Thursday, September 27, 2007

brother, can you spare a dime ten bucks?

it's fundraising time again.

why is it that all the schools do their fundraising at the same time? and why do they all seem to be selling the same product?? (cookie dough, anyone?) one or the other thing should change, don't you think? that way, people can still support these causes without being buried by a deluge of dough.

in our house, at least, it takes awhile to empty one of those tubs (even longer now that we are on a campaign to eat less junk). i know they last longer in the freezer, but how many can you go through before the next year rolls around and you've got to buy more?

and of course you have to buy more. it's a case of you-scratch-my-back- i'll-scratch-yours. you're obligated to buy from your co-workers/neighbors because you want them to buy from you. and if you don't sell, your kid looks bad and the school/team doesn't get new books/toys/uniforms.

what happened to the days of the kids being responsible for hawking these goods, anyway? i remember going door to door in my neighborhood, begging the kindly old ladies to buy my ridiculously overpriced candy bars. sure, we used our parents workplaces, too, but we still had to pound some pavement for ourselves. (nowadays, it's all don't go knocking on doors, they might snatch you and lock you up in their basement and force you to watch nicolas cage movies torture you.)

of course, the alternative is for the parents to just shell out the money directly to the school for the coveted goods. hmm, no thanks. i guess i'll continue to spread the burden cookie dough.