In Which I Almost Participate in an Iconic Bit of Americana

Last night when I turned in to the subdivision I notiiced a group of little girls running a lemonade stand. They waved wildly at me and yelled, “LEMONADE.”

I didn’t stop. I’ve never even seen a real lemonade stand before. I didn’t quite know what to do.

When I got home I hauled Gary out of his chair and got some shoes on him. I got some cash and we headed back to the lemonade stand on foot.

I addressed the entire group of five girls. “How much?”

“FIFTY DOLLARS” one screamed.

I was momentarily taken aback. “No, really, how much?”

Another girl looked at me with pity and chirped, “It’s free if you DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY.”

“I have money. Do you have some lemonade that is priced somewhere between zero dollars and fifty dollars?”

The girl who tried to shake me down for fifty dollars demanded, “How much money do you have?”

“Three dollars in bills and four dollars in quarters.”

Some other girl said, excitedly, “You have to wait until Jessica comes out!” She ran off to get Jessica.

Shakedown Girl yelled, “YOU HAVE TO WAIT.” I wasn’t going anywhere. It gave me a chance to actually read the sign, which did indeed say LEMONADE, and below that it said “JDRF,” for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Ah, I thought, someone must have handed them a fifty and now that’s what the market will bear.

Jessica came out of the house, and she was much older than I anticipated, because she was clearly the Mom.

Jessica pointed out her daughter, a meek girl who had not said much. Jessica said her daughter had Type 1 diabetes and of course I suddenly remembered the twenty dollar bill I had in my purse. I truly had not considered it before, because I didn’t think of it as lemonade money. A twenty? That’s Starbucks money.

When the twenty was in my hand I tried to hand it to the closest little girl. She was horrified and said YOU HAVE TO GIVE IT TO THE LADY (also known as Jessica, also known as Mom.) Given that the lady took the money and also poured out the lemonade, I felt the little girls were not getting a good education in finance or fund-raising.

That was yesterday. Today at the bank I heard some girls in line behind me talking about the eighty dollars they’d raised for JDRF. “We got a fifty, and a twenty, and two fives.” I whirled around. They looked a bit older, and were not screaming or doing cartwheels, but I still asked for details. Turns out they were not my girls, but they had a lemonade stand one subdivision away. I went to the website and while it wasn’t JDRF Lemonade day yesterday, that is one way they suggest for raising funds.

So, I still haven’t been to a classic lemonade stand. What is the going rate? It’s five bucks, right?