Chapter 5

Sure, you have to pay taxes on the interest if you deposit the money in an interest bearing account ... if you buy stocks that have capital gains or purchase property and sell it at a profit ... but if you just spend the money ... you already paid the tax.

That doesn't include sales tax ... or like Kansas ... where you pay sales tax to buy things ... Then pay personal property tax on the things you own ... every year. But you paid 35 percent once ... the government can't charge you again. The annuity isn't wages.

Mom went from bordering poor to nicely fixed over night.

Mom never said a word to anybody. She kept her job ... well, she did have to close the library to go to Lansing to present the ticket. And that was a mess.

It seems those particular numbers were not being printed out on quick pick. Far be it from me to suggest that someone in the Lottery had arranged for the Jackpot to be accumulated over a few drawings to increase the Jackpot payout for a particular person later. I'm just a kid ... what on earth would give a 13 year old the idea he had to be suspicious of a benevolent government?

Mom won. The Lottery board paid ... grudgingly ... but they paid. I was pissed about their attitude and used the watch twice more ... once for Jean ... and once for Charlie Arthur. That'll teach those bastards.

Three winners in a row from one gas station in an itty bitty village on the west coast of Michigan suddenly turned the Shell Station into the 'go to' place to buy tickets.

The little places in Michigan are dying. There's nothing to keep the kids at home ... and it's just a few years until the auto industry goes into a full blown panic. There's still good jobs in manufacturing.

It wasn't much of a boom, but Pentwater actually had business during the winter of 1983. It wasn't tourist business ... it was lottery business. BUT ... and it's a BIG but ... Pentwater is far enough off the beaten path that a simple trip to buy a lottery ticket turned into an all day ... and sometimes an overnight ... trip. The Antler fed the visitors ... the little motel at Bass Lake had NO VACANCY for about three months and then it was spring. The Shell stayed open later and hired help. The Andreessens came back from Florida and opened their motel. All told ... about fifteen million dollars stayed in Pentwater that winter.

Charley took his money and bought a Yamaha snowmobile dealership. He turned his airport into a major racetrack. The black sweet cherry industry bought groomers and the cross country skiers came in droves. Like to icefish? The Cloches built ice shanties to rent. Oh yes, the town really blossomed ... right through the entire winter, the spring and the summer was spectacular. With a ticket bought at the Shell, someone regularly won at least a thousand dollars every lottery drawing.

The excitement was just slacking off in the fall when Mom bought a ticket and WON a million ... I had nothing to do with that!! I swear! And I did that too ... swore ... and got my mouth washed out with soap.

"Son of a Bitch, Mom!! ... You fucking won! Moooommm I'm too old for ... pifft ack ick eww!"

Oh yeah ... we turned 14. My sister grew out ... of bras, panties, blouses and pants. I, on the other hand, grew up.

"Jimmy?"

"June."

"Pick me up. I want to kiss you."

Uh huh ... that much up.

"Now, let me down really slow ... wait ... up just a little ... down ... Oh god ... you got sooo fucking big!"

Eventually, mom got over her mad ... and it was her turn to say, "Oh god ... when did you get so big!!"

Boy! Now THAT'S a birthday present!!

"Mom? Can I go to Lansing?" I asked her.

"Huh?"

"I wanna go to Marshal Music."

"NO DRUMS!!"

"Yer no fun."

"NO DRUMS!!"

"Yes Ma'am."

"I can take the bus."

"Ok."

"I'll even take Jun ... what did you say?"

"I said Ok. You should have paid attention ... now you have to take June with you..."

"Mom!"

She called the school ... amazing ... we got Wednesday to Monday off. Naturally we had to go up to the Principals Office and he gave us a list of Museums we HAD to go see ... then we went to town and happened to run into Charlie Arthur who listened to our chatter and said he would fly us down ... because he needed to talk to Ben Franklin about a B25 and there wasn't much sense in flying down there in his Beech alone. And that's what we did.