We Scratched $400 Worth of Lottery Cards at the Campground

When Dad passed away, my brother and I procrastinated, but eventually, time demanded we rummage through the contents of the storage shed. Undaunted by cobwebs and mouse dropping, we tackled each box as an exploration until the label "junk drawer" appeared in the black, back corner.

The junk drawer housed all the items our family couldn't live without but nothing useful until they didn't exist.

In my youth, that drawer produced constant consternation because the task of searching through the clutter consumed more valuable time than any item's actual worth. The drawer held the handheld pencil sharpener, the one binder clip we owned, and a tiny screwdriver to adjust our sunglasses on days when we finally got around to it. In fact, buried under our treasure hid a-round-to-it, a quarter-sized wooden coin displaying those exact words - something every household needed in the '70s with the absence of Alexa.

Our treasure chest, the junk drawer, started as the place to store batteries and extra shoelaces. One shoestring held lost then found buttons waiting to be needed. The one time I did need a button, it rested in the middle of the string causing me to remove many tiny baubles to gain access to the one I needed.

As my brother and I cleared the storage shed, we looked at that box remembering the day Dad had moved from his house in the forest to a smaller abode in town to accommodate health concerns. All the contents of the junk drawer had been dumped into a 1 X 2 box. I wondered why anyone would pack and label junk only to store it for seven years. I dug, gasped, and laughed at the craziness of what had been preserved.

Mixed in the clutter resided keys that must open something, abandoned photos of unknown faces, long ago expired coupons, and several pairs of Dollar Store reading glasses.

Upon discovering the shoestring, I held it up causing the buttons and beads to sag to the middle. After knotting the ends, it made a unique necklace for my granddaughter. There were several batteries, some corroded while others appeared new. The eyeglasses had multiplied to a pile of odds-and-ends that might be assembled to produce one functional pair or a canvas of modern art.

However, the real find appeared at the bottom of the cardboard box, wedged under the flaps, a small plastic baggie holding a gold-plated tooth, and a row of three gold veneers. Really!? Who saves their teeth or the real question why? These I slipped into my pocket for later examination thinking there must be something I am missing, some secret nobody shared.

Days later, I took the gold pieces added some jewelry and drove to the pawnshop across town. A little afraid the elderly gentleman would smirk and throw it all in the trash, I was pleasantly surprised when he looked up from behind his Dollar Store spectacles and offered me $400.00. The junk drawer held wealth.

My brother's family and mine gathered at a campground. This was our first time together since Dad's passing so I handed him his half of the funds raised from the junk drawer. I especially enjoyed the shock in his eyes when I handed him his half. I explained that this portion of our inheritance came from the junk drawer and suggested we spend it all on lottery tickets.

His response, "That's what Dad would have wanted."

With cash in hand, we headed to the nearest convenience store and each picked out 200 dollars' worth of scratch-off lottery tickets. As the line behind us grew with customers expecting a quick stop, I overheard several disgruntled remarks, so I simply offered an explanation. "Sorry, but our dad died and left 400 dollars. This seemed like the best way to spend it."

Nobody said another word.

In fact, the lady behind the counter became much nicer and offered suggestions about which tickets had the highest payouts and the percentage of winnings. I hadn't realized there was a science to gambling.

My brother won all his money plus a little. I made about 80% of my investment back. Pretty cheap for hours of entertainment! Some people spend money at amusement parks during vacation, but we sat beside our RVs and scratched lottery tickets. Who could have imagined the visions from the past that lived in the junk drawer or the memories created from spending the inheritance?

We scratched tickets for 2 days, a couple in the morning in front of the campfire with coffee in hand and some each evening. We shared memories from our youth and laughed. We didn't earn the entire 400 dollars back, but we are still a little bit richer through the process.

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