Usually when people pull up to my headlight cleaning spot at the carwash, they'll ask "How much?". I don't post a price sign, so people have to stop to find out what it costs. That gives me a chance to sell them before they drive away.

Times are tough and lots of people don't have the cash on them for my usual price, so I decided to try out a Christmas Special. "Let me clean your headlights right now, and you pay what you think it's worth or whatever you can afford. Fair enough?"

Most of the jobs were for less than the usual, but even the ones who only paid half, put cash in my pocket that wouldn't have been there otherwise. Turned into a pretty good day. Fun too.

A kid was driving by and I made him stop by pointing to the front of his car and waving my demo light in the other hand. He thought something was wrong with his car, and stopped. I gave him the Christmas offer and he turned me down. Turned down a free job! I had to sell him a free job, I couldn't believe it.

So as I was cleaning his lights and chatting him up, a pickup with dirty lights stopped. The driver owns an electric company here and he got involved in the conversation. The kid is 18 years old, has a wife and child, and the only money in his pocket was a stack of quarters he needed to use to wash the salt off of his car. His job is putting rock salt into paper bags out at the salt plant.

The electrician offered him a job, and I had to step in and practically force the kid to shake his head up and down to accept the offer. The kid left in a daze. He got his lights cleaned, got a better job, and drove off completely forgetting to wash the salt off of his car.