One Saturday when I was 12 and we were living in Germany, poor as churchmice, my mom and grandma decided all 3 of us would take a daylong bus trip out into the countryside. At lunchtime, the bus pulled up to a country inn, which also housed a souvenir shop----AND! most importantly 4 me, a tiny slot machine.
I had never used one, tho in my grade school days, when we'd visited historic Central City up in the Rockies, I had seen antique ones from saloons that whetted my appetite. So, this real live gumballmachine-looking contraption was too much to resist. Greedily, I fed it one DM (at that time---those were the days my friend!----the mark was worth a quarter) and turned the handle. Out rolled 4 DM. I was elated! Immediately, I had the urge to feed the machine another mark. But just as immediately, a sobering thought braked me: what if I lost that mark? At the time, especially for a poor youngster like me, a mark was a small fortune. (And 4 of them, well, that was the world's jackpot!) I opted to keep my booty.
But that little incident made me later understand the gambling addiction that afflicts some folks.
2 comments on Just a Taste
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What a wonderful recollection! I remember going to meet some friends at the River Boat. They were late so I stopped by the restaurant for a coke to wait for them. I overheard three ladies talking about having lost their whole monthly allowance for groceries gambling. I got up, left without waiting for my friends, and returned home never to go back to the gambling establishment.
{ThumbsUp}x 10, Angie!
What I keep wondering is why do some folks resist it and others don't? I'm not any more holy than the next person (but maybe a bit more parsimonious, LOL!).