There’s something about a warm day and a cool product that draws out entrepreneurs this time of year. Just like the real estate business, the lemonade business is all about location.
As luck would have it, a detour caused us to take a side street in Fergus where some little people had set up a road-side shop selling ice cold lemonade. The scene was pretty as a picture – two sisters, a younger brother, and some friends peddling cool drinks on the roadside. Although we would have liked to stop, time wasn’t on our side this past Tuesday. Nevertheless, it was a nice trip down memory lane on a few fronts.
What seems a lifetime ago, our sister tried the same venture but as happens for country kids the location left something to be desired. This, of course, was back in the days when maybe, just maybe, five or six cars a day would head to work and home on our little stretch of road in old Eramosa. One customer, hot and sweaty, was all that took advantage of the roadside stand that day.
Uncle Billy was ambling up the road on his old combine. That was long before air conditioned cabs, fancy seats, and road gear.
He had already been out for hours in the sun, pounding swathed rows of grain through the header under his feet. Dust and straw and more dust covered him – sticking to his skin as if he was tarred and feathered. He pulled his Massey over and imbibed in some ice cold lemonade and it was a good memory we joked about at work on Tuesday.
Congratulations to the lemonade vendors across Wellington County this summer. It’s a great way to learn some early business lessons and it sure beats staying inside playing video games or watching television. And as they say in business, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Sometimes business is all about timing.
