Mom and the one armed bandits

Me Mom used to like to pull the lever of the old one armed bandits with some regularity. Me Pops would take her to the various casinos, playing a few rounds of video poker typically, but he tended to tire of the games more quickly than she did. He would wait for her patiently after he was played out.

She liked to try new places. Once while me Pops was on a sales trip and she rode along, they stopped for a bite in Chester, West Virginia, up in that state's thin panhandle. Noticing they weren't from the area the waitress asked conversationally, "So are you folks going to try the new casino up the road?"

"We are now," me Pops responded with a wry laugh.

Me Mom, Lord love her, always expected that this trip was the one where she was going to hit it big. Wherever they were at, she firmly believed that it was her time, right then, to win the big jackpot. It was kind of sad to see her afterwards, when she invariably lost and was honestly and obviously dismayed she wasn't leaving the betting parlor as a millionaire.

Pops was always more retrospect. "The winners didn't build the casinos," he'd say.

True enough. Still, I would have loved to see Mom win big once. And for more than my own nefarious reasons too, wise guy.