lemonAID

Q: What do you do when you've just graduated college, only to find that the job market is as murky as the Gulf of Mexico?

A: Have a lemonade stand.

Why should little kids make all the profit? They don't need the money. What are they going to buy? Something frivolous like a Skip-It or Ribbon Dancer (that's what I did)? Unemployed graduates are the ones that need the cash.

While discussing this paradox a couple of weeks ago, my friend Erica and I decided it was time to reverse this trend. That's right... we would have a lemonade stand, and subsequently make a bazillion dollars. I must admit that at first, I thought we were joking about the idea of two twenty-two year old gals holding a lemonade stand. But it turns out that we were serious. Very serious.

Yes, we meant to spell it that way.

So we mixed up some Country Time lemonade, put some ice in a cooler, made a couple of signs, and headed toward the most busy street in Trussville, AL. Luckily, Erica brought along her bullhorn to garner attention (which we got plenty of). We played a fun game of "wave violently at every person who drives by and make them think they must know you, and therefore slow down." That was fun.

We thought the blue paper was a nice touch.

We had three kids who walked by on their way to the pool. They said they "didn't have any money." Yeah right. I know that act. They were just threatened because us older kids are re-claiming the lemonade market. But being the kind, mature women that we are, we gave them free lemonade if they promised to spread the word about our stand to all of their friends at the pool. But they never came back. We felt duped.

At one point during the 30 minutes we were at the stand, we began to yell, "fresh-sqeezed lemonade!" But our lemonade was made from store-bought powder and water, so were essentially lying to the good people of Trussville. But then Erica, in a stroke of genius, quickly told me to give the lemonade a big squeeze. Problem solved. And morals in tact.

Squeezing the lemonade.

I know you're all dying to know how much money we made. Although we had high hopes of being able to retire early, we ended up only making $2.50. One man actually had a $20 bill out to give to me, but stupid Brittany told him the $1 bill would work just fine. *hitting self on head*

I'm so thankful Erica (who is actually employed and has a wonderful job) was willing to join me on this venture. We're currently scouting new locations and brainstorming new sales tactics for another stand in the future.

And I'm looking for a real job that will pay more than $2.50. And benefits would be nice, too.