Fireworks and Ravioli

Fireworks and Ravioli

Noel Laflin

7-4-19

When I was eleven years old our Boy Scout troop decided to operate a fireworks stand in order to raise funds.

We were given tickets to sell to friends and neighbors - each ticket was sold for a dollar, which they could then bring to the stand and apply to whatever kit they were going to buy.

I was doing alright with my sales when one neighbor said they wanted to buy the biggest box they could. It cost a hundred dollars.

Now, I could have sold them one ticket which they would have brought with them to apply to the big box in mind and then pay the additional ninety nine dollars at the actual time of purchase.  But I wanted to lock down their intentions, especially since they said they were willing to pay for the entire box up front.  So, I sat at their kitchen table, as they fed me homemade ravioli and lemonade, and filled out one hundred tickets. It took an hour, what with all the eating and childish hand-cramping effort to fill out those individual tickets. I remember a lot of laughter in that home too.

I left their house smiling, full, and had a hundred dollar bill in my pocket to boot.

Turns out we got to keep ten percent of all we sold, so I not only had a fine lunch, I made ten dollars in the process.

As an adult I would make a career of selling for the next forty years and can still recall some memorable sales calls.

But none of them ever came with an invite to come sit down at the kitchen table, laugh, be made to feel like part of the family, and be given the best homemade ravioli of my life.