Reply to thread

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

Message: <blockquote data-quote="RSteve" data-source="post: 559900" data-attributes="member: 164">In the past few months there has been a lot of news about horse racing. I know very little, but did make one significant bet.As I've written previously, my mother died when I was a child in 1954. My father didn't handle things well and my older brother an I were farmed out to relatives and friends for several months. In the summer of 1955, to regain our trust and friendship, my father decided to take us on a roadtrip through South Dakota. Before we left, my father's sister, Aunt Rose gave my brother and me, each a ten dollar bill for spending money. In today's money, that's $98.47.On the way to South Dakota in the '48 Plymouth, my father got sidetracked, and we wound up in Nebraska and the Ak-Sar-Ben horse racing track during the very short racing season. I think by that time, I was 10; my brother 14. Needless to say, I knew nothing about betting. The races were about 15 minutes apart, but it seemed longer. After each race, my dad would tear up his $2 betting ticket, curse, and go buy another one. I was plenty worried, because apparently my dad was gambling away the vacation money. After one ticket tearing, my father announced his ulcers were killing him and if he didn't get to a bathroom, he'd s*** in his pants. He instructed my older brother to keep an eye on me and we were told not to move. He took off and I began scanning the near grandstand. Aha, just what I was looking for, an older man sitting in a wheelchair. I literally ordered my older brother to give me his $10 bill, which he coughed up with no resistance. I'd punched him out many times. I ran up to the betting window which had an older woman tending it. Keep in mind, I had reddish hair, some freckles and was small for my age. I went up to the betting window and told the woman my grandpa was in a wheelchair (pointing out the guy I'd spotted) and said he wanted to place a bet, but couldn't climb the stairs. He gave me $20 to buy ten $2 tickets on .........I can't remember the horse's name. The woman smiled and said she could get fired for doing this, but sold me the tickets, all on the same horse.I joined my brother and it was still several minutes before my father arrived. Dad asked if we wanted to leave, he wan't going to bet anymore. I could see my brother was about to cry. Quite loudly, I said, "Please Dad, I just want to see one more race." The horse on whom I'd bet must have been a ringer. From out of the gate to finish line, he led by several lengths. By the time the race was over, my brother was loudly sobbing, people looking at the three of us wondering what was wrong. My dad asked what was going on. I handed him the ten tickets. He looked at them, then looked at the big board. I thought he was going to faint. I admitted that I'd taken the Aunt Rose $20 and bet it all on that race. I said my brother was crying because you'd be so mad that we spent all of our vacation money. The horse was a 33 to 1 shot, winning $660, in today's dollars $6500. My father, all 6' 230 lbs. began to jump up and down. "Boys, this is going to be the best vacation any of us have ever had. He gave us each $100 and the rest was for a memorable healing vacation.We hit the road to Chicago and Milwaukee. Our goal was to see Ernie Banks in Chicago and Henry Aaron, Warren Spahn, and Lew Burdette in Milwaukee. Different world in 1955, between my brother and me, we got autographs from all of them. I wish I'd kept them. Gene Conley, who was with the Braves, was the tallest man I'd ever seen.</blockquote>

Verification

Reply to thread

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

Join the conversation!

Register today and take advantage of membership benefits. It's FREE!

Don't like ads?

Did you know that registered members can turn off the ads?