Winning It All

          There are some people who are incredibly lucky.  I am not one of those people.  I’m not even simply unlucky.  I’m so far off the luck scale that if it were an eye chart, it’d be invisible.  As a result, I never participate in anything that requires simple luck to come out on top.

          My son, on the other hand, wins anything and everything he happens to glance at.  Case in point….as a young lad of about ten he accompanied us to a company Christmas party.  For the enjoyment and excitement of all the kidlets who were attending, the company had purchased a Christmas stocking which was to be raffled later in the day.

          The stocking was gigantic.  It was at least ten feet high and about five feet across.  It was loaded with everything a young child might wish for…electronics, board games, toy cars of various makes and models, dolls, baseballs and basketballs, a couple of tennis rackets, books, soft toys, candy by the boxful, even clothes. 

          As each child entered the premises, they were given a ticket for the draw.  My son was given ticket #1.  Now I ask you.  If someone gave you the very first ticket off a batch of several hundred, what would you think were your chances of winning?  My son, Mr. Confidence personified, kept telling me that he was going to win and would not be greedy but would share his winnings with his sister.  Very noble thought, but I hated to burst his bubble by telling him his chances of winning were about zip.  Come on…he had ticket #1!!!

          But no, the luck fairy smiled and my son won the stocking!

          In another instance, a TV game show asked viewers to send in questions to be asked of contestants.  Each question used but not correctly answered by the contestant, would win for the question submitter between $20 and $50; the question placed in the middle of the board would win for the submitter, $500.

          Need I even say that my son submitted one question and out of the thousands and thousands that were sent in, his was chosen…and chosen to be the $500 question?  The contestant failed to answer correctly and my son was 500 smackeroos richer before the end of the show.

          On the other hand, one of the first times I ever participated in anything to do with luck, I was about twelve.  My Mamma had taken my little sister and me to a local Fair.  The place was loaded with gorgeous artisan created goodies.  Everything from beautifully knitted sweaters, scarves and beanies to elaborately embroidered table cloths, cushions and of course dozens of pottery items just waiting for a home.     

          Our two shilling entry fee had also garnered for each attendee a ticket for one of the items on display.  ‘Everyone wins something,’ yelled the Fair’s organizers.  Sounded like a ‘can’t miss’ situation to me.  Woo hoo!

          In among all the bounty dazzling our eyes was a small cage with a cackling and very much alive chook inside.  Chook is Aussie speak for a chicken that is past the cute, fluffy yellow stage.  As we passed the cage, I glanced up at Mamma and said, ‘I don’t care what I win, as long as it isn’t that chook!’

          Some hours later as we bumped home in the half empty bus, I stared at the cage on my lap and the quite angry looking chook staring back at me.  The one and only time in my life I ever won anything and it had to be a live chook!

          But she did taste quite nice when we had her for dinner some days later, so I guess it wasn’t a total loss.