Observations from Summer

November 1, 2019

During a 20-year career in healthcare I often remarked that I met people at the hardest time in their life. While I considered it an honor to offer help during times of need, I often met individuals and families who were not at their best. In my current work, however, this is reversed; we see families on their vacations or days off from work enjoying time at a festival, concert, or fair. We see people at their happiest. As my wife and I near the end of our first summer devoted full-time to our own concessions business, I thought I would share some of the pleasant observations from the summer.

First, I can think of any number of reasons to worry about the state of courtesy in our world today. However, I can share at least one positive update in this regard. Across all demographics, all ages, and all apparent income levels, an overwhelming majority of parents/grandparents remind their young children to say "thank you" when we hand them a bag of cotton candy. Parents still wish to raise their children to be polite.

My second observation is that Americans love entreprene-urialism. A significant number of customers talk to us about our business. They ask if we do it full time, and are excited to hear that we have recently begun to do so. They express concern for us when an event is rainy or poorly attended. They ask us how we started this kind of business and take genuine interest in our answer. They tell us about related work they've done or wish to do. And instead of "have a nice day", our customers frequently part with "I hope you have a good day". I believe that people root for the small business owner.

A final, simple observation: there is no joy greater than that of a parent making their child happy. Parents take joy in seeing the smile on the face of their child, and I take joy in seeing the smiles on the face of the parents as well.

Author: Mike Nigro
Sally Sugarman (Club Member & Windmill Editor)