Thirsty work: grandma, grandkids selling water at intersections

[DainBramaged]

In these dog days of stifling heat and shimmering asphalt, with the air heavy with humidity and throats dry, Grandma Santiago sits on an oasis.

Janet Santiago and her three grandchildren sit at the corner of Bearss Avenue and North Dale Mabry Highway, under the shade of two large green and yellow umbrellas hawking cold water. Normally, they wouldn't be here, but she says she's got to pay some bills.

"Having four teens living with you," she says, "especially when they're home in the summer, the bills stack up."

Melissa Santiago, 13, holds the sign that proclaims: "Grandma Struggling; Raising 4 Teens." She's quick to run a 20-ounce plastic bottle of Sam's Club drinking water to vehicles stopped at the light. Each bottle cost a buck.

"We only do it if we need to," Janet Santiago says, three of her four grandchildren around her. "Just feeding them is expensive. They like pizza and the good stuff."

She started hawking bottles of water about a year or so ago. She's tried different street corners around the area but has always come back here, where she can park her van a short distance away in the shade and there's enough grassy shoulder to be safe from traffic.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jun/25/thirsty-work-grandma-grandkids-selling-water-inter/news-breaking/

[predfan]

1. 2005.........Omaha.......GW Bush "you work three jobs?" Grandmother.."Yes, that's right"

Bush "Isn't that uniquely American! I mean, three jobs, that's fantastic!"

[BlooInBloo]

2. I can't help but wonder if that's *really* the activity with the greatest expected return for 4 ppl.

(shrug) Maybe it is, in their specific case.

[DainBramaged]

3. Please give her the benefit of the doubt.

Jobs for teens is one of the leanest categories right now because of the high unemployment. When the new Arby's opened down the road from where I work two months ago, they had 1100 applications for 60 jobs (all shifts) and virtually NO teens are working there.

[BlooInBloo]

4. Hm. I *thought* I clearly said "Maybe it is, in their specific case."...

My apologies for hallucinating.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. "Just feeding them is expensive. They like pizza and the good stuff."

Having raised teens, on a very very limited budget, this sentence popped out to me.

[REP]

6. Me, too and I don't have kids - but I know pizza ain't cheap (nor is it "the good stuff")

Maybe grandma should teach the li'l darlings you don't always get what you want, but you can get what you need. You may want pizza and soda, but you don't need it. They've got enough hands to make meals from scratch.

[Pharlo]

11. Depends. Around here, if you hit the sales right,

you can get three frozen pizzas for $10.00.

So, while it's relatively cheap, it's still expensive if you're comparing it to ramen noodles. I know I couldn't afford to feed four teenagers - even on ramen noodles. So, I'm not judging anyone. It's possible by 'good stuff' she's referring to veggies, friuts, meat, and dairy. Things you would want to feed a growing child.

[winyanstaz]

16. To make a meal from scratch...

you still need the scratch to buy the ingrediants..and have a place to store them and cook them.
Just saying...if this works..more power to her.

[timeforpeace]

7. Capitalism™-it's not just for corrupt corporations anymore!

[Dulcinea]

8. I've seen this near my neighborhood too.

At a big intersection near my home in suburban Atlanta, there have been families doing this same thing. Gotta do what you gotta do, I guess.

[Retrograde]

9. Here the big thing is strawberries

In the Palo Alto area I often see people selling strawberries on street corners. A lot of the US crop is grown just over the hills, and I suspect the sellers may be agricultural employees or their relatives. I sometimes see orange sellers on the same corners in the winter.

[csziggy]

10. Here it is watermelons and shrimp

The county to the east is a big watermelon growing area and you can drive over and buy them by the truck or small trailer load if you know the farmers. They sell seeded watermelons for $2 each or three for $5, seedless for $3 each. Good watermelons, too.

And since we are close to the Gulf coast, some people bring up shrimp and other seafood straight off the boats and sell out of ice chests. I haven't bought any in the last couple of years from the roadside so I am not sure what the going prices are now.

[BlooInBloo]

13. Heh. Fishermen's Terminal up here in Seattle....

http://www.seattlepi.com/food/157365_fish21.html

[csziggy]

15. Yes, there is nothing anywhere as great at that place here

But then we're in a much smaller urban area and much smaller fishing fleet - and getting smaller yet as the fishing catches get sparser every years. We used to be able to buy locally caught red snapper but I haven't seen any red snapper, local or not, for years.

The oyster and blue crab catches are still relatively decent, but with the drought here in the Southeast and the reduced flow in the Appalachicola River, those are endangered, or at least the quality is with the Appalachicola Bay getting less freshwater flow. But I just don't eat oysters and blue crabs are too hard to get into and expensive for the amount of work for that little bit of meat!

I do need to start going to some of the locally owned seafood specialty shops, but it is not convenient. We are too far from town to make a special trip and it is hard to combine shopping for seafood with shopping for other groceries. One or the other would have to sit in the car and that is not a good option when the temps are in the 90-100 F range!

[Cha]

14. I would so be buyin' one or two

of those Florida seedless watermelons.:9

[create.peace]

12. except that water in plastic bottles is really unsustainable

practice, what she is doing is enterprising though not creative or much above passing the hat.

[JVS]

17. In Chicago on the surface streets approaching the Skyway and Dan Ryan it's $2

And in a hot car with no AC on Friday afternoon trying to get to the highway to get out of town it's worth it.