Promoted to Middle Brother & The Lottery!

That’s incredible! File this under truth is stranger than fiction & not figuratively, but literally a million to 1 chance!

This is not your typical “post”. It is an absolute true short story with no hyperbole. So if you don’t like to read, you probably already moved on unless you were curious and sucked in by the pictures.

About 3 decades ago when my younger brother Paul was in elementary school he stayed at my Nanny & Pop-Pop house on my Dad’s side for the weekend while I stayed with a friend as my parents had a get away weekend. My Uncle Bill had lived with my grandparents at the time and took my brother to the Plymouth Meeting Mall where my brother wanted to play the lottery for the first time. Uncle Bill being of age and able to play agreed and they each put in $1 & played my brother’s birthday November, 6th or 116 for the Pennsylvania Daily Lottery or simple Daily Number as it was referred to. They played that number both straight & boxed meaning if you win straight the number comes out exactly in that order of 116 & paid the highest return (1 in 1,000 odds) that paid better back then before the state took more & more of a cut (now 50%) so $500 if you win. If you won boxed, that meant any combination of the 3 digits or in this case 116, 161, or 611 (3 in 1,000 odds) which would pay less which is now $160.

A little very important back story is that my Pop-Pop who in college became more of a peer to me as we would share in private both our trial & tribulations in life when I’d visit from the University of Delaware as my parents & younger brother Paul had moved to Phoenix 2 weeks after I graduated high school for my Dad’s job. I stayed east that summer as I had a girlfriend I thought like many young people would be “the one” I’d married eventually & lived with my Pop-Pop & Nanny before reporting to UD for freshman year. That girlfriend Krista Smith was a big part of why I stayed east and didn’t go to U of A in Tucson on a half academic ride much to my parent’s chagrin, but understanding.

Anyway, I digress or as my best friend for 39 years now pictured here with us Patrick Hunnicutt likes to put it: Robert, Bob & Bobby (he has know me as all), you speak & write in self-effacing parenthetical tangential run-on sentence humor. Pop-Pop did 2 things everyday of his retirement. First he walked up & back to church for Catholic Mass. Second, he played the daily number. I can clearly & nostalgically remember that his home (a 3 bed, 1 & 1/2 bath house shared by he, his wife & 7 children) would utterlly stop at 6:55pm everyday for the 7pm 3 ping pong ball drawing. He has played the number most of his adult life even before retirement. Remember it was $1 or $2 is your wanted to play that number both straight & boxed.

Before the drawing that day over 3 decades ago my Pop-Pop sat my brother down & explained the dangers of gambling, how addicting it was for some people & how hard it was to win. My precocious little brother interupted & said, “I know Pop-Pop. I have a 1 in 1,000 chance of winning our (Uncle Bill & his shared bet) & a 1 in 333.3 repeating chance of winning the box. When the number hits straight I’ll win both, but Pop-Pop, there is no bet here. I know (while confidently, proudly & even cockily pounding his chest) I will win.” Pop-Pop chuckled & went about helping Nanny in the kitchen especially since Paul & Bill were there & this was a special dinner. Pop-Pop lost track of time or just didn’t want to indulge Paulie’s delusional belief he was going to win the lottery the first time he played. The ping pong ball numbers were draw on TV at 7 as Uncle Bill & especially Paulie watch with great anticipation. ONE. YEA! ONE!! YEAH!!! SIX!!!! As is described in Boudwin Family folklore, Paul jumped up with his “head going through the ceiling” yelling, HOLY SHIT! WE WON!! I KNEW IT!!!

My grandparents came running out of the kitchen thinking someone had gotten hurt only to see the “good” news. My grandfather was basically like Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid when Daniel Sun caught the fly with the chopsticks just minutes into trying which the sensei had been attempting to do for life to no avail storming off muttering “beginner’s luck!” under his breath. Paul won the lottery on his first play EVER playing his birthday. Uncle Bill & he having won both bets the straight & box would get to split about $900+ once my Uncle redeemed the tickets.

That week Paul would call my grandparents house DAILY getting my Pop-Pop on the phone asking for Uncle Bill & seeing if he had cashed the tickets yet & had his cut. Pop-Pop would tell Paul, “Man Paulie, I don’t know. We haven’t seen Uncle Bill in a few days. I think he might have gone to Mexico.” Paul would fall for in hook line & sinker getting all worked up. The following weekend Paulie got his roughly $470 in cash from his $1 bet. In the eighties, THAT was A LOT of money for a grade schooler. Heck, that’s a lot of money to me NOW!

Fast forward to this past Wednesday night. I’ve never played the lottery in my life & I turn 50 in July. Mom, Dad, Paul & I flew back home from Houston to Philadelphia to visit my & Paul’s “new” big brother 8 years my senior also by coincidence named Robert/Bob. Paul & I were informed almost a year ago to the day by our parents that in their freshman year of college at West Chester they got prematurely & accidentally pregnant & neither were in a position to become parents yet. Neither believed in abortion. The baby was put up for a closed adoption where my parents were not allowed to know anything about the adoptive parents & not permitted any contact. Mom took a semester off college & given that day & she, no one except my Grandparents & Grandmother Till & Great Grandmother Elliott knew. There was no internet, social media, cell phones, etc. back then & if someone went to a relatives for a while then that’s what they did & it could have been for a host of reasons. Life moved on. Paul & I were never informed. Our Mom & Dad didn’t know if Bob lived in Singapore or down the street.

My big brother is an amazingly intelligent, kind, funny, tough, caring & courageous person. He takes after me. With the beautiful support & encouragement of his first & newly married wife Maggie (MY SISTER IN-LAW!) who’s physically beauty is only eclipsed by her inner beauty, Bob reached out in an eloquent letter mailed via Fed Ex to my parents that neither pressured them to respond nor set ANY expectations. I have a copy. I read it frequently & the degree of grace & gratitude Bob expressed for being granted life in the letter to my Mom still makes me cry on a dime & was breathtaking! I look up to him because of that letter.

When Paul & I were informed over lunch with my parents, Paul immediately without missed a beat or taking a moment to absorb or process said, “AH HA! You’re not the big brother! You’re the middle brother!” My brother has a keen sense of quick wit.. I joked days later after processing, “I’ve been promoted to Middle Brother” & of course got us all shirts that said EXACTLY that!

Bob & Maggie have visited Houston twice since a year ago for a week each time & the relationships continue to grow, flourish & strengthen all around for everyone. I traveled east with my 2 sets of twins last summer for vacation & we met up with some of my family still living back in the Philly area & Bob, Maggie & their families at the Blue Bell Inn which Paul & I both worked at through middle & high school. Paul was a bit of a savant at the BBI as word spread of his winnings as soon as he started there because he hit the Daily Number 4 more times in the next year. All the waiters and waitress wanted his feel/gut on the number any day he worked. I just rolled my eyes.

This past Wednesday all the Boudwins in Houston travel together to visit Bob & Maggie getting to meet all their extended family, friends & especially Bob’s Dad who raised him from 3 until now ongoing (Bob’s first adoptive Dad unfortunately passed away when Bob was only 3, so Bob’s Dad is the only Dad he’s really known until meeting his biological father a year ago).

The 6 of us all went out to an early dinner Wednesday night. Afterwards, we dropped Mom, Dad & Maggie off at home a ran out to the State Store for a bottle a Scotch & Bourbon. In PA, they only sell liquor at stores run by the state & until recently only sold beer at beer distributors which are still prolific despite grocery store fairly recently starting to sell beer & wine. I wanted Club Soda as a mixer and they only sold mixers at this beer distributor & not the state store so we went next door just for Club Soda. While there I saw the PA Lottery Keystone (symbol for PA) & immediately felt a rush of warm & welcome nostalgia. I asked when checking out if they sold lottery tickets. The cashier said yes, but only over at this other register. I in haste decided to forget it. Bob said, “No man, if you want to do it, it is right there.” I agreed. Remember, I have NEVER played the lottery. I purchased 12 $1 tickets. Each of our 6 birthdays played both straight & boxed & said if any win, we will all split the winnings 6 ways. It was 7:04. We just missed that night’s drawing. If it were 6:55, I’m sure I would have played for that night just 5 minutes away. Then Bob explained they had added an afternoon drawing and asked me which I wanted to play for the next day. I quickly decided the night as that is what I witnessed my Pop-Pop did. We went home & forgot about the tickets catching up on SO MUCH of every aspect of life past & present.

The next day we enjoyed each other’s company and went to dine at the Blue Bell Inn Thursday night, the night of our lottery drawing completely forgetting about it. Paul departed the dinner a little early to go to the 76ers playoff game in an Uber by himself. He’s the ONLY guy I know who would go to a live sporting event alone AND LOVE IT!

The next morning while we were all drinking coffee Paul went to charge his phone & saw the stack of tickets in the corner by his charger. He asked if anyone had checked last night’s daily number. We hadn’t. Paul pulled it up on his phone…

I NEVER use profanity on social media, but I am making an exception here. WE FUCKING WON AGAIN WITH THE EXACT SAME #, my brother’s birthday 116, winning both straight & boxed the SAME EXACT WAY Paul did his first time playing 3+ decades ago! The whole house was shocked & in utter disbelief! We all shouted & yelled as Boudwins do:). I STILL am having a hard time processing the odds. If dinner was just a little quicker, we would have played the day before’s number by 5 minutes. If I hadn’t wanted Club Soda. If that State Store sold Club Soda instead of us having to go next door. If Bob hadn’t said nah, go ahead over there to that register & play. ESPECIALLY, if Paul hadn’t thought to check, I doubt any of us would have checked given the UNIQUE situation & the catching up we were doing. IF IF IF…. These ifs and butterfly effects worked out for the positive. The monetary winning which were $110 each ($660 total, because PA take a larger cut these days) pale in comparison to the life long BIZARRE story we will reminisce & treasure forever as we all shared it together!

Us 3 brothers did what any self respecting Boudwins of our generation would do. We went out the next day, yesterday, & got matching PA Lottery Logo tattoos with 116. After the tattoos were completed Paul immediately said, “GREAT! Now the 3 of us are all $50 in the hole!”

My little brother won the lottery on his first try over 3 decades ago. Thursday I won the lottery on my first try with the SAME exact number in the same exact way. Hopefully there is a heaven. If there is, my grandfather was pissed for a second while Nanny & Bill were tickled pink laughing their ass off!

BTW, chances of hitting the exact same number on both our first attempts is 1/1,000 x 1/1,000 = 1 in 1,000,000 as I began with. May the luck of the Irish run with you too!

So the moral of this story is that we should ALL try gambling once unless we win that first time!

#MyTwoBrothers#lottery#Pennsylvania#Adoption#Luck#OneInAMillion#Gambling#Family#Brothers#Fate#eerie