June is a wonderful month. They’re all pretty good, and I certainly wouldn’t want to do without any of them; but June has always been my favorite for reasons which have changed with my age.
When I was young, it represented the doorway into three months of school-less bliss. It was barefoot and baseball time.
In later years I wore shoes more often as my priorities changed. Most notably, Atlantic Beach heated up in June along with the jukebox at the Pavilion. Jackie Wilson and I spent a lot of summers together wearing the soles off of my Weejuns.
Those times were the most magic concoction of music, dancing, fishing and blankets spread under the stars on dark and deserted beaches. As decades rolled by, the stars remained in place but the strand from Emerald Isle up to Atlantic Beach is now anything but dark and deserted.
Along with the Pavilion, my dancing knees eventually gave out. Time dry-rotted the line on my fishing poles and sand wasn’t as comfortable as it once was.
But June magic still visits, just in other manifestations. One seasonal dividend that I now look forward to is fresh tomatoes. Those that travel directly from plant to sandwich without hitting a shelf are pure joy.
I love tomato sandwiches. I wouldn’t be surprised if someday the Food and Drug Administration classifies Miracle Whip as a Southern drug. I know I can’t live without it.
For me, the biggest magic of all takes place in Vegas. The annual World Series of Poker kicks off at the end of May and runs nonstop through mid-July. The entire month of June is wall-to-wall poker.
This year, the WSOP consists of 62 tournaments of varying games and buy-ins. I play Event 26, which is for “seniors” — which means you have to be over 50 to enter.
There’re so many older folks who enjoy playing poker, it is the largest single-day start tournament of them all. This year, I suspect entries will total just south of 5,000 but I won’t know for sure until they “shuffle up and deal.”
There’s a change this year that I really like. We’ll kick off at 10 a.m. instead of noon as it was in the past. That two-hour earlier start doesn’t seem like much but it means a two-hour earlier finish. It’s a big deal when you’re on Carolina time.
You’d be surprised how many familiar faces you run into out there. There’re folks I know from Havelock, Swansboro and Jacksonville who are regular participants.
For those of you who enjoy poker but don’t think you’re up to playing at such a huge shindig, you shouldn’t have a worry. The thing is so well-organized and officiated, there aren’t any confusions or frictions. It’s very smooth.
If you show up and observe a few tactical “no-no’s,” you’ll have about as good a chance as anybody. Raise or fold, seldom call. Don’t play out of position. And finally, pay attention to the other players.
Have a seat. You’ll be very welcome.
Otis Gardner’s column appears here weekly. He can be reached at ogardner@embarqmail.com.
