i made these paddy's parade crunchies tonight and remembered a day five years ago when emily and i made about a hundred bags of these for the saturday market in limerick just before st. patrick's day. we tied them up with orange and green ribbon and homemade labels. we sold loads - probably about sixty. all our regulars bought some, getting into the spirit - practically everyone who came to the market went home with a bag!that still meant we had forty left.
we were young, eager entrepreneurs with a starry eyed confidence that our product was so fabulous, we could sell it anywhere. our husbands, realists, wondered who would buy st. patrick's day chocolates next saturday.
"we could sell them at the parade!" i shouted.
"i'll make a travelling sales stand!"emily declared.
and she did. our husbands groaned.
the sales stand was like the kind that icecream sellers wear at the interval in theatres. it was decorated with shamrocks and painted orange. it was beautiful. we left the fellas with pints of guiness, only barely hiding their embarassment and set off with great confidence down o'connell street. the crowds thronged. the atmosphere was giddy. it was party time and the parade marched on. we peddled our wares. we handed out samples.
or tried to.
we soon found that beyond the walls of our milk market stomping ground and away from our fans, people were wary of us - why would two girls with strange northern english accents (scunthorpe?) humiliate themselves trying to sell expensive nuggets of dark chocolate from an icecream tray hung around their necks? we began to wonder ourselves.
after an hour we hadn't sold one bag! not one! we were defeated. the chocolates were great quality and we were enthusistic but it was the wrong time and place - we snook into emily's flat in henry street and hid them all under the bed then headed back to our husbands, treacherously triumphant. "we've sold them all," we sang. they were impressed and humbled.
i hope they don't read the blog...
1 comment:
oh the shame...
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