My brother and his friend W were two peas in a pod growing up... they were born six days apart and lived six houses from each other... W moved onto the street when they were both turning 3 and they became almost inseparable... They were both blond, skinny and full of mischief and together they were more than double trouble...
My mom's favourite story comes from one of their earliest escapades together... they were just 4 and had both learned to ride their bikes... they knew that the beach was down past the end of the street (in reality about 10-12 blocks away in a zig zag pattern... but they got it in their heads that, with or without parents they were off to the beach... they found towels, snacks and sand toys and set off on their adventure... of course they were caught at the bottom of the street because they knew they'd get in trouble for crossing the street without an adult..
My favourite story comes from when the boys were older and working on monetizing their lives... we'd always had kool-aid stands and yard sales, painted rocks at the cottage to try to sell to neighbours, participated in bake sales at school and other fundraisers... my best
My brother has always had a keen eye for making money (and he now is a published author
and successful real estate investor steadily growing his empire) He saw that kool aid and gum sales were 'penny ante' and wanted to do something bigger...W's neighbour had a mulberry tree that overhung the lane way behind our houses, so the boys decided that they would collect mulberries and make jam... they were about 9 and had seen their mothers make jam a few times... but hadn't really paid attention... all they knew is that you cooked the berries and mashed them up and put them in jars...
Well, their first problem was that they didn't know how to tell ripe from unripe fruit... the second was that the ripe fruit they did get was salvaged from the asphalt lane... and of course everyone who makes jam knows that you need sugar and pectin to make any jam palatable...
but make something they did... a purple kitchen.. my mother's of course... and did manage to sell a few jars to unsuspecting friends... without taste testing themselves...
fortunately no one ate any before the scheme was discovered.. and the 'jam' returned to the ground from whence it came (through the compost).
This was not the first or the last scheme the boys perpetuated... but it was my fave...(as an evil big sister) if only because the boys ended up dyed in the wool purple for a week...
As I mentioned before, my brother survived his childhood reasonably intact, and most of his faculties... and has now become a successful Realtor, author
and real estate investor, as well as being a good brother, husband and father to my sweet niece Ella Bella...I encourage you to check out his book, his website and his blog to see where the boy who sold Mulberry jam has gotten to ... and I hope you enjoyed reading today's Sunday Story...
Please check out the other Sunday Stories by choosing Sunday Stories from the labels ----> and reading more about my family and extended family.
(as a complete aside, I just want to thank The Lady Blogger Society for featuring me yesterday as part of their weekly featured blogger posts and suggest that you grab a cup of tea and head over there to participate in their Sunday Tea Party Social and find some great blogs, networking opportunities and check out their archive for cool tips and posts about blogging!
