Lemonade and Luck

Like most kids, my sister and I used to set up lemonade stands every summer. My Dad would mix up the lemonade, set up the table on the driveway, and bring out the boombox. My sister and I would write with marker on a piece of cardboard "Lemonade 25 cents." Then, we would sit down in our lawn chairs and wait. While lounging in the sunlight and listening to neighbors mowing their lawns, we would dream of having a successful lemonade stand. We would imagine people flocking to our stand, begging us for more lemonade, while Dad would be in the kitchen pouring and mixing as fast as he could. We saw ourselves making money- and lots of it. We imagined ourselves going to the mall and buying ice cream cones, clothes, and anything else we wanted.

Back then, I never understood why my dreams never became reality. As an adult, I know why.

As a child, I didn't understand the saying, "Location, location, location." My family lived on a court. Obviously not a good place to have a lemonade stand.

I also didn't understand the importance of having an original product. My sister and I could have sold any drink or food that we wanted- we could have simply sold pink lemonade, but we had to sell plain lemonade and just lemonade; and with other kids selling the same thing down the street, we never had a chance.

This summer, I was driving into Keystone, South Dakota after work and passed a group of kids with a lemonade stand. As I drove by, I thought about how lucky they were. They were on the main road of Keystone, in a location where hundreds of tourists drive past every day to see Mt. Rushmore.

I am sad to admit, I actually felt jealous of those kids as I drove by. If they had their lemonade stand multiple days during the summer, they could have easily made hundreds of dollars- whereas my sister and I never had a chance to make anymore than five dollars from neighbors who pitied us. All these kids had over my sister and I was luck.

Let's face it- some writers are lucky. Some are born to Stephen King. Others are born rich. The rest of us have no luck. We can either whine about it or try to create our own.

I could have moved my lemonade stand. There was an empty lot next to my house on the main road where we could have set up. My sister and I could have been more original. We could have sold regular and pink lemonade with Mom's chocolate chip cookies. We also could have been more persistent. My sister and I would usually sit at our stand for about two hours until we got tired and decided we wanted to sit in the air-conditioning and watch Spongebob instead. Writers, let's learn something from this. Stop whining, turn off your TV, and move your lemonade stand someplace else.