The vision: A huge, neon sign in front of a beautifully decorated booth. A padded chair to sit in while serving hundreds of customers your ice-cold, fresh-squeezed lemonade that you store by the gallon in a refrigerator behind you. At least a hundred dollars in profit, and that's after splitting it with your co-workers.
The reality: A cardboard sign held by your three-year-old brother in front of your parents old foldable card-table. A camp chair to sit in as you wait for someone to come and buy a glass of lukewarm Crystal Light out of the single pitcher Mom loaned you. A grand total of $12.50 that you then have to split six ways.
It's a summer tradition: A lemonade stand. All the parents know it's doomed for failure, but you have to try it anyway, because the kids in the movies all make bank... Right? But, of course, never believe what you see in the movies.
Still, it's a fun way to spend a summer afternoon, especially if you get enterprising friends as business partners. The other day there was a whole gaggle of kids around a lemonade stand on a street corner in our neighborhood. I was in my car, and some children I knew flagged me down. "Koolaide for 25 cents!" I couldn't just leave them hanging, so I fished out a quarter and took the Koolaide. It was red, lukewarm, and had floating things in it. Their "stand" was a dirty old wheelbarrow that I couldn't see the inside of from my car, so I was afraid of what was in there. I kept it in my car's cupholder as I drove to the bank and home, then dumped it in the garden as I walked inside. I'd done my duty to the poor kids without endangering my personal health.
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