When I was thirteen, my dad charged my brother and me with a daunting task: to clear our new home's horse pasture of thistles. For each thistle bloom we collected, he offered us both a penny.
Bored and greedy, we accepted the challenge.
We clipped 900 thistle blooms that summer morning. 900. And so, we each earned nine dollars for our efforts.
For years, I thought we had really pulled one over on Dad. I figured he had figured we'd only collect about a hundred or so. Boy was he fooled, I thought.
Then just a couple of years ago, it occurred to me that for a mere eighteen dollars, he managed both to occupy his bored children for a morning and to clear his pasture of thistles.
Well played, Dad. Well played.
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(Thanks to my creative friend, Jennifer at http://apoemlife.blogspot.com for the lovely thistle photo!)
Awesome! Now if I could just find a field...
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