Win Some, Lose Some

© tedmurphy

Usually when we’re planning the route on our summer trips we make sure to include at least one night where they have casinos. All of the guys enjoy a little gambling, although some of us do better than others. Bill is our most consistent winner, having luck that is absolutely uncanny. I’m the most consistent loser.

A rule, or perhaps a tradition, evolved: If anyone rang those bells that announce a big jackpot, they bought dinner for everyone else. And it was usually Bill doing the buying. That tradition still stands but let’s face it, winning $300, which would have meant buying dinner for three, does not now mean buying dinner for nine. And it’s not very often that one of us will win $600 or $700 or $800. Ring those bells loud enough, though, and you had better be prepared to share the largesse.

Which brings me to the time I did ring the bell.

We were cruising up through Idaho one day, coming from Twin Falls and arcing around to Idaho Falls. We had stopped and gone deep underground at Craters of the Moon National Monument and afterward pulled into the little town of Arco. On this hot day the little bar we saw on the main drag beckoned, and we stopped.

Half a dozen locals were gathered at one end of the bar and we took seats down from them a ways. We nodded a greeting to everyone and settled down with some beers. Scoping out the rustic old place, with western bric-a-brac all around, I noticed an odd-looking tool of some sort hanging by a cord just above us. Shaped like a pair of very large tongs, I know now that it is used to take hold of a cow by the nostrils and lead it where you want it to go. But I’d never seen something like this before and was intrigued.

Reaching up, I took hold of the tool. Through a series of pulleys, the cord it hung from looped and angled its way over to a cow bell, hanging close to the locals. The bell rang and the bar fell silent. Everyone turned and looked right at me.

“Anyone who rings that bell buys a round for the house,” I was informed. Their little tradition. Oh gosh.

So we bought them a round, engaged the appreciative folks in friendly conversation, and drank a bit more than we intended. It might have been a financial loss, but it felt like something gained.

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