Michael's Corner

Recently, on a commute home, when cruising through my neighborhood, I came upon a typical summer scene.

Indeed, nothing says summer quite like young girls selling sidewalk lemonade. Sidewalk lemonade is the one item for which I don’t mind overpaying “the market price.” I mean, does anyone ever really asked for their change? Of course not. And neither did I. I simply handed over a fiver and drove on.

The lemonade was exactly how I expect it to be by four in the afternoon: a little on the warm side and diluted from all the melted ice. But what does it matter; I’m not buying lemonade; like all summer’s past, I’m supporting and encouraging youthful entrepreneurship and ambition. And thus, the earth revolves, a new summer arrives, bringing with it new girls with the spark of ambition in their youthful eyes. It’s a time-honored summer theme that has repeated ever since humans discovered and squeezed the first lemon. But then something occurred to me when rolling home and sipping lemonade whose ice cubes had long since melted: What will happen to these sidewalk entrepreneurs once we become a cashless society? I chuckled imagining a lemonade stand run by eight-year-old girls holding a sign that reads: We take bitcoin or Apple pay appreciated. My humor was short-lived as it saddened me to think how a cashless world would sideline the spark of youthful ambition as I have always known it to thrive. It’s a corner I wished I hadn’t peeked around.

Enjoy your Sunday and the summer’s dwindling days. And if you happen to roll by a sidewalk lemonade stand, tell that youthful entrepreneur, “Keep the change, and I hope to see you next summer.”