In Praise of Fortysomething Brooklyn Hipsters Slinging Organic Lemonade
It's an indelible image of summer: lemonade and cookies on a folding table on the sidewalk, a jar crammed with dollars, passers-by smiling politely.
A 40-year-old man selling lemonade.
Whether a sign of recession, regression or both, a handful of adults in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn have gotten into the lemonade-stand business this summer. Add it to the list of childhood pursuits that grown-ups now take seriously, along with cupcakes, T-shirts and the Transformers. -- The New York Times
Yes, let's all jeer at the Brooklyn grups manning the (yes, organic) lemonade stands. Actually, no -- let's cheer. Here as elsewhere, entrepreneurship beats the alternative:
“I realized that if I sell three an hour, I’ll be making more than I was at Staples,” said Mr. McMahon, referring to the summer job he quit last week. Now, he focuses on the smoothie trade full time.
And it's time experiences like this stop seeming hokey:
“I’m getting to know my neighbors and my community,” he said on a sweltering Saturday afternoon, selling what he said was organic lemonade to a woman in a floral dress ($4 for a 24-ounce cup). “I don’t just sell them lemonade, I tell them about my life.”
There's a limit, of course, to the boutique refreshment economy, but the adult lemonade stand serves, to me at least, as another reminder of the advantages and just plain entertainment value of the ownership economy.
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Jul '10
Re: In Praise of Fortysomething Brooklyn Hipsters Slinging Organic Lemonade
A couple of months of selling lemonade will provide these guys with more business experience than the entire Obama cabinet.
Jul '10
Re: In Praise of Fortysomething Brooklyn Hipsters Slinging Organic Lemonade
Bully for the guy for being enterprising and all that. However, and this is probably just me, a 40 year old quitting his job to sell lemonade and then preening about boring his customers with the story his life, strikes me as, well, unmanly. But I agree with Kenneth that in a couple of months he and the other lemonade makers will have more business experience than Obama and his minions.
May '10
Re: In Praise of Fortysomething Brooklyn Hipsters Slinging Organic Lemonade
Heck, lemonade consists of lemon juice, sugar and water. In a pitcher. It takes some serious beurocratic legerdemain (that means slight of hand, people) to say it's a danger to the public. What about hot dog stands? I make it a point to snarf one down every time I go to NYC. Also got a Serv-Safe certificate in Restaurant Management. I hereby advise you to drink scofflaw lemonade, as patriots.
May '10
Re: In Praise of Fortysomething Brooklyn Hipsters Slinging Organic Lemonade
Nice.