OK – raise your hand if you ever set up a Kool-Aid stand as a kid. See? Thousands of you participated in this rite of childhood. If memory serves, the stand usually included a red wagon, a sign, a Tupperware pitcher and Dixie cups.

Make no mistake – it’s not like we got rich with our thirst-quenchers. But somewhere in the backs of our minds, I’d bet we never ruled out that possibility. For me, lemonade stands led to other ideas of sheer brilliance though – namely in the form of the bakery I wanted to start in a dirt “room” under the garage. While it stored our sleds and sporting equipment, I was convinced I could clear out the space and bake, bake, bake. Then I coulda struck gold.

Suffice to say I never conned my parents into the bakery scenario. But I was able to pull of a Kool-Aid stand or two. I suspect such were the pipe dreams of a 10-year-old New York resident, who set up a lemonade stand complete with homemade cookies.

Until Parks Department agents slapped her with a $50 fine. The charge? Selling food without a license. The maximum

Photo: New York Post

fine? $200. While the Parks Commissioner later announced that the fine would be dropped, one must wonder how such a seeming rite of passage is now a crime.

The only solace is that she didn’t set up shop in Pennsylvania. The state’s food safety code makes it illegal to sell homemade pies, unless the baker has his or her kitchen inspected for 35 bucks. Members of St. Cecilia’s Catholic church learned that lesson the hard way, after a state inspector popped in at a fish fry, axing sales of the homemade goodies.

Looking back, my bakery in the basement would have never made it past the inspection. It’s probably just as well…

-Liz

Enjoy your Coffee Break!

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