Recently, as I took a took a sunny, warm drive, on one of the few summery days left in September, a couple yard sales sparked my interest. This is how I stumbled upon meeting a well-spoken, polite, hospitable young lady named- Zoë. I was greeted with a beautiful, infectious smile, the cutest lemonade stand I have set eyes upon, and an array of personal items she decided to sell. I was thinking how responsible and decisive she must be, in order to part with many of her childhood toys, stuffed animals, and posters. I happened to purchase a stuffed avocado for my dog to play with and I shared that information with her. I thought to myself, “I wonder if she will not want to sell it to me, now that I said it would be given to my dog to play with”, but she smiled and was not disappointed in the least. Her lemonade stand was bright and cheerful, with contrasting hues of yellow and black, and polka dotted-black and white napkins. Her delicious looking lemons spilled onto the table from a basket, and her exquisite flower bouquets made from yellow tissue paper accented the ends of her homemade sign. Zoë Poindexter, age 9, showed up for her first entrepreneur event! She and her mother, Tiffany Poindexter, wore cheerful-yellow coordinating tops to greet their customers with, which definitely set the stage for “showing up”.
Zoë Poindexter, who would like to be a veterinarian, and aspires to be a business owner, wants everyone to know that her lemonade is a “secret recipe”, but I had to ask how she made it. With dismay, I did not find out the secret ingredients, but I had some lemonade to quench my thirst, after having sampled her delectable homemade chocolate cake pops, topped with yellow sprinkles. She would like customers to know that she is planning on having an apple cider stand as these summer days come to a close.
I left Zoë’s lemonade stand having just a little bit more knowledge than before I arrived, as I learned something while talking with her. She not only explained to me that her name has a symbol above the ë, but that it is called an umlaut (pronounced oom-lot), and she showed me how to use my iPhone to place the umlaut above her name. Umlauts are common in German and are placed above a letter as a diacritical mark (two dots), to mark a change in sound. The two dots are used in other languages, and may be called something different, such as a diaresis.
The Nordonia Hills.News staff wants Zoë, (with an umlaut) know that we wish her all our best, on her entrepreneurial journey!
(picture taken and shared by Nicole Rapp, with permission by her mother- Tiffany Poindexter)
