MARY, OUR MOTHER

CHAPTER XLIX: TWO HEARTS OF WIT & WISDOM

New York City. I was seated in a booth in a restaurant, having lunch. Right behind me were four men talking rather loudly, the conversation seemed to be about what is your lucky favorite number. One of the men finally said, "My number is--my lucky number is '7'." "Because," he continued, "Many years ago, in my younger days, I was out of work, jobs were hard to come by--I was broke--. So I asked a man on the street:
"Can you spare a dime?" - - -
"Believe it or not the guy gives me seven one dollar bills! I got myself something to eat on the quick and I went out to buy myself a new shirt & tie. Of course in those days everything was cheap, compared to today's prices. 10 cents for a cup of coffee . . . Went job hunting, looked in the want-ads. Lined up on this long line of applicants--and lo and behold, the boss picked me of all these men standing there.
"I asked him later, why he gave me the job, he said because of that nice new shirt and tie I was wearing. And from then on everything opened up for me like a beautiful flower--my lucky number '7'."
Just before the men were to leave the table, I went over to them and said:
"If I can tell you--just exactly what year you received that 7 dollars, where you received it, and what the man said as he gave you the money--what would you say?"
"I would say," the man answered, "You are the one who gave me the $7.--."
"Alright then, here goes: You received that money in Washington."
"Oh no, I didn't receive it--in Washington, D.C.!"
"Wait" I countered, "It's state of Washington, in Seattle."
"Yes, you made a good guess," he admitted.
"It was just before Pearl-Harbor, it was 1940, correct?"
"You got it, it happened in 1940!" He was astonished.
"The words spoken as you took the $7.-- were: 'Take it, I am gonna lose it anyway.' "
"That's it--You are then, the one who gave me that money!" He shook my hand--he wouldn't let go.
"What a small world this is," one of the men exclaimed.
"Here is the rest of the story--yes a true story--" I told them.
"I gave you that money not because I was kind or generous--but because I was disgusted with myself--! I had $107.-- in my pocket, visiting a gambling place in Seattle (I am sure that gambling joint is closed a long time ago). I lost exactly $100.--. As I left the place, walking down the steet, you approached me. I was thinking about returning to the Casino, and invest my last $7.-- to win back my losses, when it occurred to me very vividly: GAMBLING IS A ONE-WAY STREET-- It's all down the drain, it's a disease. I had known men, gamblers, who would always ask you for money, they were always broke. And when they would buy a hat or a suit of clothes, they'd buy the cheapest possible, in order to keep that bank-roll on the ready, in the pocket--ready for gambling!"
Indeed we had a happy re-union. I told the men, that one of my friends in Seattle had confided to me that he lost $6,000.--, his total savings and it took him just two weeks to lose it all. - - -
Yes gambling is a DISEASE.

* * *