Lemonade stands

*Photos found on Bing*

I don’t see lemonade stands anymore or even hear about them unless it’s a story in the news about a kid getting in trouble with the law for not having a permit. Today during my daily Microsoft Rewards points accumulation, they had a link to DIY Lemonade stands worth 10 points.  I clicked the link and all these videos popped up and I started remembering my days of having a koolaid stand as a child.

Yes I said Koolaid stand! You see, I have always been a different, outside the box person. When I was about 6 years old, my dad built my older sister and I an AWESOME stand (I wish I had pictures of it) It had a shade to keep the sun off of us, and even a built in bench for us to sit on. I was more into it than my sister was, but for a couple of years, she sold with me. Our dad would drive an ice cream truck during the summers and we loved to go along with him on his routes sometimes. We would also go to the warehouse with him when he would restock, so we could restock candy for our stand. Yup, we sold candy too. We had an ice crushing machine to crush ice for customers as well. We sold different flavors of koolaid and all kinds of candy. 

I remember we would sit our stand out in front of our house which was just off of a busy street. The kids on our block and in the neighborhood would come and buy candy and Koolaid from us. I remember we called this one group of kids “The penny people” Because these poor kids always paid in pennies. They were some of our best customers though. 

Garage sales were the best days for business, especially when we moved to a house ON the busy street. By then I was around 9, and my older sister was just entering her teen years and no longer into the stand. More money for me then, LOL! 

Dad had a way of going out “Junking” which was basically to find things on curbs that people were getting rid of, fix them up, paint them, and store them up. When he had accumulated enough stuff, and we went through all of our own things to see what we no longer wanted, we would have a garage sale. My stand would be set out front so I could get people going in and out, because they had to go to the back yard for the sale. I’d make a KILLING at my stand. After the last day of the garage sale, dad would store what didn’t sell in the garage and start building up for the next one. He always divided the money from the sale equally among everyone in the family. Mom would get her share, us girls would get our share, and he would get his. Dad didn’t only hustle, he worked regular jobs too, but wanted to teach us how to make money from a young age.  

I like to think of my Koolaid stand as my first job, and it was fun! Eventually I got to old for the stand myself at about 12 years old and started cutting grass for people during the summer or dad would talk to the owner of an old house about us cleaning up the inside for pay so they could sell it. At 13 I got my first real job. I was only working weekends at a concession stand in the Flea Market for a few hours. I didn’t make much, but I was happy to be able to pay my own Pager bill. Yup, when I was 13 we had Pagers, Pay phones, and house phones. I wanted a pager for my 13th birthday, and my parents said they’d buy it but I would have to get a job and pay my own bill every month. My bill was $15 or maybe $20 a month and I worked and paid it faithfully. I shake my head at kids today when I see a 14 year old with an $600 phone in their hands and just know mom and dad are paying a pretty penny for that “family plan” every month and would never make their child get a job to pay their own bill. She also probably “needs” a new one every 2-3 months. I’m glad my parents taught me early, and always let me be myself. 

That’s all for now, Until next time.

Cici