GAMBLING AND LOSING

I have long disapproved of the availability of gambling and particularly for the easy access to bus service for seniors to Atlantic City.  Then we have Lotto and the Numbers and can even watch Championship Poker on our TVs.  Well, not for me.  I am a poor loser and thank my parents for teaching me early on that one does not always come out a winner when gambling.

The carnival was ablaze with twinkling lights, the sawdust paths winding to the rides were so welcoming and the air fairly crackled with the joy and relief from the Great Depression that the carnival was offering.  My brother and I had each been given a quarter to spend which meant five rides for the evening.  However, as we strolled toward the festive Ferris Wheel, my eye was caught by a long-armed, toy monkey grinning widely amid an array of other toys and dolls.  I wanted it.  But the only way to acquire it was to pay five cents and hope that the plastic duck you picked would have a winning number stamped on its bottom.  The little ducks floated in a  confetti-sprinkled water trough, suspended waist-high across the front of the gaudily painted tent housing the toys.

I begged to play and my father patiently explained that I might not win a toy and with my paying five cents I would forfeit a ride on the Ferris Wheel.  I was determined and after being discouraged as well by my mother, I plunked down my quarter, got two dimes in return and picked up a duck.  Alas!  No number on its watery bottom.  Well, in spite of repeated warnings from both parents, I finally lost all of my twenty-five cents.  My first bold attempt as a gambler had ended in total disaster.

We moved on to the Ferris Wheel where my brother promptly bought his first ride.  I fully expected to join him but my father said, "No, you spent your money."  And so my brother sailed off with my mother up into the heavens on the Ferris Wheel.  My crying did no good and my father escorted me back to our car to sit out the long-awaited family visit to the carnival.

My parents did relent after a time when I had stopped crying.  I was allowed to rejoin them and even 'loaned' five cents as an advance for future garden work as well as a treat of cotton candy,  Needless to say this first ride on a Ferris Wheel was one that I have never forgotten.  As I rode higher, accompanied by my mother since i was only five at the time, I could see the entire carnival spread out below as I sailed skyward.  And over there was the race track and beyond was the river and the twinkling lights of town and the towering courthouse spire.  It was glorious; I was on top of the world and I was the happiest kid you could ever hope to see.

So I lost my quarter, got only one ride on the Ferris Wheel, as well as a sticky, pink. cotton candy, and, thanks to my parents, became a winner in that I simply would never gamble again.  Oh, maybe an occasional game of penny-ante poker but that is it!  I watch folks gamble and lose but I do see an occasional winner - now and again.  All too often, however, I see people gamble away hard earned money that should be spent on necessaties.  So, no monkey for me and to this day I simply can't abide ducks - plastic or real!!!