Raspberries

My neighbors had a very large garden.  They needed it to feed their eight kids, a dog, puppies, cats and various other animals.   Their production was impressive.  They ate a lot of fresh vegetables, canned enough for winter and even gave some to our family.  In addition, they also created their own little side business which often included some of their kids sitting in the front of their yard selling vegetables.  I don't think it made much of a profit but it definitely kept the kids busy for hours during the day.

One summer Brian (my neighbor who is only a few months younger than me) and I decided to walk around the neighborhood and sell flats of raspberries.  It was a true lesson in making cold hard sales.  We knocked on doors and politely asked if they would be willing to buy our fresh, local, handpicked, organically grown raspberries.  This would be a great selling tactic today.  This was not the case nearly twenty-five years ago. 

After a few hours, our attempts to sell hadn't made any money.  Brian knocked on the door and a lady answered.  Our eyes must have told her that we just wanted a little cash so we could walk up to the grocery store to buy ourselves one piece of candy.  She had to see that we were tired and all we wanted to do was go back home and play.  She felt bad. 

 "How much are the raspberries?" she asked. 

We didn't know what to say.  Brian answered.. "um, $2.00 for the flat."  

"Ok, I'll buy it."

"You will?"  Brian and I looked at each other and smiled.   We had made a sale.

The lady went to get her money and handed it to Brian.   Brian picked up the flat of raspberries and reached to hand it to her when the unthinkable happened.  I don't know if he tripped or he thought she had taken it but the flat of raspberries fell on to the white carpet.

This very caring thoughtful wonderful lady could tell we were embarrassed.  She assured us to not worry about it, let us keep our money and sent us on our way.

Brian and I retired from selling raspberries door to door and stuck with selling homemade lemonade.