Pell Mell
03-04-2011, 07:07 PM
I probably started when I was about 6. At that time there were gum ball machines where you could win prizes and they also had punch boards and special colored candies. I spent all my pennies in those games.
The town I grew up in had every kind of gambling you could think of. There was probably 1 bookie per 500 residents. You could bet on horses, numbers, treasury tickets, the Irish Sweepstakes, all the sports and not to forget the church bingo games.
I lived in a mob neighborhood and there were poker games and knock rummy games going 24/7. We had floating crap games and street corner crap games. There were guys that made a living hustling pool, bowling and even pinball sharks.
The town was big on baseball and softball. Midweek evening softball games would draw about a thousand fans and a lot of betting went on.
Since I started working for bookies at an early age I got into horses by the time I was a freshman in high school.
One of the best bets I ever made in my life was on the 1946 World Series. I was getting 5-6/1 on the Cards from kids all over the school and I bet everything I could beg, borrow or steal.
I became a first class bowler and pool shooter, my father was a shark so I had a good teacher, and I was a world class pinball player. I pitched a lot of baseball and softball(fast pitch) and if you were a good ball player companies would hire you to a cushy job so you would play on their team. There were a lot of industrial leagues back then.
But, I fell in love with racing. Horse races, car races and homing pigeon races. I did them all and the only thing left is the remnants of horse racing.
Come to think of it, I had a helluva life.:cool:
The town I grew up in had every kind of gambling you could think of. There was probably 1 bookie per 500 residents. You could bet on horses, numbers, treasury tickets, the Irish Sweepstakes, all the sports and not to forget the church bingo games.
I lived in a mob neighborhood and there were poker games and knock rummy games going 24/7. We had floating crap games and street corner crap games. There were guys that made a living hustling pool, bowling and even pinball sharks.
The town was big on baseball and softball. Midweek evening softball games would draw about a thousand fans and a lot of betting went on.
Since I started working for bookies at an early age I got into horses by the time I was a freshman in high school.
One of the best bets I ever made in my life was on the 1946 World Series. I was getting 5-6/1 on the Cards from kids all over the school and I bet everything I could beg, borrow or steal.
I became a first class bowler and pool shooter, my father was a shark so I had a good teacher, and I was a world class pinball player. I pitched a lot of baseball and softball(fast pitch) and if you were a good ball player companies would hire you to a cushy job so you would play on their team. There were a lot of industrial leagues back then.
But, I fell in love with racing. Horse races, car races and homing pigeon races. I did them all and the only thing left is the remnants of horse racing.
Come to think of it, I had a helluva life.:cool: