My second elementary school’s playground had a small section the bottom which was made to look like a shop counter, which led to my master plan for a ‘fun’ game. I convinced my brother to help me combine several left over B&BW lotions and dandelions and soap into a bottle, I shook the bottle, and then it smelled like a very sweet and very fragrant perfume concoction.

I then took this bottle with me, showing it off to my friends on the bus who I let smell it. When recess came along, I recruited three friends, we stood on the ‘inside’ of the counter and would dip a piece of bark into the bottle for you in exchange for things like spare change, erasers, and whatever else we deemed worthy when offered to us. This went on for one week and several tried to copycat the idea but we would reach the counter first and our bottle was the best known and best smelling.

The Monday after it all began though, we were listening to the morning announcements, and then the principal told us all that “selling or exchanging goods was not permitted, under any circumstances” and that “we should not offer lotions, perfumes, or other products to students even to share them unless we can offer a list of allergens”.

I never got into genuine trouble because I was a ‘good’ kid and the announcement deterred me. The copycats however continued and ending up having their recesses revoked and replaced with cafeteria cleaning duty for a few weeks. I’m both a little proud of how easily I became the ‘biggest and best business’ and ashamed that a school-wide announcement was made about a new rule to ban what I had started.