Guess For The Money!

My siblings all know this story well, it was one of our favorite games that dad played.

Every once in a while dad would come home from work and ask us if we wanted to guess how much money he had in his pockets. If we got it correct, we could keep it! All of it! And sometimes, he had a LOT of cash in his pockets. I'm not sure who the biggest winner ever was, but I seem to recall someone getting around $148. That's nothing since sometimes he had well over $1,000 on him! And I know if we guessed it, he would have given it to us. He would have thrown up at the same time, but he was always a man true to his word, and he would have handed it over. He was good like that.

Anyway, one day he comes home and asks us if we want to play guess for the money. I think he must have had a lot on him that day and was nervous he might lose it, so he switched it up a bit. He started with Chris and said, "Guess how much money I have in my pocket and I'll give you $40." He went on down the line and said this exact thing to each and every one of us. Every time he said this, I grinned a little bigger. He stopped at one point when I was bouncing in my seat, looked at me nervously, and asked me what I was so happy about. I said, nothing, I just like this game! He gave me a bit of a distrusting look, then went on about his business.

After he asked Vicki, the last of the group to guess (to which she always replied $5 and actually guessed right once or twice!), he said that none of us guessed it. I calmly stuck out my hand, and said, "I want my $40." He said, "but you didn't guess it correctly" to which I replied, "You didn't say we had to get it right, you just said that if we guessed how much you had, you would give us $40. We all guessed, we all get $40." At this point my siblings were freaking out, agreeing with me that yes, that is what you said, and you said the exact same statement to all of us! Dad looked utterly dumbfounded, his jaw dropped, he looked at my mom who said, "that is what you said." He shook his head, and handed us all $40 each.

Sadly, that was pretty much the end of Guess The Money! I think he was too scared to say something incorrectly and have to hand out a ton of cash!

- Jen