The Entrepreneur

The babes and I headed out just after high tide yesterday to hunt for shells. Boston became enamored of sharks' teeth after seeing shark's teeth fossils (and convincing Grandma to buy one) at the little general store in Harbour Town on Tuesday evening. Our Googling said sharks' teeth can be found after high tide, so we researched high tide and made our plan.

He and Ridley, as neophytes, didn't really know a "good" shell from a poor one, so their buckets were quickly filled. To them, a shell is a shell is a shell.

I saw a couple of Boston's finds with really cool patterns on the back, and I started again to think about pottery creation and using random "tools" to create texture in the clay. I told Boston that we could make a pot and use his shell to create a pattern. Well, that started his creative mind to churning.

He started telling me that we could open a little shop in front of his house to sell the shell-themed pots. He would name it "Shop of the Shells". He found a clam shell with a pointed end and said he would use that to write people's names. He then started looking for cup-shaped shells that he would use to hold the ink he would use on the shell-pen.

I told him I had met a woman in Youngstown who has a pottery studio and we could rent time in her studio and kiln to make and fire our pots.

His mind was simply racing. He was working out the sign for the store. He was telling me in a very detailed fashion about the piece of paper where people could write their names when they visited the store. ("It would say 'Name' and they would write their names to the right of 'Name', not on top of it.") He would create a sign that said "Line up here" so all his customers would be in a single line rather than spread out in front of the counter. When people had signed his visitor log "three or more than two times", he would [I never did understand this option, but there's definitely an incentive for coming to the store more than twice].

The store would be open all day Saturday and Sunday, but closed Monday through Friday because he has to go to school. He said people could call him and I suggested 'Open by appointment, M-F'.

I was astonished at how quickly he was putting this whole plan together, and at the detailed level at which he was thinking.

I guess, when we get back, I've got to find the pottery woman and sign him up for a class!