Thursday, May 7, 2009

WE NEED GRIT

Hi I'm Bo Lumpkin and I've been thinkin'.
The other day in church a young man came up to me and showed me a flower catalog and said he was selling flower seeds for school. I told him that I didn't grow flowers I liked them wild and free. He said that was okay, they had other seeds too. I bought what I thought was three tomato plants for $10. The picture was beautiful and the plants looked like they would at least make $10 worth of tomatoes. When he delivered them they were still seeds only they were in some kind of dried dirt that you are supposed to add water too. I don't know if they will grow or not because they are still in my car.
I can remember when I was young, (I'm not going to tell right now about how tough it was back then. My sister does that better than I do.), there were ads in comic books (they are not around anymore either) for things you could sell and make money. Yes, kids were expected to do something to make their own "spending money".
Kids actually made money in a lot of ways. They mowed lawns, which was my preferred method. I used to cut so many yards wearing only a pair of cut off jeans that my tan and the grass stain on my feet would both last until after Christmas. Others would have paper routes and deliver the newspaper each day. We were not so noble in those days. We either kept the money we earned or helped out our folks with it. The schools which provided a pretty good education could get along without our fundraisin'.
There was a National paper you could sell and make money. It was called "Grit". I never sold them because I was too busy cutting grass but every time I see a youngun ask their parents to buy them somethin' I think of that paper. A way for a youngun' to make their own money.
I'm Bo Lumpkin and I've been thinkin', maybe what we need in this country is more "Grit". More younguns learnin' the value of a dollar and earnin' it for themselves so that when they get older and own their own bank or business they won't expect the government to bail them out.
Whatchall been thinkin'? You can send me an email to bo@bolumpkin.com or bolumpkin@gmail.com or you could just click on comments and leave me one. It's real easy.

1 comment:

  1. back when you did make your own money and got up in jr high and could buy cokes (dr Pepper) in the bottle, before cooties were even born, you could invest in a coke and sell drinks of it for a dime or quarter.

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Bo