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A GUEST AUTHOR’S Harvest Story THESE STORIES ARE ALWAYS INFORMATIVE AND USUALLY HAVE A BIT OF TONGUE AND CHEEK HUMOR.
IT IS ALWAYS FUN TO SHARE WITH OTHERS, DIFFERENT WAYS OF HARVESTING, THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS THAT WE HAVE FACED OUT THERE WHILE WE WERE HARVESTING.
REGGIE
Here is one of my several harvesting stories that you may publish. It was 1978 when I was a visiting teacher at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Being then a beginner collecting mostly antique gaming chips with designs and knowing about the monthly Pasadena Rose Bowl show, I took my reluctant 9 & 13 old daughters and drove from Malibu to the bowl. Promising, as I had done before, a quarter if they spotted a chip and 50 cents if I bought it, we started around the stadium, my kids running ahead. Despite the hundred or so dealers I was finding nothing when the kids ran back and dragged me to a booth where they had spotted a grubby looking carousel with 200 or so chips.. My youngest daughter announced I owed them a ”zillion” quarters as there were hundreds of chips. After explaining that they would get only one quarter or one Kennedy each, I looked over the chips and saw only numbers w/ “DI” on them. But since I had come a long way and had found nothing else I asked the dealer, the price. She said, $25. Not really wanting them as I didn’t collect numbered chips, I offered $10 and settled reluctantly for $15. I took the chips to the car, storing them in a paper bag in my trunk and forgot about them. That May when I drove back to Syracuse I took the set and put it in my closet. In 1984 I closed our home (having divorced) and clearing out my closet found the bag and carousel of chips. But by then I had expanded my collection to include casino and club chips and staring at the DI letters and numbers I thought “could these be Desert Inn roulettes. Rushing to my Chip Rack book I saw that they indeed were DI roulette—rated “H” Over the years I sold and traded those 200 unwanted chips for $10 or so each. (I did not tell my children less they demanded a cut.)
By Travis H. D. Lewin
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