A Folding Table and a Red Plastic Tablecloth

I had to turn around and go back, it was the right thing to do. Driving home from work and within a couple of houses from my driveway, I stopped the car. I stopped it and said to myself, "I have to have just one."

On a day when things just didn’t seem right, I needed a little good news, hope and a look into the future, as scary as it sometimes seems.

Searching in my front pants pocket, I found a crumpled up dollar bill.

After turning my car around and going back to the corner of my street; I rolled the window down (knowing there was a slight chance that I couldn’t get it back up). After rolling down the window, I asked them, “How much will a dollar get me?” It was the only dollar in my pocket, but I felt it was as good a place as any to “invest.”

The little bright-eyed boys who had gotten out of their folding chairs to wave a “Lemonade” sign as I first drove in, jumped to attention in front of their folding card table with a red plastic tablecloth. One of them asked, “Do you want lemonade or Kool-Aid?” I thought to myself, “I’ve had enough Kool-Aid to last me a long, long time.”

I simply said, “I’ll take a dollar’s worth of lemonade.” The other little boy said, “That will get you four.” I couldn’t manage four cups, so I opted for “Two for a dollar.” They didn’t want to take the extra money, but I insisted.

Balancing two cups in my left hand, I drove home right handed. I got out my car and drank my last dollar… It was good – incredibly good for powdered lemonade bought from two little boys sitting behind a folding card table with a red plastic tablecloth.

Every time I drink or think about lemonade, I think about the saying about if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Sometimes, I think we are in the middle of a “lemon storm.”

When I remember such things, I want to figure out who said them. A lot of folks think that Dale Carnegie said it first – he did not.

You remember Dale, he made a lot of money telling folks “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” Dale was good at selling stuff and making speeches, he was also good at marketing. In 1922, he changed the spelling of his name from “Carnagey” to “Carnegie” realizing and wanting to take advantage of “Andrew Carnegie’s” name recognition and fame of the time.

I’m pretty sure you will not find, “Change the spelling of your last name to one folks will associate with someone famous” in his book about picking up friends and getting them to think the way you think.

Years earlier, another fellow, Elbert Hubbard, who thought he was good at giving advice, put it this way. “A genius is a man who takes the lemons that Fate hands him and starts a lemonade stand with them.” Elbert sounds like a shrewd business man – because he was. However, Elbert thought big business was not good and he was very happy to write and shout about his opinions. Some folks think they should be able to do things and then turn around and tell you how terrible these things are that they are actually doing themselves. It puzzles me.

Elbert started out in the soap business with his brother-in-law and quickly came up with gimmicks to hook customers like coupons and gifts and credit. Some things never change. Elbert sold his interest to his brother-in-law in 1892 for what would be well into the millions today. Remember, Elbert always was saying these big business fellows weren’t interested in helping the common man.

Honestly, it seems apparent that Elbert wanted to do something else. It is noted that Elbert wanted to go to Harvard and study writing and important philosophy stuff. Actually, Elbert studied another woman while at Harvard and had another child with her. In the meantime, he had another child with his wife, who figured it all out eventually and divorced him. It was a mess, but Elbert still fancied himself on giving advice and a lot of folks listened.

Elbert got in all kinds of trouble with the government for sending objectionable material through the mail. This included not being able to get a passport. Evidently, Elbert convinced the right people and they pardoned him in 1915. He got his passport and he and his second wife jumped on an ocean liner in New York City.

I’m not sure how to relate all of that to the lemonade stand, but Elbert and his second wife went down on the S.S. Lusitania on May 7, 1915 after being torpedoed by a German submarine. A fellow named Ernest Cowper survived the terrible event and noted that Elbert and his second wife went inside a room and shut the door as the world’s largest ocean liner at the time sunk.

With the only dollar in my pocket, I decided not to invest it in soap or self-improvement, I “invested” in those that have not yet taught me that they will say one thing and do another.

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Cranks My Tractor

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