I have always wondered where this phrase originated.  Apparently it began in Las Vegas in the ’70’s when the average bet was $2.00.  A chicken dinner used to cost a little less than that so if you won that hand at least you had enough to get the chicken dinner.  I have never been to Vegas; nor do I have any desire to visit.  I’m just not much of a gambler.  But the one wild and crazy thing I do enjoy is dropping a quarter into this giant gum ball machine at one of our Tex Mex haunts and watching it wind its way slowly to the bottom.  If you get a yellow one you can win free nachos.  Our daughter asked for a quarter and proclaimed she was going to be a winner!  I don’t carry cash or even cards anymore as I pay for just about everything with my Apple Watch.  The feel of those two quarters in my hand reminded me of when I was in college and anchored the news in Austin for a small cable access show called, “First Nations of Turtle Island”.  Driving back to Dallas, my car died.  I had two quarters:  the first I used to call my daddy.  Yes, kids, in those days cell phones were not prevalent.  This tiny town had two stops and one of them was a Dairy Queen.  They had an in-store memory game just like the old electronic Simon with the four sounds and colors you watch and repeat back.  If you got to a certain point you could win a drink.  The next level got you a drink plus fries, then up from that was a drink, fries and hamburger.  I didn’t make it to the top level with dessert but I used that last quarter and played that game for the greater part of twenty minutes like an ousted Saudi Prince in Monte Carlo trying to win back his fortune.  Triumphantly, I scored the drink, fries and hamburger.  And so when Maris twisted that second quarter in the gum ball machine she victoriously got a yellow.  Winner, winner, chicken nachos!  American author Kelseyleigh Reber wrote:

“That is life, isn’t it?  Fate.  Luck.  Chance.  A long series of what-if’s that lead from one moment to the next, time never pausing for you to catch your breath, to make sense of the cards that have been handed to you.  And all you can do is play your cards and hope for the best, because in the end, it all comes back to those three basics.

Fate.  Luck.  Chance.”

Our four year old was so proud she’d won our dinner!  And I knew just how she felt.