SWEET

There's a guy here in Johnson, Mark Woodward.. used to be our state representative and owns a ton of real estate that he rents out to college kids and old folks. Good guy. Lives on a back road, works hard, has some livestock, reads good books and I guess he cleans out people's estates for a living. He spends the year cramming all the stuff into his barn three doors down (and probably barns all over town considering the amount of stuff he has out there for sale) and then, once a year he holds this huge lawn sale for two days at the end of the summer. That sale, sidled up with it being the weekend all the kids return to Johnson State College, proved to be quite the lucrative day for this little coffee shop.

The sale begins at 9am and people start flooding into town and cluttering like cattle on the sidewalk by 8am. Folks come from two hours in every direction. Directly across the street people are eyeing the digital bank clock and, as soon as the numbers blink to 9:00, some old lady rings a cowbell and it's like a scene from Christmas in 1985 when moms all over the country were beating each other up in department stores for the last Cabbage Patch Kid doll.

Ok... well, maybe that was just the funny little town of Wilkes-Barre. I'll have to look into that fact.

Anyway, the shop was full of new faces all day and I kept the pastry case crammed full of good lookin' goodies, the fridge full of iced tea, iced coffee and chai and the sandwiches just kept being ordered. I had a pack of twelve ladies on a bicycle tour come in mid-day and order lunch and when I came in to the living room to check on them...after they'd all gotten their food and had a chance to dive into it... they clapped. THAT felt good.

And when I Z'd out at the end of the day, what I read on that register tape and what I counted in my drawer definitely broke the record of all my nightly deposits thus far.

The next time Mr. Woodward stops in for a cup of coffee it'll definitely be on the house. I wonder if I can convince to him to hold his annual lawn sale on a weekly basis.......