I heard bang, bang, bang at the front door, so I peered out the peephole. I couldn’t see anyone, and the peephole had some condensation, but the heavy thuds to the door and the scraping of a snow shovel on the front porch told me that potential snow shovelers were present and looking to make a windfall off today’s snowfall. Actually, they must be new kids in the neighborhood as a couple of these pint-sized entrepreneurs were by two or three big snowfalls ago. Before this year, I cannot remember the last time someone came to the door asking to shovel snow or rake leaves. If you might permit me a trip in the way-back machine once again, shoveling snow was a means to make extra money back when I was a pre-teen and even into my early teens. It was money, over and above my allowance, which gave me the opportunity to go to the dime store and buy single-record 45s, at about a buck apiece, to add to my collection. Sometimes, there was even $0.39 left over to buy a pack of those yellow discs that you inserted into the 45 rpm record to load it onto the spindle on your turntable. Unless you are a certain age, I may have just lost you on these last two lines entirely! My pal Maureen and I used to take our parents’ shovels and go house-to-house looking for business in the neighborhood. My father suggested we cut our fee and thus get more customers that way. We did, and it was a good business plan because we had quite a few customers. We charged a couple of bucks to do the homeowners’ driveway, walk and porch – such a deal! I wonder what the going rate is for 2014? Unlike alot of youngsters nowadays, we did not eat up our profits by stopping at McDonalds or Burger King after we finished the jobs for the day. We usually only shoveled on the weekend snow events, and we’d tuck our money into our pockets and then hurry to our respective homes just in time for dinner. Not all tykes, however, will look to Mother Nature to become young entrepreneurs, nor are they enamored with this Winter’s snow and cold. This video went viral a few weeks ago – you have to smile and agree with this youngster for tellin’ it like it is: http://fox2now.com/2014/02/10/little-boy-calls-on-jesus-to-make-it-warm/