When time goes bye

As I get older there seems to be little reason to go “shopping for anything beside food.” I have enough clothes for the rest of my life, well maybe not underwear, one more six pack should do it.

A few images from San Francisco

When I was in my first year of college living in the dorm there used to be a perpetual poker game going  in one fo the “relaxing rooms.”  On popular game was known as “man or mouse,” which had a one penny ante, winner took the pot and losers doubled the  pot. and the game would go until there was only a winner.  If you dropped out out of a hand and there were losers who doubled the pot and if you had made the initial one penny ante you would still be in the game until there someone  cleared the  pot with no one to accept the challenge.

Even with a one penny ante  these pots could get up to $30 or $50 pretty rapidly and$100 + pots were not unusual . In the 1069s this was a good idea of money for a college student, well maybe not at at the “famous schools where legacy  admissions are prevalent but at most universities.

I was mostly a by stander,  although I liked playing poker for small stakes when I was young, a few days before going on a family vacation I lost all my “vacation savings” in a card game and since then I have never allowed the hopeful temptations  of gambling to guide my judgement.

This game, “man or mouse,” could move very fast  and some kids very “into it” and for college kids  too much money changed hands very quickly. It lead to stealing, first some would steal from store, mostly clothes,  towel in the dorm and then  things  started missing from student’s dorm rooms,

The United Nations Plaza in San Francisco, there are interesting quotes written into the walk way  and maybe some truth is written on the wall.

Students became more suspecting, more wary  of each other , still the games went on  until one day one student was caught cheating in a game.

Saints Peter and PaulChurch  inSan Francisco one afternoon

Some  broke into the student’s room, he did not share, but  dormed alone, and as they began searching,  they discovered all missing stolen property.

But they also found —this student had attended a Big Ten school at one time but dropped out—a Rose Bowl sheepskin, one given to a football player in recognition of their participation in the Rose Bowl. This student never been a football player, and as the discussion “got heated up ” it  because obvious, and then known for sure, that this student had stolen this sheepskin  from a football player who had earned it.

When I was young , maybe 6th grade, 7th grade, there were a few times I did steal stupid , inexpensive things  from  stores, I got caught  once, my father and I had to  meet with the store manager, it was a lesson. I think honesty and integrity are important, and there were  times as an adult when have regrets about things I did, as there were times when I have pride  as to my behaviour  in a situations where there were “temptations.” The thing is,  it seems easier for people to remember  the negative things  no matter how few than to remember the positive things no matter how many, which in itself is a good reason to try to maintain some level of integrity. But then again maybe some of the negative things I have done were just so bad that they overshadowed all the positive thingsI did.