My older sister had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. When she learned to sew pillows in Home Ec, she made herself into a pillow-producing fool. She borrowed some of my painting grandmother’s booth space the weekend of Old Settler’s to try to sell these pillows, as well as coloring books of animals she’d drawn squarely on graph paper and photocopied into booklets.

Then there was the earthworm business. We loved going out on nights it had rained, the yard still pooled with water, the mud squishing between our bare toes.

Holding a flashlight, we mastered the art of catching worms, who’d come out to enjoy the soft sprinkles. We’d point the light so that the brightest part of the light wasn’t directly on our target worm, just the dimmer skirt of light was. Then we’d move like shadows, approaching in silence and trying not to shake the earth. Bend quietly, and grab! Get a hold of the little guy, then tickle his tummy to get him to release from his hole in the ground. We’d have a collective bucket positioned somewhere between us to throw them into. Later, we’d add newspapers and store them in the garage refrigerator until Dad could use them for fishing. Only, we had so many Dad could never use enough.

“We’ll sell ’em!” Becky said.

We’d need a sign. I remember her debating what to call them. “Worms” sounded gross, and was nonspecific. “Earthworms” was a contender, but in the end she went with “nightcrawlers” — it spoke to her audience, and it was what a full bait shop would call them. 

So she painted two sheets of posterboard that we hung on a either side of a saw horse, in red and all caps:

In addition to being entrepreneurial, Becky excelled at delegating … persuasively.

I sat outside all afternoon until finally we decided that anyone wanting nightcrawlers could just knock on the front door when they saw the sign.

I can’t say for sure about the pillows (though I came away with at least three), but the only down worms we ever sold was to older lady named Joyce, a friend of our parents’ who’d come to pick us up to go fishing.