So yesterday evening I got home from work and immediately took Benjamin and Gabriel around the block to start selling popcorn to our neighbors. I was a little nervous because I wasn’t sure how well the boys would do with rejection.

When I was a kid we would sell tickets to a troop jamboree. I don’t remember how much they cost but we would set up at the local civic center and demonstrate “scout skills” I realize now and probably understood then too, that this was a pretty lame event. What I don’t think I grasped was how kind it was of my neighbors to support me when I asked for it. Although, even with the generous neighbors I had as a kid only a few of them had any interest in buying tickets to the scout jamboree.

So I wasn’t sure how they would handle rejection. The good news is that after visiting maybe 12 houses in an hour last night I’m still not sure how they would handle rejection because virtually nobody rejected them!!

There was one house of foreigners who maybe didn’t know anything about the scouts who turned their noses up at the price of the popcorn and didn’t buy any, but I attribute that to not understanding what the scouts were doing.

Otherwsie, EVERYONE gave us something. One old man didn’t want any popcorn but gave us $1.75!! Another woman who didn’t want popcorn actually went to the trouble of writing us a check for $5!

The boys were very good about how they presented themselves. They would ring the bell and then when someone answered it they would nervously introduce themselves:

“Hi! My name is Ben/Gabe Solomon and I’m with cub scout pack 615 here in Melrose. Would you be interested in buying some popcorn to support scouting?”

They were IRRESISTABLE!! Young women and old women would smile and giggle at the adorable scouts in their uniforms who were being unbelievably polite in a day and age when few children offer respect to their elders and are polite. There were some working men (like tradesmen) who were very generous as well. Everyone seemed to like scouting! It was very impressive. By the end of the hour Gabriel didn’t want to do the talking any more and would have been happy to let Ben do the talking. But I think they actually get something out of the process so I wouldn’t let him back out.

They sold a fair amount of popcorn and said they would like to go out again tonight. I wouldn’t mind going out again, but I would prefer to do it before the sun goes down, which is about 5:45pm here.

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