Brad’s Gambling Life – Part 15, The Final Chapter

After 30 years of marriage, Brad and his wife divorced.  Brad always jokes, “I got out on good behavior.”  He rented a small bachelor pad close to Naval Avionics and continued to go to the various horse tracks on the weekends when he wasn’t working overtime.

In 1982, a Naval Avionics co-worker who knew how much Brad liked gambling told him about the Moose Lodge just a few blocks away from his apartment.  She said they ran Monte Carlo nights there a couple of Wednesdays a month and there was one that night.  Brad made a beeline there as soon as he got off work, finding a juicy poker game, just full of loose players.  He went home with a couple of hundred extra dollars in his pocket. 

He couldn’t wait for the next Monte Carlo in two weeks!  He decided to drop into the Moose again the following Saturday before heading out to Cincinnati and a racetrack.  He sat down at the bar and started chatting with the bartender about how he was looking forward to the next Monte Carlo night. 

The bartender said he didn’t have to wait for a Monte Carlo to gamble,   “See those men at a table back in the corner.  That card game goes on every day of the week.”

Of course Brad’s ears perked up at that information.  He carried his drink back to a table next to the card game.  It took only seconds to realize they were playing…..what else….Tonk.

The men were friendly,  “You know how to play Tonk?   We have a seat open.”

Brad was his usual low-key self, “Well, I’ve played some before.”  No since mentioning he had been playing since he was five years old!

And that is how the Moose Lodge became his second home. 

With no family responsibilities, if he wasn’t at work, he was in a Tonk game, almost every day of the week.  And that is why he happened to be at the Moose Lodge when a certain lady came to the Lodge for the first time and joined a Tonk game in which he was playing.

He didn’t know it that night – but his life was going to change forever!