Will We See Lemonade’S Last Stand?

Tue., July 21, 1998

By Paul Turner srpaulturner@gmail.com

It’s a sobering thing to wake up one day and realize time has passed you by.

I spent about two hours Sunday afternoon driving around with a pocket full of coins, looking for little kids’ lemonade stands. And I didn’t find a single one.

Zero.

The search covered 43.1 miles. From the South Hill to Browne’s Addition. From Peaceful Valley to Downriver.

Indian Trail, West Central, East Central — you name it.

No lemonade stands.

I even made a point to revisit a few exact locations where I had observed kid-operated stands in recent years.

No luck.

OK, sure. It’s possible I might have missed one or two. After all, I can’t claim to have combed every block in the city.

But you would think that in all that time I would have stumbled onto one.

Yes, except for the bitter truth.

The lemonade stand, once a summer staple, has all but become a thing of the past.

This probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Parents are understandably reluctant to let their children engage in a form of commerce that invites interaction with strangers, some of whom might be adults.

And that’s just part of it.

Lots of kids, accustomed to all manner of drinks coming in family-size jugs, probably don’t even relate to the concept of making lemonade at home.

There’s just not that manufacturing mindset.

Then there’s the money.

The return on investment figures for sidewalk beverage marketing might have appealed to underfunded ‘60s children. But today’s kids are apt to run the numbers and decide in advance that they’re looking at an anemic cash flow.

So why should they bother?

And then there’s the consumer’s perspective. The truth is few prospective lemonade entrepreneurs could post a sign boasting that the work force is “100% Vaccinated.”

So there is a certain queasiness on both sides.

Should we mourn the lemonade stand’s apparent flirtation with extinction?

Maybe not. Times change.

But there always will be kids who make you smile during summer.

When I got to the office Monday morning, I had a phonemail message from a friend.

He had seen where a kid on Thor had abandoned an attempt to sell Kool-Aid and put up a new sign touting a different line of drinks.

“Italian Sodas,” the sign read.

I wonder how much he’s charging.

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