A traditional summer right of passage for many kids is the Lemon-aid stand, where kids get a taste of sales and marketing at an early age, and have fun making a few extra bucks along the way. It's something I think every family should encourage their kids to do at least once.
We put a spin on this tradition last summer while trying to figure out what to do with all the cherries that were growing on the huge cherry tree in our back yard. They were ripe and juicy Bing cherries, and were starting to fall off the branches and into the back yard.
On a whim we pulled a ladder over and picked a few buckets full, stuffed them in sandwich bags and sold about 30 bags for 50 cents each. That was a sweet deal - Bing cherries sell for about $4 per pound at the fruit stands, and those bags had to each have been at least a pound and a half. It didn't take long to blow through the bags, and the kids made about $15.
This year we planned ahead and started picking this morning at 8:30 a.m. We had two kids in ladders and me on the roof, and by 9:15 we had picked 8 buckets full of berries and started making signs for the neighborhood. We filled 40 bags about 3/4 full and decided to charge a dollar a bag this year.
By 9:30 we had signs up and by 10:00 they had already sold 13 bags and were grinning from ear to ear (and I was too). I picked a couple more buckets and by the time we called it quits at noon they had earned a grand total of $42 to split among the three kids!
Man were they pumped, and very excited to start dividing the money between the three of them. My wise and beautiful wife suggested that we give them half of their earnings and ask them to save the other half for their college funds.
At first I wasn't on board with the idea because it seemed like too small of an amount to be splitting in half, but she convinced me that it was important for the kids to learn the principle of saving part of what they earn. I'm glad I married this woman!
Today's adventure reminded me of the many entrepreneurial experiences my parents exposed me to as a child. My dad would let me use his lawnmower to mow lawns in our neighborhood. I made about $10 to $15 a lawn, and he paid for the gas. It was a great way to earn some extra money, and I started learning the value of hard work and good customer service at an early age.
We also used to drive a van and an 8-foot trailer over to Walldrug, South Dakota where we'd pick Ponderosa pine cones. My grandparents owned a greenhouse at the time, and they paid us a nickel a piece for the prickly cones (and helped us pick them too).
Picking pine cones wasn't all that much fun; it was hard work in the hot sun, but the parts I mainly remember are the stories that grandma would tell about grandpa's childhood. Like the time he was almost struck by a rattle snake out in the farm field because he couldn't hear very well, and didn't hear the snake's rattle until it was almost too late. I also remember camping in tents at a nearby KOA campground, and wrinkling my face at grandma's runny scrambled eggs.
Those are priceless memories that I'll cherish forever, especially now that my grandpa has passed away and my grandma suffers from Alzheimer's. It's the memories of the time we spent together that will stay with me forever.
If you have any kind of fruit-bearing plant in your yard, you're sitting on a gold mine of an opportunity to create some memories for your kids too. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and even apples can be picked together and sold together. You'll build some great memories along the way, just like the ones I built this morning with my kids.
Speaking of memories, I started reading Tim Russert's recently published book titled "Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons
When my life is over, I know that the most important thing I'll be judged on is what kind of father I was.
My wife gave it to me for Father's Day and I gave another copy to my dad for Father's Day also. We're both reading through it and I'm looking forward to the childhood memories it will remind me of as we read through it together!
