Kentucky Derby

Did I tell you I was a huge horse fan? So much so that the Kentucky Derby was a big event in my life. My girlfriend and I would spend the night before the Derby together and pour over the statistics on the horses. Then, we would pick: win, show, place. We glued ourselves to the tv for the pre show and the race. The year I was in 8th grade we had been anticipating the race for weeks. We had already picked the horse to win: Northern Dancer. Apparently we talked quite a bit about it at school too, because everyone else knew our choices too. Our prinicipal, Mr. Kaufman, told us he could do as well and our choice was sure to lose. In fact, he was so certain we would lose he bet us each a pie of our choice that our horse would lose. My first bet! I was so excited. And of course, the horse won. What a sweet victory! You can even check on my facts. Northern Dancer won the Kentucky Derby in 1965 and Sue and her friend Debby won a cherry pie apiece! The principal paid up and I took it home on the bus. It was even homemade. (the principal's wife was a pretty good sport, not to mention the fact that they were friends of my parents!) It was so tempting for me as it sat in my lap on that bus ride. I could see those lucious cherries and I nibbled just a bit on the crust. But it made it all the way home without me having so much as a taste of the cherries. I was jubilant as I set it on the kitchen table and headed out to do my afternoon chores. There would be Pie for supper tonight, thank you very much! An hour later, when I came back in for well deserved meal and dessert I was greeted with the news that the pie had been unceremoniously eaten by our dog, Sam. Every last bite. Our kitchen table was no obstacle to him. The next day I tried to get the principal to do another pie. Tried to get him to take pity on me, after all, it hadn't been my fault that the dog had eaten the pie. I hadn't gotten to taste any, blah, blah, blah..It didn't work. I was out of luck.