You May Have Already Won.....

Sigh.... Didn't make the B3ta 'Best' page this week. Still, I wanted to share my entry, in answer to their question (of a sort):

Competitions, raffles, give-aways... sure the prizes look great, but don't they always turn out a bit crap should you happen to win them?

Anyway, here's my entry:

You May Have Already Won....
I'm a winner! Look at this loot!

The pictures come from the California State Fair (1998-2000). You can win them on the midway by throwing balls at stacked bottles. If you never hit the bottles, but buy enough chances, they'll feel sorry for you and give you the pictures anyway. I shot, I missed, I scored!

The trophies and ribbons come from ballroom dance. The ballroom dance crowd is great for prizes. I remember attending a strange 'Battle of the Ballroom Dancers,' in Casa Grande, Arizona, halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. Various dance studios made the trek to this neutral turf, ready to rumble: the Jets and Sharks on stilletos. Ambitious teachers, lame students, fake palm fronds and rotating ceiling fans in the insufferable summer heat: confusing routines, the forced applause - everybody got a big trophy or plaque, except for one old woman, who may not have even noticed: she was bent horizontally at the waist and could see little else but the stilletos.

But the pieces de resistance were eaten long ago: the 646 pieces of candy I won at a McDonalds in Salt Lake City, Utah, by guessing the exact number of the sweets in a jar.