3.23.2009

The American Dream

I walked out to the mailbox and caught Baby selling a single Lifesaver in a wrapper to our neighbor for only $0.50! He saw me coming so he hurried and got the money and ran to his friend's house without acknowledging me at all, afraid I would make him give the money back. My neighbor, the sweet man that he is, begged me not to get mad at him. He told me Baby comes over regularly in warm weather, usually selling rocks. And he never wants more than $0.50. He said Baby will come up to the door and tell him "I've got some really cool rocks! Wanna buy one? It's only $0.50." To which my neighbor can't resist.

I knew he sold rocks. Last year he would get some of those sparkly white rocks from our neighbors side yard, bring them home, hit them with a hammer until they were the "right size," and then he would sell them to my poor neighbors. I thought it was pretty funny and entrepreneurial. One recently graduated high school student paid him $1.75 last summer! His mom told him that Baby'd be back for sure! Maybe that's why they moved last summer.

One year his cousin got him a Build-a-Bear which he loves. But he wanted to buy lots more clothes for him. So I helped him make some chocolate chip cookies and he went door-to-door selling 6 for $1. It was quite the bargain. He scored that time, especially when he told them what it was for, and made almost $10! Enough to buy one more outfit for that special bear of his.

It also reminds me of Calvin. He had the same entrepreneurial spirit. He used to sell rocks. My favorite was the summer he decided to go door-to-door selling Kool-Aid. He filled up two pitchers without my help. I think I was making the daycare kids lunch and told him I'd help in a minute or two and he just couldn't wait. Off he went pulling the rickety wagon with two gallons of Kool-Aid in the back. I thought for sure it would be all over the road. About ten minutes later he came back. "I forgot the sugar," he sheepishly told me. I had such a good laugh! I instructed him in how much sugar was needed for a gallon of Kool-Aid and he was off again. I think he made about $5 that day.

When he entered Middle School he was constantly selling stuff at school. He liked to make duct tape wallets and sell them to friends for a few bucks. Of course I bought the duct tape. But I didn't mind, it was a good use of his time. In 6th grade he would sell two rubberbands for a quarter. Sounds a little odd? The boys would fold paper into football shapes and play that little game where they shoot the footballs through their pal's fingers shaped into a goal post. It was great entertainment.

That same year Olaf brought a bunch of mechanical pencils home from work and Calvin loved them. He's always loved mechanical pencils and every year we had to stock up for school. So off to school Calvin went with about a dozen. A week later he asked Olaf to bring him more. We expressed our surprise at how quickly he had used them. That's when he told us he was selling them for $1! That one gave us a good laugh too. So as you can see, my children selling things is nothing new to me. They're trying to live the American Dream without the illegal alien part.

5 comments:

Jeni Allen said...

Do you remember that year we made a rollar skating act to "Whenever I hear the song of a bird" and charged people 10 cents to watch?? Or when we'd set up a kool aid stand outside the pool in back and sell it for a quarter? Hmmm, I wonder where your boys get it from??

Lonita said...

Smart strategy - at only 50 cents, who wouldn't want to stock up on rocks? Cole clearly knows how to attract bargain hunters!

sally said...

Those are some great memories. It's nice to see the selling continues. Personally I like that he made the rocks the right size - don't want to sell them too big, the neighbors might start expecting it.

MotocrossMom AKA Autumn H. said...

I know from personal experience that I don't think anyone could resist Cole in anything! And who would want to? He could get anything he wanted from me.

That is too funny about Calvin and the mechanical pencils. We had the EXACT same thing happen with Dallas - he kept going through them and finally I started buying the bulk boxes from Office Max. When I asked him what he was doing with them, he was either selling or 'sharing' them at school. Hmmm...I bet Calvin and him must have shared some other ideas as well!

Kadee said...

Ha ha. Calvin also tried to sell his halloween candy to everyone last year! It was funny. I can remember everyone wanted some in English class but we had to pay for it or he wouldn't share it! I think that is so funny that your kids do that! Sounds like someting I would do. And just reminds me of Calvin whenever someone is trying to sell something like that! Ha ha