As I turned 37 yesterday, I began to reminisce about some of my past birthday experiences. One that instantly popped into my mind was my 21st birthday.
21 is a special age to reach. A time when one is suppose to go out and do something EXTRAORDINARY for their birthday. My best friend Matt had bashed his cranium trying to come up with something to do that evening. Something we hadn’t done before. Something that would be unique and special. He came up with a plan…we would head out to the Casino Queen and try and become RICH!
Neither of us were gamblers and couldn’t play CARDS for a lick, unless you counted us cheating my sister and her husband out of a game called Rummy 2000…my strategy, just keep throwing crap down as fast as you can and they can’t tell if it is legit or not. Worked, Matt Hoyt and my sister never really knew we weren’t winning those hands! But, we decided to try our luck at the riverboat. Something new…something we hadn’t done before.
When we parked, Matt and I both made an agreement. Neither of us had really high paying jobs…he was a manager at McDonalds and I was a manager at Long John Silvers… and we were both still trying to pay our way through college, so we both left everything in the car except our driver’s license and fifty dollars.
One can easily be overwhelmed by all the lights and sounds of a casino. Since we were both young and inexperienced in this realm, we were. We walked around the entire casino before we set our sights on what was to be our first gambling experience. The Blackjack table. We approached.
“Yes sir,” the man in a tuxedo behind the counter said holding a stack of cards. He smiled. Seemed pleasant enough.
Matt put down a ten. “I’d like to play.”
The man looked at Matt and smiled. “Sir,” he said almost with a chuckle, “It is a MINIMUM fifty dollar buy in.”
I looked at Matt trying not to make it obvious how shocked I was. FIFTY DOLLARS! That was his whole budget. I watched as Matt reached out and pulled back his ten.
“I knew that.” He said quietly and we both walked away. Humbled, Matt and I quickly located a change machine and spent the rest of the evening playing the slot machines.
Matt and I played and played until we were both broke. Neither of us gained anything monetarily that evening. Walking out, we came down the ramp off of the boat. I looked at Matt.
“I can’t believe we both just lost fifty in there and nothing to show for it!”
Matt shook his head in agreement.
“You BOTH lost fifty!” I heard a voice from behind me. I turned around to see a man who looked as ordinary as the two of us leaning on the railing.
“Yeah.” I responded.
“Man! I lost fifty too!”
Matt smiled, “Sucks doesn’t it!”
“Yep! Fifty thousand is a lot of money!”
Matt and I looked at each other in awe. FIFTY THOUSAND? We both just shook our head and agreed.
“I hope you two have gas money to get home. Man….100 thousand. You two have worse luck than I do!” He headed off down the ramp and out into the parking lot.
I looked at Matt…he at me…and we both started laughing!
I have had sixteen birthdays come and go since then…but I can honestly say my 21st birthday will go down as the birthday I lost the most money…FIFTY!
That’s nice…JM
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