Speaking of the Gators, our own Bill Koerner correctly predicted the score of the BCS victory, highly sagacious and in defiance of all the oddsmakers who predicted a much, much higher scoring game. That got several classmates talking about his good luck and how he ought to head for the track. Bill responded, "I've already been there," and told this story from Ages Past about he and Doug Lynes.
Bill recalls, "I remember another time when the numbers were working in my (our) favor.... one more story from days gone by.
During the summer of 1970, Doug and I needed a vacation but were short on funds. At the time my parents owned a cabin in upstate New York, on Brant Lake in the Adirondacks. Brant Lake is located 30 miles or so north of Lake George and we enjoyed the best of both worlds; the beautiful solitude of a remote lakeside cabin, and resort town nightlife in Lake George Village. After a few weeks of hiking and exploring during the day and visiting the Lake George pubs by night, we were running out of money.
On one of our trips to Lake George we ran into a guy I knew from UF. He was working that summer at one of the many resorts that surround Lake George, and told us some of the staff had left before season's end, and they needed some help. Doug bussed tables, and I was a short order cook at the snack bar. We both worked the night shift; not a bad job, and provided funds to keep us in food, gas, and beer.
One day, the guy from UF invited us to go to the horse track at Saratoga. He had some extra club passes, and we got to hang out with the high rollers at the track. Doug and I placed a few bets, and, with the hot dogs and beer, were quickly depleting our cash. Then came "the tip". Someone in our group knew the bugler who plays the call to the starting line. He told us to bet on this horse whose name I cannot recall. The odds against this horse was something like 250 to 1! We went back to the bugler and asked if he was sure about this, and he said yes. Doug and I were tapped out, but managed to come up with $1 each to bet on this horse. Apparently we weren't completely convinced this horse was a winner, so we placed a $2 bet to "show".
He won! Our $2 bet would have made us $500 had we bet to win. As it was, we won $58 (?), which we split, which paid for our day with a little left over.
Now that I've jogged my memory, stand by for other stories from our adventures in NY. Here are a few headlines:
Doug and Bill hitchhike to Lake George Village and get picked up by some strange characters.
Doug and Bill are picked up by a sheriff's deputy.
Doug and Bill are confronted by a biker gang in Lake George Village.
Bill Koerner
[whom we hope will let us put all these great-sounding stories on the blog -- stay tuned!]
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