What happens to a dream deferred?

My mother always encouraged my siblings and I to have an entrepreneurial spirit. She always suggested physical labor jobs that no one liked to do like clean their gutters, mow the lawn, or shovel the driveway. It was a great idea that sadly none of us took advantage of. I think it is in us to be our own boss in some way. Both of my parents owned their own businesses or were otherwise self employed for a number of years.

I did set out on my own company, maybe late in elementary school. It was called "The Summer Shoppe" and I sat out on my front lawn for hours with the lawn furniture covered in used books, buckets of stickers, unused pencils from the and all sorts of little things no one really wants to buy. Of course, being the American child that I was, I also sold lemonade.

My best customer was my grandfather, who lived next door. He bought me out of my entire sticker collection, which I had valued at about $5 in inventory (I had very competitive pricing). Pops must have really loved the stickers, because he paid $20 and all of a sudden they appeared all over his front door and on random place mats from Building19. My second best customer was the neighbor across the street I babysat for. She would occasionally bring the kids over for a glass of lemonade or buy a little book or two. And that ended the short list of customers.

My "dream business" as a youngin' was to own several vending machines. I would place them in areas near my home and check on them at least once a week to make sure there was a fresh product. I saved my money for the machines I lusted over at Sam's Club. I researched every vending machine I walked by to make sure my pricing would be competitive. I even did the numbers out to prove to my dad that it could make money. But alas, it never happened. It was decided it was probably not good for a 13 year old to own a $600-800 vending machine.

To answer the post title, it may have been as dried as a raisin in the sun, but it did not end up inside the yellow raisinet package in my vending machine.