The best job I ever had

I live and work in a complicated world. It wasn’t always so. I once owned a Kool Aid stand. At times it was a lemonade stand. I was young, of course, maybe 10 at the height of my beverage stand career. It was good work. My mother furnished the raw material. She bought the Kool Aid or furnished the lemons. My job was to paint a cardboard sign offering my service and to haul a small table and pitcher of beverage about 40 yards to the side of busy Lark Ellen Avenue, which provided plenty of drive-by traffic and customers.

Of all the businesses I have ever owned, this was the most profitable per sale. There was no business license, no taxes to pay, no rent, and the cost of the goods I sold was free thanks to my mother’s generosity. So every penny I made went into my youthful pocket, to be spent later on such essential kid items as red licorice, root beer and comic books. Today, whenever I pass by a Kool Aid or lemonade stand, I purchase a drink to support the young entrepreneur or entrepreneurs. Really, here’s the rationale: I pay 50 cents for a drink there or I can keep on driving and pay $3 at Starbucks. So, as you can see, after all these years, roadside beverage stands are still providing an outstanding return on my investment.