Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom (And Whimsy)

Posted on November 19, 2025 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with no comments yet

 

Cold, hard cash

 

I’m playing with house money.

Most people I know in this part of the world are not gamblers. We tend to be quite conservative in nature even though we are liberal minded. small c. small l! We generally play it safe and if anything, are risk averse. Not many take “the road less travelled”. We take comfort in routine, and we don’t like surprises.

However, deep down, we’re all a bunch of river boat gamblers. We’re suckers for lotteries, scratch tickets, bingo, raffle tickets, and 50/50 draws. We’ll even “chase the ace” over hell’s half acre if we think we can win one of those monstrous jackpots. We would all like to get rich but sadly, our odds of winning are very slim.

A few weeks ago, I went to a hockey game at the Antigonish Arena, something I hadn’t done in a hundred years. My brother was sitting beside me, and I told him that I was one of the very first hockey players to play in this rink when it opened in 1970. I was a member of the Antigonish Junior Bulldogs.

On our way in, there was a table selling 50/50 tickets. My brother laid down a ten spot and purchased 7 tickets. I wasn’t going to be shown up, so I bought the next 7 tickets on the roll. After the first period, the winning ticket was announced. My brother was studying his ticket and his eyes got bigger as the numbers rolled off the tongue of the public address announcer. He was sure that he was going to be the winner. Unfortunately, he was one number off. I held the winning ticket – the next number in the sequence!

There was a very small crowd at the game. Including the janitor and the Zamboni driver, there might have been 50 people, mostly teeth chattering parents. As I walked down to the scorer’s table, I was figuring that, at best, I might have won $50. I was handed an envelope and inside was $210. At first, I thought that this might have been money to pay the referees. At that point, I realized that almost every person in attendance must have purchased $10 worth of tickets.

I put the wad of cash in my pocket.

I was now playing with house money.

If you’ve ever been to the casino, placed a $20 bet and won $100, you know exactly what house money is. You put the $20 that you “invested” back in your jeans pocket and decide to use the house money ($100) to gamble some more.

We should have taken Steve Miller’s advice:

“Hoo-hoo-hoo,

Go on, take the money and run.”

Take The Money and Run – Steve Miller Band

There’s also a touch of greed in all of us. Of course, we roll the dice with the house money, lose all that, and the $20 we started with… and then some!

I’m playing with house money.

The term “bucket list” became popular after the movie The Bucket List starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.

I must admit that I’ve never had a formal bucket list. Life just happened, and like so many other people, I accumulated a basket of experiences, some good and some bad. However, with the relentless march of time, we see the runway shortening and this is when we start to feverishly try and accomplish things we wished we’d done.

My mother was fearless, and she never shied away from trying new things. I must have inherited that streak from her. I took opportunities when they were presented to me, even when they seemed unreasonable (reckless?) like running 5 marathons after having had 3 knee surgeries. I will happily give you my therapist’s contact information!

This is a very long lead up to the main point of this story.

Ten boxes arrived on my doorstep on Monday containing my recently published autobiography. I was in school at the time of the delivery and my kind neighbours (thanks Yvonne and Ann) lugged the books into my apartment.

Getting a shipment of a new publication is sort of like Christmas morning. There is a lot of anticipation to see how a year’s worth of work looks coming out of the box.

So, how did I feel when I opened the box? My gut instinct was that I was very pleased with the look of the book. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if the contents were worthy of your hard earned $25.

I sat on the couch, cradling the book, flipping through the pages. I started humming the One Direction song, The Story of my Life”.

Yes, there’s a certain amount of satisfaction when you’ve tackled and completed a big project. This one has been in the works for 74 years.  After 10 seconds of self-congratulations, I then felt a sense of relief. I have so wanted to write this book before I died. I know that this sounds a bit morbid, but I wanted to leave something for my children, my grandchildren and those who come after.

I want them to know what it was like growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in a large Catholic family. I want them to know where they came from and what life was like for the Baby Boomers.

While this is my story, it is every bit your story too. So many of us share a common heritage, growing up in small town Canada. The book is laced with family stories, stories about our town, province, country and global events.

I’m playing with house money.

Everything from this point on is a bonus.

My bucket list (if I ever had one) is full. However, I have a small pail sitting beside it so there’s still time for more adventures!

Have a great weekend.

P.S. Want a copy of the book? Drop me a note at  lenpdmacdonald@gmail.com