They’re everywhere, down the street corner on small patches of lawn, in the driveway of suburban homes, and you can probably spot one outside a bar or church somewhere in Texas.
It’s the smallest small American business in history, other than the guy who cleans your gutters.
I haven’t checked, but I don’t think you’re gonna find one outside the Kremlin, on the Ginza in Tokyo, or on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Clearly, it’s the most American icon since Henry Ford put the black sedan on the road.
In the summer here, you drive by one or half-a-dozen of them on your way to work or coming home.
Curiosity connected me to Edward Bok (1863-1930) who immigrated with his family to Brooklyn, New York, as a boy. Bok was a Dutch-born American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal for 30 years, for Heaven’s sake.
Bok claimed that, as a boy, he used to make money during the summer months by selling ice water on Brooklyn’s muggy streets.
When other kids moved in, Bok got smart. He put “half a dozen lemons into each pail of water,” added some sugar and shouted, “Lemonade, 3 cents a glass!”
As they say, the rest is history. Lemonade stands popped up from the streets of Los Angeles, where my own two daughters set up a cardboard hand-painted box in front of our first home in Hancock Park, on the edge of Beverly Hills. One of their first customers was actor Henry Fonda.
Sara Johnson, a 15-year-old at Waterville Senior High School, is seen here at her lemonade stand in Waterville. Photo by J.P. Devine
And then came Sara. We’re talking now about Waterville’s Sara Johnson, pictured here with her stand.
At 15, Sara is an enterprising junior at Waterville Senior High School.
“I started my stand August of last year,” she tells us. “It was a fun idea at first; I didn’t know what to expect. So many kind people have stopped at my stand, and I appreciate every one of them.”
She continued: “The cost of my lemonade is 75¢ and the ingredients cost around $10 for four days of selling. One day’s profit ranges from $80-$200, and I usually only sell 2-3 gallons. I’ve been given $1, $5, $10 and $20 bills. I’ve made a little over $600 this summer. Right now I’m saving my money for school supplies. Delta Ambulances came and bought 3 gallons the other day, and I am so incredibly thankful to all of them. Waterville Police Department didn’t come around though; they should come and be cool like Delta.”
Where is all this going to take Sara, I wondered?
“I want to major in sociology and become an occupational therapist. I absolutely love interacting with children. I have a huge imagination, and I enjoy spending time with kids because they do too. I do babysitting and I adore it. Selling lemonade, especially to kids, makes my heart happy. I very proudly completed my freshman year with high honors. I take some advanced classes, and I got straight A’s on all of my finals.”
Jennifer, Sara’s mom, who keeps an eye on the comings and goings of her customers, adds: “I want to add that the school supplies she is buying are her ‘wants’ and not her needs. We are trying to teach her fiscal responsibility. All the things she needs are bought for her; she is earning for things like fancy shoes and makeup.
“It’s not a case of us not having enough that she needs to earn money to buy her own pencils.”
Will Sara be back on her corner next summer?
J.P. Devine is a Waterville writer.
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