Hello and welcome to *gulp* the LAST SATURDAY in July here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is July 25th.
HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?
Other than The Middle being our new favorite family sitcom and the raspberries being finally ripe for the picking, there's not much going on at our house. How about you?
The Oldest is still scheduled to leave for college in a month. We learned today that she'll need to bring an ample supply of washable face coverings. She put it best: "Masks are the new underwear." Which, I'm guessing, means a fresh one per day.
She also said, "I'm going to have to start paying to do my laundry." My first reaction was: "Great! How much are you going to pay me?!" Then I realized - Oh. She meant college. The look on her face told me this was a sobering realization for her as well. She's been analyzing her meal plan options and it's a toss up between 14 meals a week and $175 Bonus Bucks per semester or a blanket 200 meals a semester with $100 Bonus Bucks. To me, this is like comparing a Gala apple to a Braeburn. I can't really tell the difference, and as long as it's not a Red Delicious, I'm good. If you have any thoughts on the subject, comment below or send me a Facebook message!
Thursday night after my White Fragility online book discussion, I came upstairs to bring my coffee cup to the kitchen. At the top of the stairs, I was greeted with a little pop-up shop and a sign that read: “Lenenade for sale $1 for cup.” The Second Grader looked at me levelly and said, “What? Because of the coronavirus, I had to take my business indoors.”
I had to admire her enterprising spirit. During the past week, she’d been complaining about how she only had $8 in her money jar and wanted more. When she was faced with this dilemma in the past, she earned cash by setting up a lemonade stand at the end of our driveway. The first (and only) time she did it, the family pitched in helping her make her signs, set up the table, make the lemonade ( I taught her added value by suggesting she put mixed frozen berries into the lemonade), and even run the stand while she took prolonged breaks to play on on the swing set.
When she asked to have a lemonade stand this week, I explained that she couldn’t have one because we were in the midst of a pandemic. Which, honestly, was my easy out for saying I didn’t want to help run one.
Turns out she didn’t need my help.
She made her own signs, including smaller ones advertising “Lenenade for sale”, and strategically taped them throughout the house to entice her customers. She set up her own little table. She mixed her own lemonade in a spill-proof bottle. She had a tall stack of plastic cups prepared as well as a square glass container of frozen berries slowly thawing set out on her little table. She even had a comfortable, kid-size rocking chair. She’d set up shop all on her own.
Her first customer was her little brother, who had, incidentally, taken a dollar bill off my desk just that morning and placed it in his own money jar, claiming, “I found a dollar!”
Impressed by her entrepreneurial determination, I went into the Toddler’s jar and fished out one dollar in coins (fairsy-squaresies!) and purchased a cool, berry-laden drink myself. Wow! The lemonade tasted great! Not the watered down stuff her mom makes!
Dad was the third customer. She was on a roll. In teenspeak, this girl was “making bank.”
She had one potential customer left in the house. The Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence (aka WAKWIR) surveyed the table and plucked a single berry from the glass dish. “Hey! You have to pay for that!” she shouted. Her first shoplifter.
She insisted he pay and her previous customers backed her up. It turned out the WAKWIR’s dilemma was that he only had $10 and $20 dollar bills. His solution was to pay her a buck equivalent in Czech crowns. Even the Second Grader knew she was being scammed.
When it was time to close shop, she announced, “I now have eleven dollars,” which I pointed out was almost 50% more than what she’d started with. She put away her foodstuffs and supplies and said she’d be back at noon on Friday.
Friday turned out to be a slow day. The Toddler, inspired by the $3 his sister had earned, set up his own stand offering the same goods right next to her stall. Together, they had three potential new customers, but not a one purchased a cup of the cold stuff. The Second Grader even dropped her price to "Free" and labeled her money jar "Tips." Eventually she got one taker. The shoplifter returned, this time with a real American quarter (none of this Czech coinage) and bought some berries. The Second Grader sullenly closed shop and built a fort in the living room where she sat with her disappointment. "It's tough running a business with a limited number of customers," I offered.
As she sits under my office desk, now in a second impromptu fort that is more isolated than the first, I don't worry. This is my child who once commented that she wanted to be like the other girls at school. When I asked what that looked like, she shrugged and said, "I don't know. Bossy?" I thought for a moment. "You mean leadership-y?" She brightened.
"Yeah. Leadership-y."
HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?
Other than The Middle being our new favorite family sitcom and the raspberries being finally ripe for the picking, there's not much going on at our house. How about you?
The Oldest is still scheduled to leave for college in a month. We learned today that she'll need to bring an ample supply of washable face coverings. She put it best: "Masks are the new underwear." Which, I'm guessing, means a fresh one per day.
She also said, "I'm going to have to start paying to do my laundry." My first reaction was: "Great! How much are you going to pay me?!" Then I realized - Oh. She meant college. The look on her face told me this was a sobering realization for her as well. She's been analyzing her meal plan options and it's a toss up between 14 meals a week and $175 Bonus Bucks per semester or a blanket 200 meals a semester with $100 Bonus Bucks. To me, this is like comparing a Gala apple to a Braeburn. I can't really tell the difference, and as long as it's not a Red Delicious, I'm good. If you have any thoughts on the subject, comment below or send me a Facebook message!
Thursday night after my White Fragility online book discussion, I came upstairs to bring my coffee cup to the kitchen. At the top of the stairs, I was greeted with a little pop-up shop and a sign that read: “Lenenade for sale $1 for cup.” The Second Grader looked at me levelly and said, “What? Because of the coronavirus, I had to take my business indoors.”
I had to admire her enterprising spirit. During the past week, she’d been complaining about how she only had $8 in her money jar and wanted more. When she was faced with this dilemma in the past, she earned cash by setting up a lemonade stand at the end of our driveway. The first (and only) time she did it, the family pitched in helping her make her signs, set up the table, make the lemonade ( I taught her added value by suggesting she put mixed frozen berries into the lemonade), and even run the stand while she took prolonged breaks to play on on the swing set.
When she asked to have a lemonade stand this week, I explained that she couldn’t have one because we were in the midst of a pandemic. Which, honestly, was my easy out for saying I didn’t want to help run one.
Turns out she didn’t need my help.
She made her own signs, including smaller ones advertising “Lenenade for sale”, and strategically taped them throughout the house to entice her customers. She set up her own little table. She mixed her own lemonade in a spill-proof bottle. She had a tall stack of plastic cups prepared as well as a square glass container of frozen berries slowly thawing set out on her little table. She even had a comfortable, kid-size rocking chair. She’d set up shop all on her own.
Her first customer was her little brother, who had, incidentally, taken a dollar bill off my desk just that morning and placed it in his own money jar, claiming, “I found a dollar!”
Impressed by her entrepreneurial determination, I went into the Toddler’s jar and fished out one dollar in coins (fairsy-squaresies!) and purchased a cool, berry-laden drink myself. Wow! The lemonade tasted great! Not the watered down stuff her mom makes!
Dad was the third customer. She was on a roll. In teenspeak, this girl was “making bank.”
She had one potential customer left in the house. The Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence (aka WAKWIR) surveyed the table and plucked a single berry from the glass dish. “Hey! You have to pay for that!” she shouted. Her first shoplifter.
She insisted he pay and her previous customers backed her up. It turned out the WAKWIR’s dilemma was that he only had $10 and $20 dollar bills. His solution was to pay her a buck equivalent in Czech crowns. Even the Second Grader knew she was being scammed.
When it was time to close shop, she announced, “I now have eleven dollars,” which I pointed out was almost 50% more than what she’d started with. She put away her foodstuffs and supplies and said she’d be back at noon on Friday.
Friday turned out to be a slow day. The Toddler, inspired by the $3 his sister had earned, set up his own stand offering the same goods right next to her stall. Together, they had three potential new customers, but not a one purchased a cup of the cold stuff. The Second Grader even dropped her price to "Free" and labeled her money jar "Tips." Eventually she got one taker. The shoplifter returned, this time with a real American quarter (none of this Czech coinage) and bought some berries. The Second Grader sullenly closed shop and built a fort in the living room where she sat with her disappointment. "It's tough running a business with a limited number of customers," I offered.
As she sits under my office desk, now in a second impromptu fort that is more isolated than the first, I don't worry. This is my child who once commented that she wanted to be like the other girls at school. When I asked what that looked like, she shrugged and said, "I don't know. Bossy?" I thought for a moment. "You mean leadership-y?" She brightened.
"Yeah. Leadership-y."
On This Day
Historic Highlights (credits)
2007 - India gets its first female president
Pratibha Patil, a politician stayed in office as the head of state of the South Asian country for 5 years.
1984 - Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the First Woman to Walk in Space
The Soviet cosmonaut was part of the Soyuz T-12 mission, which docked at the Salyut 7 Space station. As part of the mission, she spent 3.5 hours in space testing tools. Savitskaya was also the second woman to go into space and the first to go to space twice.
1978 - World's first test tube baby is born
Louise Joy Brown was the first person to be conceived using in-vitro fertilization or IVF technology, pioneered by doctors Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards.
1976 - The famous Face on Mars photo is taken
Viking 1, the first space probe to successfully land on Mars took the famous photo of the Cydonia region on the Red Planet.
1956 - Tunisia gains its independence from France
The northernmost African country, became a French protectorate in 1881, under the Treaty of Bardo. The path to independence in the country was marred by civil unrest and conflict and was led by Habib Bourguiba, who became the first president of the independent country.
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
Pratibha Patil, a politician stayed in office as the head of state of the South Asian country for 5 years.
1984 - Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the First Woman to Walk in Space
The Soviet cosmonaut was part of the Soyuz T-12 mission, which docked at the Salyut 7 Space station. As part of the mission, she spent 3.5 hours in space testing tools. Savitskaya was also the second woman to go into space and the first to go to space twice.
1978 - World's first test tube baby is born
Louise Joy Brown was the first person to be conceived using in-vitro fertilization or IVF technology, pioneered by doctors Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards.
1976 - The famous Face on Mars photo is taken
Viking 1, the first space probe to successfully land on Mars took the famous photo of the Cydonia region on the Red Planet.
1956 - Tunisia gains its independence from France
The northernmost African country, became a French protectorate in 1881, under the Treaty of Bardo. The path to independence in the country was marred by civil unrest and conflict and was led by Habib Bourguiba, who became the first president of the independent country.
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
1985 - Nelson Piquet, Jr., Brazilian race car driver
1951 - Jack Thompson, American lawyer, activist
1941 - Emmett Till, American murder victim
1920 - Rosalind Franklin, English scientist
1750 - Henry Knox, American general
1951 - Jack Thompson, American lawyer, activist
1941 - Emmett Till, American murder victim
1920 - Rosalind Franklin, English scientist
1750 - Henry Knox, American general
Remembering You
2009 - Harry Patch, British super-centenarian, last survivor of the WWI trenches
1997 - Ben Hogan, American golfer
1980 - Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian singer-songwriter, actor, poet
1834 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet, philosopher
306 - Constantius Chlorus, Roman emperor
Love your family, friends, and community and make it a great Saturday.
Kim
1997 - Ben Hogan, American golfer
1980 - Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian singer-songwriter, actor, poet
1834 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet, philosopher
306 - Constantius Chlorus, Roman emperor
Love your family, friends, and community and make it a great Saturday.
Kim
Another installment on the home front, I see. I wonder where they get their entrepreneurial spirit. Hmmm . . . let me think.
ReplyDeleteLooks like small business start-ups, having raised their profit margin (but what happened to "cost of goods sold?), inspired other would-be capitalists. With the supply-demand curve definitely unbalanced, it may not have been the best time for the "me-too" business folk to enter the market. And more customers in the house means increasing family size. What a thought!
The tale is told with brilliant, peppy style. Made me feel like I, too, was a customer standing between the two stands, wondering which one to patronize.
ReplyDeleteGreat lesson in micro-economics.
I admire your kid’s entrepreneurial spirit.
As for the college meal plan, does she eat three squares a day at home, or just a berry now and then?