Sold Out

There must come a day with all children. That day where they wake up and decide to become the road side stand entrepreneur. There is nothing that will stop a child on the mad mission of setting up their store at the end of the driveway. I'm convinced of this. Amelia has been dreaming of it for some time. She's started on it a few times and her collection of wares never made it to the road. 

Today would be different. Last night she made sugar cookies, so I suggested that she try to sell those along with the very small unique hat she sewed this morning and the braided bracelets she's had piled away. She took them in a yogurt container and piled it all on a table. When I had William situated I went out to see the set up. The sign was in the road and they were huddled together in a cold sprinkling rain. They looked pitiful! We sat out there for a few minutes. It was enough. We went in out of the rain.

After lunch and a bit of a rest, the sun was out. Amelia was ready to try again. I nailed their sign to the tree to keep it out of the road (yes that says "homestead pamtry") and talked a little about making their space appealing and that when you sold food you had to use a few sanitary measures. After delivering a set of zip lock bags for them to package their cookies, I went into the kitchen to make a quick batch of chocolate chip cookies to add to their shop.

While they baked, I walked out the front door to return to the road side shop. Amelia was announcing to a passer by that her sugar cookies were $3 a piece. They drove away. No sale. We had a bit of a chat about what might be a better price for cookies. 

The chocolate chip cookies finished baking and I brought them out to be packaged. Now they would sell them 2 for 50 cents.

The children danced around the road, rode their bikes and played with the fairy friend from friend Aida.   Cars started driving by after an afternoon of shopping. Within an hour, they had sold all of the cookies and pocketed $14.50! Of course some of their customers refused change for their bigger bills, but that was fine with the kids! The funny thing is that they were just so glad but not elated or shocked by this. It was "all in a days work". After all, in their imagination, they had made a plan and carried it out. George Wilder visited me in the house and said, "I just had to come and tell you that we are being a team. I really like working together as a team."

I didn't have the faith that they had. I thought they would grow weary and quit caring. Not a chance. They were convinced that this was what today would be about and it was. The neighbors willingness to play along is such a witness to the childlikeness that still resides in us all, the long lost memory of our own roadside stands and dreams of being a great entrepreneur. Today my children believed they could do it and they did. I can't wait to see what other business adventures we will take!