Did You Hawk Anything On The Streets As A Child ?

This is really nostalgic. Reading of other people having done it in the past informs me that I am not alone in this. I hawked bar soap, gaari, rice, beans, smoked fish, sold chiken at the market . . .Whao, I’ve come a long way. The good news is, my son will never have to go through that. Though its made me better, I still detest young folks doing it today but can’t help it.
I believe it’s the economic situation. May God make it better.

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_{It will definitely get better}

@ TIPPY TOP
HELL YEAH!!!!!! but remember say silver get grade, lol.

I hawk pectol at Cemetary market Aba, and A&B accra and bread

yah,guess i hawked bread in the city of Ibadan in the late 70s.It was fun though then,but now when i think back,don't think it was the best to do,but then i had to do it to assist the family.Wouldn't recommend it for anyone!!

That's true, thinking about it now hurts,but back then it was just fun.I did it for me.I mean I kept my earnings,it was never for the family,mom was trying to teach me something,though not recommended today,I guess it worked for her.She chills now in a nice home in Southern California with Mexican and Filipino maids serving her,courtesy the same kid she taught the virtues of hustling. I think its just the grace of God.For me I owe it to God,not the hawking,though its sort of a slight part of it.

Yes i did, wen i wos 10, i hawkd cookd rice n stew, my mum z a foodseller although she didnt lyk it bt i enjoy it wit frnds, wen i proceed 2 high den i stop.

@topic

I did not have to hawk anything while i was growing up
but I remember back then when things were kinda difficult at home
my mom had to open a restaurant so as to support the home
and because she and my dad wld go to work there was nobody to manage it and we could not afford to employ people to work for us then,

so I turned manager and cook at the age of 13, immediately I got back from school
without getting home i would go straight to the shop and start to cook
there was nothing that i could not cook from cow tail peppersoup to nkwobi, turkey peppersoup, while cooking I would be cleaning and setting the chairs and tables outside, it wasnt easy at all becos i did not really have time for my studies and there were times when we would close by 11pm sometimes 12 and by the time we got home
i would be so tired that i would just go straight to bed.


I also recall that anytime my mom got back from work she would also come straight to the shop and thoughout she would continue to praise and pray for me and i think that also encouraged me too. Because it wa really tough for me ooo!!! I cant even begin to go into details now!  It was really an humbling experience cos i faced so many challenges!!! And i was so tiny then.

Its still a miracle how i did not become wayward
becos i was exposed to all soughts of men at a very tender age!!!


^{its fuunny how it is so easy to forget the past
if not for this topic i dont think i wld have givven it a  second thought
Thank God for my life at least i am not doing so badly now}.

LOL

u DEY CRASE
If u see d kain crowd wey we dey get bak then ehn
funnyy enoff people no dey blve say na me dey cook

abi u have not heard of the saying that
hardship can bring maturity

would have loved to

very interesting thread that elicit feelings of nostalgia from members of Nairaland. i didn't particularly hawk but I sold some stuff like bread, matches etc(for a very short time anyway) for mum in front of the block of flat that we resided in. 

the most interesting adventure i had as a kid was when i went to our garden & plucked pumpkin leaves (ugu), washed and tied them up accordingly in N1.00 bunches or so & placed them in a tray. before i could say jack robinson, it was sold out & i made like N40-50 bucks or so for practically free. it was an awesome experience for me at the time. if only i continued in the enterpreneurship drive. it's still in the blood anyway & irrespective of what i'm doing now i intend to 'mind my own business' & be an employer of at least 1000 employees IJN!

kudos to all those that went thro this & are shining examples today. it only goes to show that God will not ignore the days of little beginnings & the determination that it begets

Langbejina ooooooooo

my father was educated and rich but due to his love for women he married two other women after my mum and this lead to my mum leaving the house, apart from hawking these:
dongoyaro leaves
moin-moin
abari
cooked rice
eko
kerosene
myself and my brother were subjected to all form of abuse, we were always on errends for our step mum and at the end of the day she will not give us food  and when she finally give us it will be without meat, she has left us two days without food, these lasted until when we finally reconcile with our mother,
thank God it is all story now.

@Osisi

Its a pity u had to do those jobs u did in the UK, but i bet u learnt a lot from them.

There's a way life teaches us certain lessons we NEED to learn in order to become more HUMAN in the way we see and treat other people. I've actually parted ways with a number of people because of the kind of unbringing they had (The Silverspoon type), not that they're bad people or anything, but by virtue of the way they were brought up, the seemed to believe they were better than other people, and that is against my principles.

Although i never had to hawk anything when i was young, i had my own fair share of hardship, and that has helped me appreciate life better, and also to know that u're not better than the next man, u're just fortunate to have the kind of life u have.

We are not responsible for where we are coming from, but we are responsible for where we are headed.

A slave was conceived in the same way as a free-born, every man is EQUAL in the sight of God.



Cheers

@ topic
Hawked a few items at different times in my life
kulikuli, kangu, olele etc in the village with dad's older sister
make-up items, bread, fruits etc with mom before situation improved
Thank God for today

Now I did not hawk any thing but my older brother put up a 5 man masquerade squad consisting of my bros, three friends and myself. I was like 7 or 8 yrs old

We weren't even proper masquerades. we knocked up one face cover (mask) from a coconut tree branch, hijacked a gong from our friends mum's music instruments for their meeting + empty cans from around the corner to make up our musical instruments. Getting a cane wasn't a problem; we simply got one from the nearby mango tree.

We did masquerade from 27th Dec to 5th January until one man gave my bros a knock on the head, seized our "mask" and asked "christmas never finish for your end" ?

Thank God for that man cos my brother was ready to carry on masquerading until the next xmas. We made some bucks sha and thank God my dad ( now that was a cane loving man) didn't catch us.

We bought Jersey and football with the cash and formed our own football team "5 Golden Club" playing 5 a side matches with other kids in the neighbourhood. I still yab my bros till this day.

Sure I did on the streets and crescents of a place called Agbara Estate, and it wasn't bad. Hawked bread, mango etc, but the one that put me off as a child was oranges, i was not so good/fast with the peeling, more often than not I ended up being helped by my customers (housewives), and impatient buyers.

To me it's what has added up to make me who I am, self reliant/dependent, not looking up to anyone to provide from when I was young adult. Wouldn't mind recommending some refined aspect of it as training to my kids.