HOW IT USED TO BE

I have been seeing the opportunity to win prizes from so many places lately. I personally have never won anything. Not one thing ever! I really wish that would change. At any rate as I thought about these prizes being given away I was reminded of the time my dad came up with an advertising gimmick that involved a prize.

My dad sold appliances for a few years in addition to his other business. This side of his enterprise required some advertising to be competitive with other stores. Dad was a bit of a maverick when it came to running his business so when it was suggested he run an ad campaign that ended with prizes, his mind went to the unusual. And no one could move his mind once it landed on something. The prize he wanted to award were ponies. Yes, ponies! A prize that required a shed to stay in and food every day. Not to mention dealing with what became of the food once the ponies processed it. Oh was this a door prize from an inexperienced retailer or what?

But Dad was so excited about the idea of making some little kid’s day by giving him or her a pony. Nothing anyone said could convince him it was a bad idea. He wouldn’t listen to my mother or the advertising rep from the newspaper.

He’d heard somewhere that someone wanted to sell ponies for cheap so he began to search for his prize. In no time at all he purchased a pony named “Peanuts.” He’d decided it should be two ponies and he had found only one. That did not cause my dad to reconsider and give only one pony away. Oh no, he just had to look harder and go a little further to find a second one. Soon we had “Popcorn” in our little shed beside “Peanuts,” who took an instant dislike to his new stable-mate. Everyone but Dad was getting a bad feeling about this door prize thing.

A store that sells appliances has a limited number of patrons and every one that came into my folks store was encouraged to sign up for a wonderful door prize. No one knew what it was they were going to win so no one declined the invitation. After all it was free. I think most folks figured they were going to win a new toaster or an iron.

Meanwhile the ponies were helping with the lawn mowing chores at home and fertilizing as they worked. At first my brothers and I were so mad at Dad. He was going to give two ponies away for free when he would never get one for us. That was before we got to know them. These sweet looking little things would bite us when we weren’t looking. When we were looking they would charge at us. If we tried to ride them (they each came with a saddle) they kicked at us. If we did manage to get on them they would promptly buck us off. And every chance they got they ran away, so we were always chasing them down. We all soon agreed (except Dad) that we couldn’t wait for some poor fool to win the prize and get them out of our life.

Everyone in our family was so excited when the day of the drawing came. Dad was still thinking some little kid was going to be the happiest kid in the world. Never mind that his own little kids couldn’t wait for the prize to be gone.

The lucky name was picked out of the box and it was great news. The winner had about 6 young children. My Dad was really excited as he called the unsuspecting winner. Most stores have you pick up a prize but how do you pick up a couple of ponies? So arrangements were made for the delivery. Dad loaded those critters up in a borrowed trailer and hauled them to their new owners. He threw in a few bales of hay as well.

Of course the children of the winner were so excited. What kid hasn’t dreamed of having a pony? And these kids just had two of the creatures delivered to their door. With saddles. Now the parents had not dreamed of owning a pony in many years so they were not as thrilled to get their prize. My Dad was completely oblivious to this fact. He pulled Peanuts and Popcorn out of the trailer, tied them to a tree, set the saddles and hay down, shook the fella’s hand in congratulations, and drove away.

By the time he got home the lucky winner had called and wanted to return his prize. He begged to be allowed to return his prize. And who could blame him? This prize was going to cost him money to keep. Never mind how the little darlings acted.

My Dad was crushed, but only momentarily. He would simply pick another name from the box. Another winner would surely think differently. But it was a small town and word spread fast. There was no one who wanted the prize being given away at my Dad’s store.

It soon became very clear to my Dad. He was the winner! My dad won his own door prize -two of the orneriest animals on the face of the earth!

About six months later Dad found someone who would take them. We never shed a tear or had a sad moment. And Dad left the advertising to my mother!

This is an honest to goodness photo of Peanuts.

This is what he looked like when we attempted to ride him.  I  did not need to be a pony whisperer to know what he was thinking.

His look was sufficient.

It said, “You can saddle me, but you will not ride me.”