What is something you saved up for as a child?

I was constantly saving for something. The first thing I remember saving for was a pair of ballet slippers.

I was ten years old and had decided to pull a wagon at the big Carlisle Flea Market. I’d seen the boys do it and even though hauling big, possibly heavy car parts around all day seemed like hard work, it also seemed like a good way to keep busy while my parents tended our spaces. Most kids worked for $1 per hour plus tips and it was the tips that they bragged about, so I was hopeful I might earn enough for the ballet slippers.

Dad restored one of his old wagons, painting it school bus yellow and added 1x1 slats as high wood rails all around the top edges to increase the amount it could haul. On the wood slats he stencil-painted the name of his business and the space numbers for the car show. It was perfect! All day long while I hauled car parts, I’d be a walking advertisement.

Business was surprisingly easy to come by, though as the only girl hauling a wagon, I did get some questioning looks and comments. I hauled everything from engines to bumpers and the tips were truly where the money was to be made. I met so many interesting people and slept very well each night - partly from exhaustion and partly from the knowledge that I’d put in a good day’s work.

But the best, most surprising part was when the business owners at the end of our row started hiring me to wait in line at the food vendors to bring them whatever food they were in the mood for. They always gave me more than was needed and let me keep most, if not all, of the change. At the end of the week, they presented me with one of their special pens in a box - and a $20 bill folded up in it. That alone covered the cost of the ballet slippers and then some. It was a most excellent lesson in the value of hard work.