I parked my mom in front of the 25-cent slot machine at the Ocean Downs Casino. I told her I'd be back as soon as I lost the $20 she gave me to spend. Wandering around the casino in search of some sort of sign I was surprised by the number of people, young and old, parked in front of some sort of gambling machine. With the ring of dropping coins in my ear, I settled in at the Hot Peppers penny slot machine, remembering the luck my friend Chuck had with a similar type of machine in Las Vegas years ago.
I had no such luck and within about 10 minutes had cashed out with a mere 9 cents on my paper voucher. Returning to my mother I found her sitting on a stool near where I left her.
"What, did you lose all your money already?" I asked.
My mom replied, "I went to the bathroom and that lady took my machine."
I laughed and reminded her that we had just had a discussion about her wearing Depends this morning.
We wandered around looking for another suitable 25-cent slot and eventually settled in next to each other, me as the observer, and Mom as the gambler.
In the end, I left with $20 but only because my mom slipped me another twenty and I cashed out the minute it went to $20.50.
On our way out we passed by the first machine my mother had bet on. Her eyes popped when she saw the same older woman who had taken her seat, sitting in front of the same machine, waiting for someone to pay her the two-thousand dollars she had just won.
