Friday, June 24, 2005

Gambling is very popular these days. I myself have never gambled - even at scary old Atlantic City which is just one senior-citizen bus tour away.

Here is why I don't gamble. I spent my summers on the Jersey Shore - mainly at the Seaside Heights amusement park which is populated wholly by the insane and criminals.

When not trying to cadge free rides off of the hapless 16 year old boys who ran most of the rides, I would become obsessed with winning the prizes at the Games of Chance.

Games of Chance should be renamed "Games of Fat Chance" - I plopped down all my money to win Astro and Bart Simpson - made out of some sort of indestructible fabric. It was an obsession - people would walk away from my - bored with my failure.

I distinctly remember watching my sister winning a giant raccoon at the rigged basketball carnie booth. My soul burned with jealousy - if only I could win a raccoon that was bigger than I was - which, once home in my tiny NYC apartment bedroom would take up most of the space on my bed. My cack-handed 7 year old self could only score the mini-raccoon with one basket.

No one should ever let me walk into a casino. I would never come out again.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ha, I really like this entry, because I recently experienced something like that. My boyfriend and I went to Six Flags... He really did try to be chivalrous for me, and win me a big stuffed animal... long enough that I couldn't take "no" for an answer. I dropped $40 all on my own trying to win a giant stuffed puppy. I walked out with two Tweety's dressed as Sylvesters, three fake roses, and fuzzy dice. Oddly enough, I still felt empty-handed. But life's full of disappointments, I guess, ha.

I'm with you.