THE LAST TICKET

Last March I joined the Boston Chapter of the University of Connecticut Alumni Association for a reunion at the TD Bank North Garden in Boston,MA for an NBA basketball game between the Boston Celtics and the visiting Charlotte Bobcats. I parked my car at the Barnstable Burger King parking lot and went inside to the convenience store where they sell the P & B bus tickets. Inside the store I ran into Phyllis Gustafson, a friend of mine, who had recently retired from her real estate career and who was going to Boston to attend to see a ballet at the Wang Center with her daughter Debbie.

So we boarded the bus together and found a couple seats in the back of the bus as this bus was filled with a lot of students who attend the Sturgis Charter school in Hyannis.

After the bus arrived in Boston at the South Station I took the "T" to North Station, picked up my game ticket at the will call window and proceeded up the stairs, escalators, and elevator up to the promenade level of the Garden. The promenade level is high up near the suites and level with the scoreboard and the 16 (at that time) NBA championship banners. We had our own bar for our group with some snacks such as hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, etc. One of the benefits of the promenade section in addition to our own bar, was that there was a lot space in this section; you could literally jog around the area if you wanted some exercise.

The reason the Alumni association picked this game was the fact that both the Celtics and the Bobcats have former UCONN players. Ray Allen (number 20) , seven time NBA all star, plays shooting guard for the Celtics and Emeka Okafor (number 50) plays for the Bobcats. The Alumni association also had a raffle with the top prize being a signed Ray Allen official NBA uniform and 2nd prize being a signed Emeka Okafor jersey. There were some other prizes as well such as UCONN hats, tee shirts, etc.

They sold raffle tickets at 3 tickets for $5.00, 7 tickets for $10.00 and 15 tickets for $20.00. The raffle tickets were sold from a large roll as a double ticket where you keep one of the tickets and the other one going into the raffle pot. The proceeds of the raffle were used for future alumni events. I splurged for $20 worth and sat back and watched the game while waiting for and the drawing for the raffle prizes.

Half time arrived and just before the raffle one of the people who arrived after the tickets were sold asked if anyone wanted to sell a few of their tickets. I sold this guy 5 tickets for $5.00 from the top of my string of tickets. The raffle drawing started and I wasn't having any of my number called. They got to the last raffle item, and what do you know, they called my ticket which was the last ticket on my string of tickets.

Lucky for me that I didn't sell that fellow five tickets from the bottom of my ticket string. Photo of the "grand prize" below.