THE CHURCH GOING AL
We went to the Episcopal Church in our small town. One Sunday we climbed out of the old Ford and started walking toward the church. A car pulled up to park and a horrific cloud of smoke was coming from its exhaust.
I asked mom, “What if the sky fills up with smoke?”
She replied, “Don’t worry, the sky will never fill up with smoke, it’s too big.” Grandma Helen wasn’t very scientific. And although she had many strange powers apparently foresight wasn’t one of them.
For many years Mom made the costumes for the church Christmas Pageant. The wise men were her crowning achievement replete with gaudy plastic pirate swords and jewelry.
The church used to have a Halloween party where you could buy tickets and go play games. They would set up curtains for a fishpond. When you bought a ticket, they gave you a fishing pole and you held it over a curtain. Everybody was a winner. Bingo for a nickel ticket was a game I’d never played before, so I tried it. Mom had given me a quarter and you could get six tickets for a quarter. I was a player.
I put that nickel ticket down on a bingo card and won three dollars. I was rich. I ran and found Mom and showed her my winnings. She advised me to save it. I decided to invest instead; there was easy money to be had here. I expect you know I lost the three dollars and the other five tickets. What you don’t know is how much ‘never gambling again’ has saved me over the years.
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