You Scream, I Scream, Why not Scream for Ice Cream!! (Silverton Style)
June 27, 2014
God Eats Peanut Butter & Jelly (Silverton Style)
July 25, 2014
This is a short-n-sweet essay I’ve given to the editor of the local newspaper to hopefully publish next Thursday. Since today is the blog posting day, I’m putting it on the blog before it even hits the news-stands. Aren’t you lucky (or unlucky as the case may be..).
Word Count: 577
Wanna Buy
A Rock?
Probably one of the strangest statements you’ll ever hear from the mouth of a kid and a somewhat common utterance in the direction of the tourists as they walk off the train. My sisters and their families did a 4th of July float this year that included this precise statement. They wanted to highlight my father’s Mining Sluice operation and the T-shirts they had printed up for this year’s extravaganza had those exact words in bold letters on the back.
This brings up the whole phenomenon of kids here in Silverton selling rocks to interested individuals as they’re wandering the streets in summer. A perfect opportunity for the town’s youth to practice their entrepreneurial skills? You bet it is, and not only that but it also allows the pre-pubescent to perfect their own charm offensive expertise.
I myself never sold rocks when I was a kid. A small part of that had to do with our family grocery store and my father not being a miner. I’m sure he could’ve very easily gotten access to all sorts of mineral encrusted gems for my sisters and I, if we’d expressed a desire to become mini–entrepreneurs. Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be) I was too busy reading comic books), so the prospect of selling rocks never occurred to me as an option for making money. Either that or I was just too lazy. Let’s go with first option since it sounds halfway legitimate shall we?
Nowadays in my restaurant job I get a steady stream of local kids coming to the ice cream section to treat themselves with their hard earned rock selling cash. I in turn regularly ask them how’s business. If it’s sunny, but not too hot they usually tell me it’s been pretty good. Very successful in certain cases if they order the double cone with multiple different flavors. I in turn accommodate them as best I can, partially because I admire their fortitude and perseverance in the face of some extremely steep odds. You ever seen the spot where these kids sell their gemstones? Shade is of course non-existent where they’re hawking their wares. It’s often windy, dusty, and the chair they’ve set up for themselves looks like some sort of medieval torture chamber reject. On top of that when it rains the experience has got to be downright wretched. Not quite as bad as slaving away in a North Korean Bomb Building factory I’m sure, but it ranks right up there on the misery scale.
So why haven’t these kids formed a workers union to alleviate some of the hardships they’re up against? Out of sheer boredom one day at work I actually came up with that idea. Also came to the bizarre conclusion that their potential union certification might be as daunting as my last “Friendship Dues” installment to my buddy in Denver. I’m way behind last time I checked the tab, so that must be why he won’t take any of my collect calls. The jury is still out in this particular case.
Where do these mini-business moguls stand? Let them keep aspiring to reach unprecedented levels of economic success and I’ll keep supporting their efforts. Selling rocks to the tourists is a long held tradition in Silverton, and I hope it continues. It’s got to be a more successful business venture than my idea to sell locally grown produce throughout the summer.
