Our luck had definitely changed. Daddy had hit the number. Now, many of you might not know anything about the numbers' game. There isn't really much to know - certainly less complicated than today's lottery games - just about as difficult to win - but some important differences. One - the money spent on "numbers" didn't go into the "save crippled hogs hit by cars" fund - it went into the pocket of the "numbers writer. This was usually a WWII vet who was missing an arm or a leg. Many of these guys worked in newspaper stands down town - very convenient for writing numbers. Two - it was totally illegal - as most things worth doing are. The "number" was calculated from the "breakage" at the local race track. This was figured from the money spent on the para mutual betting - down to the cent - the last three numbers - which was just about impossible to predict or influence. Now I was only about ten years old when all this was going on - so excuse me if I don't get the higher math right - but I do recall my dad explaining it to me and looking in the papers to see what the day's number was. "I hit honey" - he beamed to my mother
- "for a quarter I think - maybe fifty cents." He had been playing the numbers for years now and never won anything - the odds - of course were about one thousand to one - three numbers see? Now there was one hundred dollars extra this month - and a beautiful shiny black Chevrolet Coupe - out front of the house the next day.
You had to be there. It glowed! I'd never seen a car glow before. Maybe it was my dad's excitement - maybe - who knows - after all these years, one of our prayers, my dad's in this case, was answered, Gosh, alongside one of the fenders in front was the inscription "Deluxe". Wow - not to mention white wall tires - good grief - this was not an earthly craft at all - no way!! Get this - "PowerGlide" was written along one side - maybe on the back. "What's Powerglide dad?" He explained - "no more gear shift - no clutch" - you push a button I think and it starts - and you put it in Drive and go." "What"? my mom asked, astonished - "no - I don't believe it!" I was never so proud of my dad as he turned and smiled so confidently and reassured her. That how it works - automatic transmission!" Here we were at the height of my dad's success in life - "what a truly wondrous modern age we lived in" (last quote borrowed from Masters and Commanders the movie)
