Posted: 3/24/2026 10:38:11 PM EDT
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Did you ever set up a lemonade stand? I did. It was 1975. It was tart, poorly mixed, slightly above room temperature, and frankly pretty crappy lemonade. But when that car came down the street, and stopped and the geezer got out and slapped down a shiny quarter on the card table, brother, your name was Vanderbilt, and you were RICH!! Good times, good times… |
| I was walking with my pup several years back and came across a kid's lemonade stand. It was a buck a cup but the cups were larger than I expected. I bought one and gave the kid a bonus tip for initiative. I noticed the garden hose laying out in the yard with the end resting near the stand. The lemonade was lukewarm, no ice to be seen. I wished him luck and went on my way but poured it into a bush around the corner. |
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During summers we’d stay at my grandparents house in a golf course community. Throw a canoe in the lake and recover golf balls. Pop would grade them 10c, 25c, 50c or a buck. Then we’d sell them next to the 15th tee. Loved selling monogrammed balls back to their owners. They’d be pissed, cussing us out. Sometimes also sell lemonade, cookies or water. Made a killing. One time stole a case of the old man’s beer and sold that. He found out and whipped my ass pretty good. God, I miss that old man. Eta: we’d always put the monogrammed balls in the $1 bin no matter their state cause you knew the owners would pay to get their balls out of hock. |
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Quoted: During summers we’d stay at my grandparents house in a golf course community. Throw a canoe in the lake and recover golf balls. Pop would grade them 10c, 25c, 50c or a buck. Then we’d sell them next to the 15th tee. Loved selling monogrammed balls back to their owners. They’d be pissed, cussing us out. Sometimes also sell lemonade, cookies or water. Made a killing. One time stole a case of the old man’s beer and sold that. He found out and whipped my ass pretty good. God, I miss that old man. Eta: we’d always put the monogrammed balls in the $1 bin no matter their state cause you knew the owners would pay to get their balls out of hock. ‘Murica! Hells yeah. |
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When our Daughter was about 7 year old, she and Mom set out a little Table and made a typical homemade sign. This was in summer in Mobile, Alabama, so it was HOT. Daughter was small for her age and she was sitting in one of those small kid sized plastic chairs that for some reason had only 3 legs...  Mom of course watched her from the window. It wasn't long before a Power Company Line Truck and Crew stopped and bought all she had and they of course paid her a lot more than was necessary. This was before Smart Phones as I would have loved to have had some pictures / video because my wife said it was so sweet seeing the Crew buy her out and make her feel good. If we see a Kid nowadays with a Stand out in the front yard, we will stop and buy from them and usually give them a larger Bill and tell them to keep the change 
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Quoted: Never did personally, but I made sure to stop and support the neighbors kids a few weeks ago. Nice to see the initiative from them. End of last summer I saw a girl, maybe 10 years old, sitting at a table at the curb. Saw pop on a lawn chair keeping an eye. Stopped and jumped out to support a worthy cause. Turns out she was selling eggs from her chickens. All different colors from a few different breeds. It was super cool, and I bought a couple of dozen. Other than her, I haven't seen a lemonade or any other stand in probably two decades. |
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I don't recall ever running a lemonade stand, but I do recall playing the game on my C64. I did have a great business selling golf balls, though. We lived in an apartment complex that shared a fence line with a golf course. I would periodically go around and collect all of the balls that were accidently hit over the fence into the complex, clean them up, and then sell them back to the golfers through the fence-line.  |
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Last summer, there was a young kid and his sister selling lemonade to send the coin to the flood relief in Kerrville. We stopped by, then passed the word and the whole car club showed up. Hot rods, low riders, ricers. They cleaned him out. On the other hand. A friend in East Texas has one and makes his living at festivals and fairs across the state. He does well at it too. |
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I set up a few lemonade stands when I was a kid. It wasn't until I was a little older that I discovered where the real money could be made. Remember Spin the Bottle? If the girl didn't want to kiss she had to pay me a dollar. By age 15 I was able to pay cash for a new home. |
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No lemonade stands but when my girls were young we had several multi-family yard sales at my parents home. It was during the early summer and hot so we got them a big cooler and iced down a bunch of bottled water an various soft drinks. They made a sign, we set them up outside under a beach umbrella and they "sold" a ton of drinks for $1/ea and often the people buying would pay them more than the asking price based on cuteness factor. |
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I lived/live in the country on a dirt road. It'd have been a pretty poor business model. When I see little kids with one on my way home from the office I always stop and toss em $5. I hope that helps bolster their entrepreneurial spirit. The terrible CountryTime Lemonade gets dumped when I hit my dirt road turn. |
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We lived in the country down a dirt road nobody traveled much so no. But I've been happy to see the neighborhood kids are quite entrepreneurial. The boys tend to do a lemonade stand while the girls love to back and sell cookies, brownies, etc. Word goes out to the community FB page and folks are usually pretty good about stopping by. And the kids are pretty good at following you home to make sure you really meant to stop and buy something.
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Quoted: When our Daughter was about 7 year old, she and Mom set out a little Table and made a typical homemade sign. This was in summer in Mobile, Alabama, so it was HOT. Daughter was small for her age and she was sitting in one of those small kid sized plastic chairs that for some reason had only 3 legs... Mom of course watched her from the window. It wasn't long before a Power Company Line Truck and Crew stopped and bought all she had and they of course paid her a lot more than was necessary. This was before Smart Phones as I would have loved to have had some pictures / video because my wife said it was so sweet seeing the Crew buy her out and make her feel good. If we see a Kid nowadays with a Stand out in the front yard, we will stop and buy from them and usually give them a larger Bill and tell them to keep the change This. You see a kid sitting at the curb with a table and some lemonade, you fucking stop and buy some. With a tip. |
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Quoted: Nope. I cut grass or changed oil to put a jingle in my youthful pockets. But as an adult, when I lived in a neighborhood, I ALWAYS stopped to support some kid's drink stand or bake sale, and I generally overpaid.  |
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Quoted:This. You see a kid sitting at the curb with a table and some lemonade, you fucking stop and buy some. With a tip. |
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I lived in a small neighborhood in the country with about 10 houses on our street, but the main road got traffic from 2 other neighborhoods. Me and a friend would set up at the end of the street and sell lemonade (Country Time) and sweet tea. We did pretty well. We sold it for 50 cents per cup (1990ish) and would come out with about $20 each day. I always stop and buy lemonade if I see kids with a stand. GS cookies at a store always get my money too. About a decade ago there were kids selling GS cookies at Greentop, the largest gun store in VA, I bet they made a killing. |