Aid and cookies, they'd raked in around twenty dollars and exhausted both their supplies and their interest.  The following Saturday, we returned from the fair to find that the boys who live next door (H. and C.) had set up a stand at the end of their driveway.  They'd been good customers for us and we returned the favor, enjoying some lemonade and cookies.  I must admit, they opted for a higher quality product in both the drink and cookie departments (plus, their prices were lower).  They had also set up a radio at their table to broadcast the Twins game, an enticing lure to potentially hook a customer or two.

After finishing his drink, N. immediately joined their venture.  He ran along the curb and shouted at anyone he could see in the distance (Lemonade! Lemonade!).  His involvement was short-lived as it was almost dinner time and H. and C. were forced to close up shop.  Still, the boys had fun and decided they would try running a stand together the next day.  So, on Sunday, I made lemonade while N. prepared the stand.

N. decided that the radio idea was a good one and wanted to do something similar.  Instead of broadcasting a baseball game, he wanted to play music.  I ran an extension cord down to the table and set up a portable CD player.  I brought out a couple of kid's CDs I noticed near the player but N. wanted nothing to do with them.  "I know just the music I want, Dad", he told me.  It turns out the music he wanted was the Beatles One CD.

Soon enough, the boys were set up and open for business.  For whatever reason, customers were few and far between.  The boys didn't seem to care.  They sat near the curb, drinking lemonade and eating cookies and mostly getting along.  There was one contentious moment when H. set the CD player to loop on "Yesterday".  He said he did so because he really liked the song.  N. complained that he didn't think it was a good song for selling lemonade.  By this point, N. had donned a robot costume and had been dancing in the driveway.  Dancing to "Yesterday" was not nearly as much fun as, say, "Help!".  N. turned to me for a resolution to the situation.  I could understand both boys.  Like H., I like the song "Yesterday".  But, I had to agree with N. that it probably wasn't the ideal lemonade selling tune.  I suggested that they just let the CD play through all the songs before repeating.  That way, we'd still hear "Yesterday" occasionally.  They agreed to this, but first N. needed to loop "Day Tripper" a few times to satisfy his robot dance cravings.

As the afternoon progressed, the lemonade stand gradually transformed into a picnic.  For the number of sales they had, they could have just as well been set up in the back yard.  This did not dampen their spirits in the least.  In their minds it was a great day.  I forget sometimes that there's a big difference between wanting to have a lemonade stand and wanting to sell lemonade.