More memories St Joe's Park and labor day event

This is another memory of growing up next to St. Joe's field in Thorndike. When I was young, school never started before Labor Day. The first day of school was always the Wednesday after Labor Day. And Labor Day was always special at St Joe's park. That was the day of the annual Lion's club picnic. It started the day before when a big circus tent was put up. On Labor Day, the tent was filled with all sorts of games and food booths. There was always the "wheel". It consisted of a wheel with the numbers 1 to 100 on it. In front of the wheel was a table that had boards with series of numbers. For example, the first board might contain the numbers 1,10,15,20 and 25. Each board had numbers like that. To place a bet, you would put your money on one of these boards. The wheel is then spun and if it stops on one of your numbers, you would win 10 times your bet. Most of the time I would bet a dime and win a dollar if my number came up. Sometimes I was brave and would bet a quarter to win 2.50. The big spenders would bet a dollar! There was also a game called chug-a-lug. This game had three dice in a cage that was turned three times and the the dice would come out. In this game you would bet on one number and if your number came out you would win the amount of your bet. There was always a chance the your number would come out on all three dice and you would win triple your bet. I never won a lot of money but I would come out ahead quite a few times. There were games during the day on the ball field and at night there were fireworks. It seemed like most of the town would turn out for this event and a good time was had by all!

The next day (Tuesday) my brother and I would always get up early and walk around the field and tent to see what we could find. We usually found some change and if we were lucky we might find a dollar or two. We also would see if we could find any fireworks that didn't go off but we never did. I'm not sure what year this Lion's Club picnic ended. These were simpler times but I miss them.