The Raffle

Summertime always means many things, but one thing that it means almost universally is family reunions. That's right, time to meet up with those members of the family that for some reason you haven't kept in touch with for the last twelve months. Now some families aren't so active with their reunions, but with my family there seems to be a reunion every month if not twice during the month, whether we attend or not...

Now in my first blog you may remember meeting Aunt Joy. Aunt Joy absolutely adores family reunions. She'll sit you down and start asking you questions about what is new in your life, the usual stuff. In the beginning, you'll have maybe two, sometimes three minutes when it is a discussion. For those that know Aunt Joy well enough, it is during these precious few minutes that you start glaring a sibling, cousin, spouse, someone to come and rescue you, because the next hour or two is only a discussion because every now and again you might get to utter the word, "uh huh," "I see," or "well.....uh huh..." Desperately you try and think of some excuse to get out of there, but what can you say? "Oh my look at the time, Aunt Joy, I have to..." Yeah right, you are stuck there, grin and bear it.

Well this year was a bit different, Aunt Joy didn't actually have the time to stop and talk because this year Aunt Joy was in charge of the infamous raffle. I'm really not sure how the raffle got started, or better yet why. I think it was one of those crazy ideas where some of the family got together and said, rather than asking people to pay for the reunion, let's have a raffle. Which is almost never a good idea, at least on the small scale.

Naturally, with every raffle, there are a few choice prizes, and then there is a lot of junk. It's pretty much the idea of a raffle, get a lot of people to buy tickets for the nice stuff, and then send them home with something worthless. This year was no exception. The sought after prizes this year included Betty's pile of home made caramels; Uncle Loeey's (don't ask why he spells it that way, he just does) leather work; and finally the greatest of all, Lily's afghan. Lily was known for doing the most intricate crochet work you had ever seen. In fact many people didn't even use Lily's work for warmth, they would actually hang them on their wall and just admire them.

Well, sure enough, the raffle worked it's magic and before long raffle tickets were selling faster than lemonade on a summer's afternoon. Everyone naturally wanted the afghan. Sure, people would be satisfied with the leather, or even the caramels, but they bought the ticket for that one chance at the afghan.

Aunt Joy was truly in her element. There she was handing out tickets, collecting money, enouraging people to buy at this table, selling handfuls at that table. It was the most money that had ever been collected.

"Okay, everyone time is up to be buying your tickets, it's time for the raffle to start," cried Aunt Joy in her shrill voice.

"Now let's see her, first up we have this lovely key holder." Lovely was a bit of an overstatement, frankly it looked like a do it yourself project gone awry. It was a small box with a door that was secured quite loosely with one hinge. Inside someone had stained about half of it and on the outside someone had glued on a picture of the Eiffel Tower. "Oh wow, and it looks like it is from France! Let's see here, 11525, who has 11525? Oh little Sue! Congratulations!!" What a ten year old was going to do with a key holder, I don't know. "Now aren't you cute..."

"Alright next up, now lookey here, it is a decorated fly swatter, no more run of the mill fly swatter for whoever wins this....and look it is 11309! Who has that? 11309? Hello? 11309?!" Turned out it was grandpa...he had already returned to the nursing home, where I am sure that flyswatter with the lace edging is hanging quite nicely on his wall.

No one really cared about these prizes though, it was the big prize they were after. Time could not have ticked more slowly by...one hour, than two, everyone seemed to be collecting a bit of trash here and a bit of junk there. Finally, two and a half hours after the raffle began interest was piqued.

"Now everyone, just a few more left. It appears I have saved the best for last. Let's see here, Betty's homemade caramels. Won't this person be a lucky one that wins this? 11467! That's right 11467...who has it? Oh why by golly, it is my little grandaughter Emma! I'm sure you will enjoy these, I saw how your mouth was watering earlier when you were looking at them." A bit of let down for some...but there were still two left...

"Uncle Loeey's beautiful leather work. Let's see, let me reach way down for this one...and we have 11015! Oh my, look my son Peter won it! I'm sure this will go great with those new boots you just bought!"

At this point things started to appear just a bit fishy. Okay, so Joy's relatives had won two of the big prizes, and perhaps even worse she wasn't even hiding the fact that the winner had been chosen long before her hand entered the bag. However, the biggest one was left...there was still a chance...surely even Aunt Joy wouldn't go so far as to cheat everyone out of their chance on the big one...

"Last item everyone, it's the big one! Lily's afghan! Isn't this just exquisite? Whoever wins this will sure be a lucky one! Let me see here, we better really pick up a good one for this one...and the winner is...11690! 11690! Anyone? Surely someone has 11690..." At this point, everyone had lost hope, we knew what was coming... Aunt Joy continued, "Oh my, wait a second, it appears that I have 11690! Why, what a great surprise, I have just the right spot for this, it will be perfect! It sure appears my family was extra lucky today!"

Apparently, there is no need for luck with Aunt Joy. But what could you say? The next year, we had an auction, I figure it is only a matter of time...