Originally posted on 05/14/2015:

this is actually a good topic (rare for you jj) and makes me laugh when i think about it.

when i was about 16 in high school and just started betting (friend of mine knew this asian bookie), i bet $50 on a Sunday NFL morning game. that won and i let it ride on an afternoon game. that won and so i was up $100 come Sunday night. i was so excited and wasn't sure if i should just get paid at that point. i must've talked to my friend all night about what i should do. anyway, i ended-up letting it ride on the monday night game and it won. so i was up $200 which seemed like a ton of money to me at the time.

a couple nights later i went to pick up my friend in my car so we could go meet his bookie. i remember being nervous for days not knowing if i was going to get paid or not.

anyway, i'll never forget dropping my friend off to meet him.. the bookie was sitting in his car on a street corner near my friend's house. my buddy pops out of my car and into his bookie's car, then i drove around the block. couple minutes later i swing back around and my buddy is waiting on the corner and gets back in my car. then he starts stalling and making jokes and i'm getting nervous. then suddenly takes a wad of cash out of his pocket. they were all 20's and he just started counting them off into my hand and we went nuts celebrating.

we immediately drove to an electronics store so i could buy a Super Nintendo game system with Street Fighter 2. we were always going to the arcade to play it and were obsessed with that game. then grabbed some take out pizza and went back to my house to set it up and and played for hours. still remember like it was yesterday, hah.