Warming Up - Exercise 8

Windfalls:  Watch Out! 

Have you ever bought a lottery ticket?  Or been tempted when the prize amount soared into the hundreds of millions?  More importantly, have you ever won big?  Well, I have. But I’ve never bought a lottery ticket.  And those two statements go together to explain my title:  Windfalls:  Watch Out!

You see; I once won a lot of money – oh, not millions.  Just two thousand, two hundred, and nineteen dollars.  Not millions, but in November of 1972, it meant just about as much to me.  It was my windfall and it made the difference between my desire to go to graduate school and the means for me to do so.

Two thousand, two hundred, and nineteen dollars in 1972 was enough for me to pay the in-state fees and six months of living expenses so I could enroll at San Francisco State University.  That led to a degree, and a job overseas, which brought me into contact with the diplomatic corps, eventually leading to my entry into the Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer.  Sounds like a good ending, right?  Well, let’s go back to the beginning.

In November of 1972, I was working in Berkeley, California, earning $500 per month.  My rent was $125 a month.  My car payment was $80 a month.  My student loan payments were $100 a month.  After taxes, there wasn’t much left for anything else.  But I wanted to go to graduate school.  In fact, I had already applied and been accepted.  But I didn’t know how I was going to pay for it.  And then, one day, I got up late, late enough that I hadn’t left for work yet when the Channel 7 producer of Pippa Scott’s morning TV program called to ask if I would be willing to play their “name that tune” game.   

My telephone number was selected from the telephone book.  I had 5 minutes between the call from the producer to the second call with Pippa herself, just long enough to find the issue of the San Francisco Chronicle from the previous week with a column by Herb Kaen, my favorite columnist, that I recalled contained a clue to the answer.

I didn’t even have a television set.  So I had to listen to the tinny tune through the telephone receiver.  In response to Pippa’s question of whether I could name that tune, I responded somewhat hesitatingly, “I understand it is the theme from the movie ‘They Call Me Mr. Tibbs.’” I thought that was a clue.

Imagine my surprise when Pippa told me I was right.  So instead of the consolation prize of dinner for two in a restaurant in San Francisco, she told me I would receive a check for $2,219 on her program the next morning.

So I’m thinking that you’re thinking that all of this is still good news, right?  What’s the deal with my warning to watch out for windfalls?

The next day, I received a phone call from a friend to ask me if I was the Sandy Ferguson from Berkeley who won the money.  I said yes and asked how she knew.  She read it in Herb Kaen’s column that morning.  It seems that the producer contacted Herb Kaen to let him know that someone finally won the contest after reading his column.  So now my name is in Herb Kaen’s column.  Things are getting even better, right?  Let’s continue.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again.  This time it was a stranger who begged me to share my winnings with her.  Since my name and telephone number were in the telephone book – how else could Pippa’s producer find it? – anyone in the San Francisco Bay area could also find it.  And they did.

But what really scared me was the effect that winning the money had on my own thought process.  As I mentioned, it was enough money to allow me to enroll in graduate school.  But I didn’t do anything with the intent of getting that money.  It was entirely coincidental.  Coincidental that my number was selected from the book that day.  Coincidental that I got up late so that I hadn’t yet left for work that day.  Since I hadn’t done anything with the intent of obtaining the money, I began to think of spending it on something I had never planned to do – like taking a cruise.  When I think how I nearly wasted my windfall on something frivolous, I shudder.

After I had the check in my hands, I started looking around and my eyes fell on my 4-year-old baby blue VW bug.  It was nearly paid off, and that meant that it was getting more expensive to maintain.  I thought about getting a new car.  Now, it’s not that I thought about using my windfall to buy a new car.  My mind didn’t work that way any more.  Oh no, the first thought that crossed my mind was, “Well, I’ll just win some more money.”  That’s when it hit me.  My windfall winning had twisted my thinking.  It happened once, so why shouldn’t I expect it to happen again?

Imagine how much stronger the connection in my brain would have been if I had done something – like purchasing a lottery ticket – to win the money.

To explore my concern, I checked out the Gamblers Anonymous website.  It lists 20 questions to help determine if someone has a compulsive gambling habit.  Seven yeses mean you’re in trouble.  Fortunately, only two questions applied to me:

1. Were you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures? 

2. After a win, did you have a strong urge to return and win more? 

So here’s the lesson I learned and my message for you:  Don’t waste money on lottery tickets.  If you buy a ticket and you don’t win, the money is gone.  But if you do win, you may just have “won” something you’d rather not have.

Next time you feel tempted to buy a lottery ticket, call me.  I have a list of a hundred good charities that can put the cost of that ticket to much better use.