Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Brooklyn, July 4th



Elanor and her friend were, for one afternoon, captains of industry on a bright hot corner of Brooklyn. The lemonade, squeezed by hand in a sticky orgy of juice and seeds and pulp, served in pressed glass pitchers, took pride of place. Ice was dipped with tongs, again and again, money changed hands, a great deal of money for little girls; the chocolate in the cookies, the marshmallow in the treats, melted a little, but no customer complained, and the heaps of sweets were decimated by day's end. With frequent breaks for cold seltzer and visits to the sprinklers across the street in the park, and quick intense water fights, sudden dripping little clouds of activity, another summer afternoon passed in the dusty diffuse light of old-growth trees and the heat of children. Another afternoon, like so many others before and to come.



Expectant Before:



Aftermath:



(a piece of my summer, for Jimmy and Mr M)

16 comments:

Ponita in Real Life said...

Stupendous way to spend the day! Making money hand over fist, like little Ms. Donald(a) Trumps!! I'd have spent some of my cold hard cash there too. Nothing like fresh squeezed lemonade on a hot day... and I will eat chocolate any time. ;-)

Love the retro photos too... very cool!

Anonymous said...

Welcome!

Aha, the prize for ChocoChipCookies changed ... I think I would try all sorts and have of course a large glass of lemonade. Is this a rubik-cube? Thank God for big trees with large leaves (Platanen?).

Jimmy said...

Well worth the wait for such a charming return. However,I believe Patrick Kavanagh may have said it ever so slightly better.

I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret signs
That's known to the artists who have known the true Gods of sound and stone
And words and tint without stint, I gave her poems to say
With her own name there and her own dark hair like clouds over fields of May

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet I see her walking now
Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow
That I had loved not as I should a creature made of clay
When the angel woos the clay he'll lose his wings at the dawn of day.

Brian Miller said...

nice..how cool is that...glad they had some good customers to visit their stand...i would def be down with some lemonade and a rice krispy treet today

Pat said...

Oh those sticky fingers.
Reminds me of the joys of selling - of actually satisfying a need. Excellent training for a little girl.
Were they allowed to keep the money?

Brandy Wilcoxen said...

Oh this post made me hungry :)

just bob said...

Could have used a lemonade stand around here yesterday... it was downright hot!

Mrsupole said...

Lemonade, chocolate chip cookies, and lots of sweets, oh I wish I could have had some. I would have probably bought one of each.

So glad the girls made some money. It is so nice to see young ones learning about working and earning, and being the boss.

We are in the high 90's to low 100's with high humidity, which we are not used to. I found a can of frozen lemonade in the freezer, not as good as fresh, but better than nothing. Need to find some sweets and I will be good to go.

God bless.

DUTA said...

I've greatly enjoyed reading about the summer afternoon on a corner of Brooklyn, and the pictures of the goodies and the girl selling them. I felt as if I was there myself.
Lovely post!

kylie said...

it looks wonderful and it's the middle of winter here! amazing how sitting way too close to the heater can make lemonade very very appealing :)
i think i love your app almost as much as you do, great pics

and miss E? good for you, buy something you will love with your profits

Leah said...

Miss P, there's nothing like earning a little money for one's self, is there? I remember clearly the excitement of my own early lemonade stands...

mago: see, I am sort of back! And yes, that is a Rubik's Cube! they were having a little tag sale too. Can you solve it?

Leah said...

Jimmy, what a comment, I'm speechless. Thank you for all of it...

Leah said...

Brian, and Rice Krispie Treats are even better a little melty!

Pat, they split the money and kept it. They were SO excited! I told E she could spend it however she liked. She's been counting and re-counting it since yesterday.

Brandy Rose: it was hard for me not to keep sneaking cookies...but I didn't want to cut into the profits...my dog was, however, another story! I think he figured out that if he licked it, he got to keep it...

Bobness: do they do lemonade stands in your neck of the woods? I was thinking of doing one myself, they made so much money...

MrsU: so nice to see you! I think frozen lemonade is perfectly good too--I'm not at all a lemonade snob. I used to like to sneak a little spoonful of the frozen stuff when I was little...

DUTA: thank you! I'm glad I could bring you some Brooklyn lemonade, even if only virtually.

Kylie: I'm having a romance with my app...lol...I will pass the message on to Elanor!

Anonymous said...

No way - I tried the cube, even seriously, but I can not do this. Reminds me of a plaything I got from my father - I have to search for it.
And Jimmy is a astounding man.

mapstew said...

Beautiful words, beautiful pictures.

My young'uns are bored and you've given me an idea!

And thanks to Jimmy I now have 'The Dawning Of The Day' as an earworm, but what a precious earworm!

Have a lovely weekend my NYC friend! :¬)

xxx

mapstew said...

(aka 'Raglan Road') :¬)

xxx