I admit it, I take those quizzes on Facebook. After all, who doesn’t want to know what five letter word describes them (crazy) or what First Lady you are most like (Jackie Kennedy). I know it is crap but it is entertaining. It is a bit of a gamble to find out what rock star you are channeling.

I’m not a big gambler. I don’t mind playing slots for a while but I could certainly never sit there for hours hoping for a big win. My first experience at a casino was with my sister and grandmother. My grandmother or Baa Baa, as we called her, took the senior citizens bus from NYC and my sister and I drove and met her in Atlantic City. My grandmother, loaded down with free meal tickets and tokens, was ready to go. Baa Baa loved all things to do with chance –  contests,  lottery, slots, etc., she loved the thrill of it all.

She was actually quite successful in the contest department even winning a trip to England. She fared pretty well with the lottery winning things here and there and did OK on the nickel slots too. Sometimes I would receive a package in the mail and open it to find some prize I had won via Baa Baa. Frank Sinatra Golden Jubilee Old Fashion glasses, a NFL jacket, and random cookbooks. If you had no idea where it came from initially, it didn’t take you too long to realize it was some kind of contest prize.

That first trip to Atlantic City sticks out in my mind for a few reasons – first of all, I won some money. I remember it was about $60. Nothing huge but a decent haul – enough to buy us lunch and have some leftover. Secondly, it was around the time Wilt Chamberlain’s book came out and Baa Baa had heard about it on the news and was trying to calculate how many women he slept with each day during his “busy” years. This really is not the conversation you want with your grandmother and it was only topped by a discussion of the Clarence Thomas hearings and the meaning of “Long Dong Silver” and why someone would put a public hair on a coke can. What a conversation.

Tonight I’ve chosen a song from one of my favorite feel good bands, ABBA. There’s nothing like an ABBA song, sad or happy, that I don’t love.