Concessioneer

How to Have Fun on July the Fourth

Saturday, 2 July   Slip away from helping my wife at her farmer's market booth to set up machine and workspace.  Make about fifteen bags of floss to test the process as a one-man operation.

Sunday, 3 July   Spend six hours building a parade-style float from a gardening wagon, and outfitting it with 'trees'.  'Trees' here are vertical poles with nails half-driven into them at downward angles, making pins to hang bags of floss.  Then pass seven hours (with help from a family member or two) leaning over floss machine with a paper cone in one hand, spinning floss, bagging it, and hanging it on the poles, on the float, filling up all the 'trees' on the float.  Do some more painting on the float, and make the price signs for the big event tomorrow.

Monday, 4 July   Roll the float out of the garage-turned-workshop onto the driveway, Attach price signs and decorations that would have made the float too tall to otherwise fit through garage door.  Take a picture of the float for posterity's sake,

and make tracks toward the chosen first event.
     Return from first event with empty float and $490 more in money envelope.  Load up entire floss setup into pickup truck, do thirty minutes of location scouting, then return home to a garage that has lost power.  Unpack pickup truck and setup floss machine in garage again.  Start Honda generator, string extension cord into garage, then spin, bag, and hang floss bags for three more hours.
    Pizza break.
    More floss.  More and more, until float is full again.
    Roll float out of garage again.  Reattach price signs and tall decorations.  Inflate tires on float (that's probably why it felt so spongy during first event!  Makes sense.)  Sell roughly 15 bags of floss to assorted drivers who notice the float in the front yard.
    Make tracks to a second chosen event.  Be mindful of wind gusts.
    Walk back to the house to bring car along, which is windproof, and holds many bags of floss that would have otherwise been blown away.  Pass about twenty minutes (with helper, if so fortunate) loading bags of floss into car.
    Continue rolling float toward second event, now that wind has completely died down.  Sell more bags of floss along the way.
    Restock float from supply of floss which was stashed in the car earlier that hour.  Keep moving on to second event.  Don't hesitate to cause minor traffic delays by selling floss to customers at stop signs.
    Maneuver float onto grass (garden cart, after all), being mindful to not tip the float over while traversing side slopes.
    Sell floss.
    Arrive at main concourse for second event, and sell remaining floss.
    Park empty float somewhere safe, and watch fireworks show.
    Return home, count $433 new dollars.

How to Have Fun on the Following July the Fourth

   Do all of the above, and then set up floss machine at pavilion and make fresh floss to sell.