Day 88: Monte Carlo Night!

Tonight I went to the Hellertown Historical Society’s Annual Monte Carlo night. My mom is a member of the Hellertown Historical Society, and last year some of my family went, had a great time, and thus convinced me to go this year. I have always wanted to go to a Monte Carlo night, but never had the opportunity until now, so I was really excited!

I had been told this particular Monte Carlo event was a bit, what shall I say… rinky-dink. My sister informed me that our group would be the only people there under the age of 50 and that the event consisted of card tables and folding chairs squished together at the old Grist Mill. Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting very much. And upon walking in, my expectations were met dead on. It wasn’t very much.

But you know what they say. “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” Well, if any situation is proof that this statement is 100% true, it is the Hellertown Historical Society’s Monte Carlo night. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time, and if I had the option to re-plan my Friday night, you would still find me at the old Grist Mill.

I went with my sisters and friends and when our party of 6 showed up, they were just setting up another table of Black Jack. Perfect! We all sat down together and met our dealer, Art, who, I’m going to say, is the best dealer around. (Except, of course, for my brother-in-law, Greg, who was dealing at another table;). When you bought your ticket you were given something like $100,000 to play with. And play, I did! I immediately started losing money and then winning and then losing and then winning. Deb was racking up the money next to me and Art, as always, was having the best of luck (because you know dealers always do!).

The room was filled with excitement and you could easily hear when people were winning a lot or losing. The 4 other Black Jack tables were packed with old heads winning stacks of money and I felt I must catch up if I wanted to get any good prizes at the end of the night.

This was when we started betting on the horse races. That’s right! Horse races! Picture this: a man and women moving wooden horses on a green rug according to what numbers show up on the die. Redneck? Yes. And to make it even better, the announcer for the races was wearing a red and white-striped suit coat! It was hysterical!

So while I was on my winning-losing roller coaster with Art, and downing the pretzels from the magical, bottom-less basket at our table, I was also keeping my eye on my selected horses. Which, of course, rarely won. We were having a blast, and as the night continued, so did the fun.

Our table grew increasingly loud (which the old heads loved!) and my stack of money was slowly getting higher. Over all the noise of the Black Jack dealings and cheerings, you could hear the race announcer giving updates and announcing next races. People were coming around taking your horse bets and food and drink orders. The atmosphere was great!

The night soon took another intense turn for the better: I started betting on 4 of the 6 horses in each race. Of course, with my luck, it was usually the 2 I didn’t bet on that were in the lead! It was ridiculous. Also, Art started making up his own Black Jack rules. Good rules. Rules like “every time the dealer busts, you get $10,000” and “every time the dealer messes up, you get $10,000”. We liked these rules. And after 9 o’clock, when we were down to the last half hour of playing, he doubled all those rules to $20,000 and doubled our winnings whenever we won! Yippee! You’re the best, Art! Fake money for everyone! We soon all had more money than we knew what to do with, and so our bettings went up big. Unfortunately my luck went out the window, and I lost $100,000 in one of the last rounds! Dang you, Art!

The night came to a close, and after counting up all our money, we got put in order from the biggest winnings to the least. This was the order in which you got to pick prizes. Most of my party ended up with gift certificates to Neighbors or a hair salon, but by the time it got to me, the pickings were slim. Did I want a golf umbrella, a gift certificate to a dog store, a tacky Christmas platter, some auto oil, or the Matrix hair products? I’ll take the hair products, please!

Too bad they don’t have Monte Carlo night every Friday.

(Sorry for the bad-quality pics. My camera was dead, so they’re all from a phone.)

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