STP weekend

ahhh, nostalgia time....

the STP bike ride goes through my hometown of Chehalis. when we were young, we used to prepare for this event. I'm still not sure who's idea it was initially, probably my sister's, but one year we decided to set up a stand and provide some treats and water and lemonade. we sold everything pretty cheap for the bike riders (it was rather convinient that our house sat right on the route), and a fair amount of people decided to stop off at out little table with goodies and buy from us.

it turned into a tradition that lasted at least a few years. every Friday night before the big STP weekend mom would start furiously baking goodies for us kids to sell (our cousins got in on the deal the first year), and we'd score an easy $50 or $100 on the weekend. it was the first or second time around everyone discovered I had a set of pipes: we decided to "advertise" a little ways up the road, and our version of advertizing consisted of one person holding a sign and another shouting at the top of his/her lungs "Snack Shack" over and over again. dad, in his infinite wisdom, told us at some point to add "last stop before the big hill" (I'm not sure the bikers actually had to ride up the hill that was past our house on the road, but who cared).

it was great times had by all, including the neighbor kids. one of our neighbors set up a competition stand that didn't get squat. you just couldn't beat our stand for refreshments.



the last year of the beloved Snack Shack was the year someone else set up a stand earlier on the route and made a ton of money (in young kids terms, mind you). that year we only made a couple bucks; no one stopped at our little stand on the route. not long after that the route changed, and the STP no longer went by our house.