Lucky Draw

[Excerpt from a letter to "Clarus and Gwennie", dated 3/15/1989.]

Before the days of Green Stamps, Instant Rebates, and Mail-In Refunds, the Saturday night Drawing held at closing time and sponsored by the progressive merchants of Alexis was one of the highlights of Keith's boyhood when his beloved neighbors Bessie and Rollie McKnight took him into town with them. As some of you will recall, a purchase of 25 cents gave the purchaser a ticket to be deposited in a big barrel. At the magic hour of nine o'clock, the winning numbers would be drawn. In 1937 Keith's family bought a new Ford for $700. Figure that one out--it makes a lot of tickets for the barrel. Keith doesn't remember what the competition was that particular Saturday night, but he was feeling very hopeful holding onto his big wad of tickets held together with a rubber band. (Have you noticed that even computers haven't put rubber bands out of business!) He recollects that he didn't receive the Grand Prize but close to it, for when the winning numbers were announced, he held one lucky ticket that awarded him 10 smackeroos. As all of us recall, in 1937 and for a few more years, that was a grand and wonderful sum. However one might want to construct luck, the laws of probability were definitely in his favor.