The Last Time I Lent Money At The Track

[Teach]

Prologue: In Hamlet, Shakespeare penned: “Neither a borrower or a lender be.” One day, at a MA harness track, I learned Shakespeare’s - actually Polonius’s - wise counsel, the hard way.

I was in my early 20’s. I was already a regular at both harness and thoroughbred tracks, e.g., Suffolk Downs, Rockingham Park, Foxboro Raceway the Massachusetts Fairs: Marshfield, Northampton.

One late-August evening, over 50 years ago, just as Foxboro Raceway was ending its summer harness meet, a bunch of my buddies and I headed down Route #1 to Foxboro for an evening of harness racing. In a day and age before simulcasting (how did we ever survive?), we were, per usual, having a fun evening. We’d yuk it up, drink beers, eat hog dogs and burgers, and bet on the races.

I can’t tell you how I did that evening, but I can tell you about an incident that I’ll never forget. There were five of us. One of the guys was a friend of one of my close buddies. I’d didn’t personally know the young man (I’ll call Mike); yet I’d seen him around the neighborhood. Everyone who knew him said he was "a good egg."

As the evening was wearing on, Mike suddenly comes up to me and says, "Walt, could you lend me ten dollars?" I remember saying, "I’d like to, but I won’t be the neighborhood for a while because I’m leaving tomorrow for orientation sessions at school I’m teaching at on Long Island. I added, “I won’t be back until next week.” I remember Mike saying, "Don’t worry, I’ll give you a check for $10.” He added, “Just don’t cash it for a few days until I get paid." I looked at the blank check and said, "OK, fill it in for ten dollars and sign it. I’ll cash it next week," I added.

The next day I was on my way to Long Island to attend three days of orientation prior to the opening of school. Before I left “The Island” to return to Boston, I went to a local bank and opened up a checking account.

I gave the teller some cash, and the check that Mike had given me at the track.

About a week later, I was on my way back to Long Island to begin my new teaching job. A week or two had gone by when I received this communication from the bank. In so many words the bank tells me that the check that I had deposited had "bounced" (my account was debited). At that moment, I was furious.

The following weekend, I drove up to Boston. I immediately looked for Mike. I found him hanging out at one of the bowling alleys. I confronted him. I remember Mike saying, "Hi Walt, how ya doin’?" "Not too well," I replied. "You know that check you gave me at Foxboro, it “bounced!”

It was then that Mike says, "Let me explain, I decided to change banks and cleaned out that account and started a new one someplace else. I didn’t know where you were living," he added. He continued, “There was no way I could get in touch with you." At that moment, I felt like I was teaching school and listening to one of my students explain to me why he hadn’t turned in his homework.

I then recall saying to Mike, "Just give me the ten bucks you owe me, and we’ll forget about it." I recall Mike reaching into his wallet and fishing out a “saw-buck.” He hands it to me. "Sorry about that, Walt," he says. I just turned and walked away. I would never lend money at the track again.

Epilogue: I learned my lesson. As the proverb states: “Once bitten, twice shy.”

[davew]

nowadays that bounced check would cost you another $30-40 at many banks.