Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. Oh…my…gosh! Jurassic Park juice bottles. Are you serious? I love your mom. We are going to kill it at the fair. Guys! Like, no one else will have these. But we should still do the fudge and the shirts. And the bacon rolls – people love food, especially bacon. How much will we sell the bottles for? R2 seems too cheap but R3/4 maybe too expensive. What do you guys think?
It’s 1993. I’m 10 years old. And Stephen Spielberg has gone and made a blockbuster about Tyrannosaurus Rex and some psycho Velociraptors. It’s a cautionary tale exposing the dangers of biological tinkering; when human knowledge is combined with greed and complacency, and is untempered by wisdom, ethics or the oversight of a responsible organisation, the results are calamitous….and blah blah blah—did I mention Tyrannosaurus Rex, psycho Velociraptors?
The hype is exponential.
And we have the marketing opportunity of a life time. Let me explain. As part of an effort to teach us a bit about business/money management, my school has decided to hold a Flea Market—a project for our year group. All the Standard 4s will run stalls. Entrepreneurs for a day! We are allowed to choose our own groups and then we must draft a business plan explaining the details of our stall, what we will sell and the costs involved. Each kid will borrow R50 from the school (which we are required to pay back—hence borrow) and we can borrow money from our parents but we have to pay that money back, too. Part of the project is to log expenditure so that after the event, we can pay our debts and divide the profits between members of the group.
Honestly, best fun ever! Like proper grown-ups—doing business and managing money. Mega rad.
We’ve spent hours designing T-shirts with 3-D fabric paint that puffs up when heat-activated. We’ve made fudge, buttered rolls and then… ta-da! The Jurassic Park bottles! These bad boys eclipse all other efforts. Cinemas were doing this deal, right—popcorn and a drink, and the drink comes in a Jurassic Park themed plastic tumbler with a straw. We – me, Winsome and either Ashleigh or Nichola (Memory’s a …yup) – got hold of maybe 100 of these bottles (someone’s mom had connections).
On the day of the Flea Market, we sell out in minutes. No joke. One kid bought a bottle, then another…and another; and then we we’re stormed.
We were rich – there’s no doubt. Okay, sure, we didn’t make as much profit as Sean Blomkamp but everybody knows he didn’t pay his parents back. But damn, we crushed it, just like T Rex did to that poor guy in the toilet stall.
Author & Storyteller: Andrea Zanin
Andrea is a writer, wife, mother and dreamer; also the author of this website. She moved to London in 2006 to earn £s, travel, see bands and buy 24-up Dr Martens—which she did, and then ended up staying. Andrea lives in North London with her husband (also a Saffa) and five children. She loves this grand old city but misses her home and wishes her children could say “lekker” (like a South African) and knew what a “khoki” is.
