MY HONEY STAND by: Richard Taylor The Summer draws to an end, and with it, one of my great joys - operating my honey stand. It s been going, every Summer, for over 30 years. Arthritis forced me to give up my bees a couple of years ago, so now my stand is supplied by a couple of first rate beekeepers. So at least I still have the joy of having the honey stand which has, over the years, gained a certain fame. There s very little work to it. My strong sons, 14 and 16, help me put up the road signs, lots of them, up and down the highway, in the Spring, and then it is just a matter of having people patronize it until the signs come down in the Fall.  | | Richard at his honey stand. | The stand is run on the honor system. I seldom meet the people who stop. And this is a large part of the satisfaction I get from it - trusting my fellow human beings, and finding them honoring the trust. There is almost never a discrepancy between what should be on the shelves and what should be in the cash box, labeled 'HONOR BOX.' Sometimes I go out and find $30 or $40 in the box, and precisely that amount of honey gone from the shelves. How come that works so well? It is because I learned, long ago, that what is most precious to everyone is the sense of self worth, and that is what I appeal to. A fairly large sign there reads 'Thou shalt not steal.' There is a notice, at eye level, which reads: Last year, of the hundreds of people who visited my stand, only two were thieves, who took advantage of my trust in them to steal from me, my wife, and my children. Thank God that you are not that kind of person. And this year there has been only one significant discrepancy, which might have been a simple error. Sometimes, indeed, perfect strangers leave extra payment, in appreciation. I leave note paper there, originally so that customers could do their addition, but instead, the inside of the stand quickly becomes plastered with nice notes. (I supply a box of thumb tacks.) Here are a couple recently added: We didn t believe our eyes when we saw your stand! You are so rare, in this crazy world! Thank you for making us feel better about our fellow man. - Toronto Thank God I found this stand again! I am a singer and your honey is such a life saver. Those are fairly typical, especially from people from large cities driving through. But one note I found recently said that the bright spot of every Summer is finding my stand open again. There s a little rack off to the side, labeled 'TAKE ONE,' in which are supplied copies of a little true story I wrote a few years ago. The story is entitlted 'The Thief,' and appears on the previous page. My little honey stand obviously makes people feel very good, and I am rewarded with an abundance of pleasant memories. Decades ago I was driving along and noticed a little well-made shelter that a father had made for his children, to protect them from cold and rain while they waited for the school bus. The children, I learned, had grown up, and there sat the shelter, no longer of any use. I asked the owner if he wanted to sell it. 'How much?' he asked. 'Oh, five or 10 dollars,' I replied. 'Give me 10 bucks,' he said, and I loaded the little structure onto my pickup then and there and drove it home. All it needed was a coat of paint and a couple of shelves. That has got to be about the best purchase I ever made. It had not occurred to me until a year or two earlier that a roadside stand would be a good outlet. A kid across the street put out a card table to sell the extra produce from their garden, and I give him a couple of comb honey sections to sell. They were gone in no time, and the next Summer some people came to my house looking for honey. That s when it dawned on me. A very crude stand, resting on saw horses, served me for a couple of years, until I ran across that little bus shelter. I guess my stand has a charm of its own. I love it, and others obviously do to. By August it is covered with morning glories while the inside gets covered with little notes. The day will come, of course, when I ll have to give it up. I m 83 years old. But I ve been showered with blessings, and I don t think I ll run out of them for awhile.
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