Have You Ever Won Anything Big?

[riptides]

In college, my stats professor said: "Lotteries are for people who flunked statistics!"

Well then, guess what.

I didn't flunk statistics, and I play the mega lotto stuff in my state. I figure so what on the odds. If it happens, or was meant to be, so be it. If not, well one less beer, coke or coffee, I can do without.

-Mike Z.

 

[Champy]

Biggest thing I ever won was my wife's hand in marriage. That woman is a saint, and I thank my lucky stars every day that we're together. She's brought me more riches than any lottery ever could.......two fine sons and 25 yrs of adventure, love and laughter!

 

[N80]

If not, well one less beer-Mike Z.

Everyone is different, I'd always rather have that beer!

 

[RedRocker]

Trip to Cozumel on the radio.

 

[GaryM]

Trip to Cozumel on the radio.

I've never ridden a radio anywhere, are the seats comfortable? Food service?

 

[texasjohn]

TxDon.. Gadzooks, zat zucks

 

[ByronBob]

My cousin won a Dodge Daytona Shelby back in the early 90's at a bowling tournament.

 

[RedRocker]

I've never ridden a radio anywhere, are the seats comfortable? Food service?

Food service was bad, but the radio flyer had the wooden side rails, so it was nice.

 

[rox]

AAAHHHHHHHHHH!
This thread brings back a very bad memory.

I got the "Z" in the Taco Bell Godzilla contest which meant I WIN ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

However (the bad memory) I left it on the table at Taco Bell in Giddings Texas and did not realize what I had just given away until I read the small print a few days later and saw the astronomical odds that there were on getting the "Z". I Really considered taking off work and try to trace the "Z" to the landfill area but then considered my odds at finding it again would be even higher.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGG!

Don,
Your post is the most memorable one in the thread. Last Christmas I won a Slingbox and it has changed my life. My daughter installed it at at her house this spring after she had purchased a new computer, and now I lay down in Provence on the sofa in front of the fireplace that is burning olive wood from our spring prunning and watch live American TV or else shows that I record on a seperate DVR box which she got me for Mothers Day. I LOVE the Slingbox.

My son was in 7th grade and he was saving up to buy a pet bird and the local channel 12 tv station hired a new weather forcaster so they ran a 5 degree guarantee contest. You send in a post card and if his forecast was off by more than 5 degrees they drew out a psot card and the sender won $112. My son kept begging me to send in a psot card, he was trying everything to rais money for that bird, and on the way to school in the morning he begged me to send in a post card, and he gave me the address he had written down from the show. Well jsut to get him off my back I stopped 2 blocks away at Walgreens, bought the psot card, drove across the street to the mailbox and mailed the card. If you can beleive the mail service, the very next day he won! The card had to have arrived at the tv station the next day and as luck would have it the day before, the day I mailed it, his forecast was off. My son was thrilled when he saw that I won the $112. I had ot put it in my name do to age restrictions on the contest. I'll never forget that contest "The 5 degree Guarantee"

I would always play the lotterry but only wehn it was really huge, like it was in the news, that it rolled over and was huge. I would spend $20 and buy $5 worth of tickets for our 2 children and my hsuband and myself. And I wrote the names on the tickets in ink jsut so I would not be tempted

I remember so many good conversations with my young son about what i would do with the money if I won. Our oldest, my daughter has sevear asthema so we never ahd any pets. My son just loved animals and always wanted pets (he was allowed to get a pet when his sisster went to college and he picked a parrot as his choice) so I would tell him that we would build a new house then I would build a seprate house in our back yard just for his new pets which he would now be allowd to get. That was always my dream to be able to let him have pets, to build a little full cottagge jsut for pets for him. I have worm memories of lottery winning conversations with my son. But I think I did it right, I wasn't into it every day. Oh every 2 years or so I woudl play in the mega mega lotteries so I was not encouraging bad behavior. My husband was always working nights and my daughter was always in bed early so it would be my son and myself watching the news for the lottery drawing together and sharing our dreams while we waited for the drawing. It's funny how I remember that because of this topic. That little boy is now 26 and jsut got his first professional job and we are so happy and proud of him. He served in the Peace Corps in Guinea west Africa for jsut over 2 years and 6 weeks ago he got a really good Job with the Peace Corps HQ in Washington D.C. He is the Assistant Country Desk Director for 3 counties in western Africa. He moved into an apartment in DC last Saturday so we ahve been thinking of him a lot more than normal lately. Before this he was selling health insurance to small businesses while he worked to get a professional job in his field.

He sure was persistant about me sending in that post card on the 5 degree guarantee, but I am not so sure it really was a random drawing as I had written on the top of the psot card in big Letters "PLEASE PICK THIS CARD" and then briefly said how the $112 would go to my son who was saving up to buy his first pet....

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Hmmmmm, everytime I check my lotto tickets at the convenience store where I buy them and they come up nothings I say, "darn, I guess I'll have to settle for only being lucky in love and friends."

However, I do play the lottery here in Texas. I figure it's cheap intertainment. When my hands get busy sometimes and my mind gets the opportunity to play I'll buy tractors and places for fun with imaginary winnings.

I don't plan on winning the lottery. I understand that buying a ticket only slightly alters the odds of winning. But I also know that it's impossible to win without buying the ticket.

The last statement isn't an absolute truth. I figure I got the best odds of anyone alive when it comes to being a winner on state lotteries. It seems just about everyone is always telling me that if they won they'd have me doing work for them.

Almost twenty years ago I got a patent on a product. The local paper sent out a reporter to do a story on me. The reporter pointed out that there was a chance the product could make me very rich and asked how I felt about that.

I told him I had some concerns. I pointed to my son and mentioned him wanting a car. Right now the kid accepted that it wasn't affordable for us as a family. But if I was rich and didn't give him the car then in his mind I'd be, well, the north end of the southbound if you know what I mean. It seems with sudden wealth a lot of the time comes misunderstandings.

 

[GaryM]

Food service was bad, but the radio flyer had the wooden side rails, so it was nice.

You got me! Guess I relly did ride a radio, but it's at least 55 years ago.

 

[RedRocker]

I've never been accused of literary competence.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

I had taken a few days off to paint and have not had time to check this thread. Since someone brought up the lottery here is my view.

I play twice a week $2.00 total, $104.00 a year. I told my wife a least twice a week I could wake up a millionaire...other than that no chance in...


And yes money does not buy happiness, but it will buy freedom and freedom can buy some happiness!

 

[Champy]

I use the lottery when interviewing new hires or summer interns.

I always ask them. "If you won the lottery, and did not have to work, what would you do for a living or as a career?" When they answer "I'd be a writer"; "Open my own business: "fly around the world"....etc.... I then ask them - if that is really your ultimate dream, why not go after that goal anyway.....why are you trying to work here?

I get a surprising variety of answers and some clear insight to their character and life goals......

 

[wjoerob]

When my wife and I paid off our first home, it seemed like a dream. 13 years of work and remodeling, scrimping and saving. Like Dave Ramsey says, "living like nobody else, so that someday we can live like nobody else." When we paid off the second, much more expensive home with 4 1/2 acres, it seemed like a familiar joyful feeling, and we praised God again for giving us a job, discipline to save, and no catastrophes that would have ruined us financially. Now we are halfway to paying off the 15-yr. mortgage on a new-built home on 20 acres, and helping 24-yr. old daughter to buy her 1st place. Will try to do the same for each of the other 3.
My marriage is intact, we have all we really need. My father watches out for the little sparrows, how much more will He take care of me and my family?
Have I ever won anything big? You betcha, every day, buddy.

 

[TheDingy]

And yes money does not buy happiness, but it will buy freedom and freedom can buy some happiness!

SO TRUE, money can also bring many problems if not managed correctly.

This is a sad story.

Jack Whittaker (lottery winner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

 

[EddieWalker]

SO TRUE, money can also bring many problems if not managed correctly.

This is a sad story.

Jack Whittaker (lottery winner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

I didn't recognize the name, but after reading the story, I remember the stupidity. I really hate to call somebody stupid, but why carry over half a million in cash? Then he leaves it in his car while he's in a strip bar!! So that's enough to think of this guy as stupid, but then he does it again with $200,000 cash!!!!!!!!!

One thing that really suprised me is that he was already worth $17million before winning the lotto. He must have some smarts to create that much personal wealth. I don't get it, but from the shows I've seen on TV about lotto winners, and the one case of a friends cousin winning, something happens to people who get allot of money real quick.

There was another big winner who was on TV a few years ago showing off his house and all the goodies he'd bought. He had the sword from the movie "Braveheart" and all sorts of other props, but some of the most ourtragish yard art he could find. He was on a spending spree without limits. While watching the show, I kept wondering if he was trying to run out of money, or if he was bored out of his mind and had to keep buying junk to impress himself. It was really silly what he was buying and how he through his money away.

Then just a few months ago, he was in the news because he couldn't pay his homeowners fees. It was some rediculous amount like $5,000. I never learned what happened to the money, but his was was sold out from under him for around $300,000 to settle the fees that he owed. That was a multimillion dollar house that sold at auction for almost nothing.

I wonder what condition the house was in to sell so cheap and what happened to all his junk he'd been collecting? They did say that he had been living life very large with millions spent on part ownership of a private jet as just one of his expenses.

I don't know what I'd ever do if I won, but I'd like to think I could live on a budget and provide a good life for my family. I already have a wonderful life and I'm very thankful for what I have.

Eddie

 

[mjarrels]

I won a free power pole yesterday... utility crew changed out a power pole in the field and left the old one on the ground for me... they make good corner post when cut.

mark