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 Post subject: What Tough Irish Marine Sergeants Used To Do
PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 7:52 pm 
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Joined: Tue May 19, 2009 1:21 pm
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I got home in March of '69 after an enlistment in the regulars that began in '65. I was 21 years and one month of age. I got home with $1,200.00 cash from back pay (huge dollars then) and a .45 automatic that got on the airplane from Los Angeles with no problem. The pistol went to the top shelf of a closet and the money went to my mother. I went to work. My father adored me and was thrilled that I hadn't got shot to pieces like he did. I was his hero and yet his military decorations were huge as an Army infantryman in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. He was my hero.

In the spring of '69 I go to Belmont Park on a day off. I'm still 21. The Long Island Rail Road out of Woodside, Queens gets you to Belmont Park in about twenty minutes off the first stop out of Penn Station. You go to Jamaica and then the track. Round-trip fare and admission is about three bucks. Tap beers are 50 cents and the huge ones are 75 cents. There were no cameras back then and the concessionaire Harry M. Stevens kept track of the beer by how many cups were gone. If you took care of the bartender before the first race and kept bringing back your empty cup Harry had you for one beer while you were drinking all day mostly on the cuff. I roll into the track with saved money - almost a hundred bucks. Al the bartender knows the old man for more than 30 years and I spank him well with a tip when I buy my first beer prior to the first race.

The first two races are horrors - maiden claimers and maiden turf routers but both fields are huge (something like 12 and 13 runners with an entry). I like the later action but spread some deuces around. I have a cold firster in race 1 with a firster in race 2 and am somewhat happily surprised when the race 1 pony gets home at 5/1. I know I'm sitting on huge in race 2 and see the late action land upon that horse.

The horse goes home on top by five and just keeps going. He pays 5/1 but the firster DD came back $468.00. I've collected some huge Pick collections since but I cannot ever remember a cold $2 wager bring in 232/1. Or a DD as large although I have been "alive" in some that were I.R.S. And yes, I gave my winnings to my mother after I got home with a load on. That's what Irish sons do.

Now go have fun and action at Belmont Park with fields of four, five and six.

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Image The race doesn't always go to the swift and the strong but that's the way to bet.


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