Tuesday, October 5, 2010

LEAVES AND LEAVES AND LEAVES


We all have great stories of our children; let's hope your children know the as-I-saw-it adult version.

A favorite of mine was one fall when Bud was looking for ways to make some cash. It was late in October and most of the leaves which were going to fall, had done so. There was a lady across the street and west a few houses that had become a widow over the summer. Mrs. Owens had a huge yard which had been manicured by her husband. She hired Bud to rake her leaves. She left out a box of bags and a rake.

Bud stayed focused on the job, filling the bags as he went along and setting them curb side for the city to pick up on their weekly route. It seemed simple enough; rake and bag, rake and bag.

Then, he ran out of bags but not out of leaves. The job was not finished and until it was, there would be no payment.

My question, before I finish the story is this: What would you do?

Perhaps as adults, we would have considered the options. Perhaps.

1. Ask Mrs. Owens if she had more bags.
2. Buy more bags and charge them off to her as part of the service
3. Go to your own house and get your parent's bags.

But there was another option, and perhaps the quickest to get the job done that none of us would have assessed: Simple bring the bags of leaves to your parent's house, dump them behind a tree and reuse the bags for Mrs. Owens leaves. And that is just what Bud did.

Later the leaves would be 'discovered' behind the tree and someone else would bag them up for free.

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