Last updated March 22,2020
We we were growing up, the Pennsylvania government seriously disapproved of gambling in almost all forms. Of course that changed, when they learned that the lottery and the numbers game (Pick 3) were more ways to collect revenue without too many complaints.
Most adults we knew “played the numbers”. A quick tutorial: In the game a person would choose a three digit number or set of three digit numbers and place a bet on those numbers with a local bookie. There were two games one could play, the stock and the race. It was set up so that everyone could know what the winning number was. The stock number came from the results of that day’s stock market trading. The digits used were the last digit of the number of stocks that increased, the number that decreased, and the number of unchanged. A person could verify the number by listening to the news reports on several radio stations or by checking the following day’s newspaper. The race used a similar method based on winning races but I do not recall where the races were held.
Depending upon the bookie, the winning number paid between $6.00 to $7.50 per penny bet. Once in a while, the bookies would designate a number as “cut”, when for some reason more money was expected to be bet on a specific number.. The reason for the disparity was most bookies were go-betweens who passed their bets on to higher level bookies. Their profit came from the difference they paid the winner and what they received from their next level. The state pays $5.00. and has a $1.00 minimum.
Which brings us to our roles. Mom played the numbers on almost a daily basis. She had many ways of deciding which numbers to play. She used birthdays, anniversaries, significant dates then happening, but most often one of her “Dream Books”. In the Dream Book you could find a number for just about anything you might have dreamt about.
She usually played her numbers at Gritman’s Grocery, but occasionally with other bookies. On Royal street there were two others that I knew of Mrs. Ritzer and the Mrs Wagner who both lived across from Gritman’s. Why she did it , I do not know. One of us kids would be sent down to the store to play her numbers, hence the title of this post. She seldom played the numbers “straight”, one number. Most often it was a straight number and then “boxed” it, one bet for the straight number, a smaller bet for the five other possibilities. When Bill was in Japan, and Judi was temporarily left behind, mom would send Judi to the newsstand in front of Hites Drug Store on East Ohio Street to play the numbers on her way to work.
We kids would sometimes be sent to the newsstand mentioned above to buy the “tip sheets” . These were cards printed with all the winning numbers for past x number of months. It would predict which numbers were more likely to hit. Which numbers hadn’t hit for years etc.