When it was announced that the owner of the fabled race horse Smarty Jones would be speaking at a ladies luncheon in my community in mid-October, I put it on my calendar to phone in for tickets. Sales began today at 9 a.m. What could be the problem with me calling around 4 p.m.?
Plenty. As my dad used to say: “I was a day late and a dollar short.”
The tickets had sold out by 9:15 a.m. and there was a waiting list of 41 when I made my call. I hadn’t realized that the beloved horse woman, who also lives in our community, had achieved rock star status. Who knew she would be in such high demand?
Well, me. I should have known. She is universally loved for being kind and genuine and a lot of fun. The story of how her horse Smarty Jones became a big winner is one you could listen to time and time again. Unfortunately, I won’t be hearing it this go-round.
The receptionist who takes the orders for tickets described the whole affair as if it was a horse race. My parody of her words:
“They lined up at the starting gate before post time; huffing and snorting, ready for the run. The gates swung open and they were off, heading around the first turn. The outside horse was in the lead. Then a filly from the line broke free. It was back and forth down the stretch, with the lead changing hands until they crossed the finished line. A photo finish for sure.”
I never thought of myself as a long shot until my man and I came to live in this spirited senior community. When it comes to buying tickets for special events, the fillies here are way ahead of me. They have the inside track. If I don’t want to look like I’m an old nag that’s been put out to pasture, I have to up my game.
As I said to my husband, these ladies may be “old” but they ain’t slow.
I suppose there’s a moral to this horse-racing tale. Smarty Jones was thought to be too small to be a champion and proved his doubters wrong. Just because someone has gray hair and walks with a little less spirit than they used to doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of fight left in them.
Especially when it comes to getting good tickets.