Win Some, Lose Some

By Chaunce Venuto

The heart of this novel is camaraderie and friendship. 

This novel is humorous fiction with some romance and reminiscing.

The cover of this book is colored magenta. This color would make Pankowski happy, as he would feel it set the right mood, even though it does not, This is an inside joke. If you wish to know the joke, you will have to read inside.

 This novel is about former high school buddies gathering for an all-night poker game during their twentieth-year reunion in 1982. (If you are not well versed in math, they graduated in 1962.)

While playing poker, they ribaldry kibitz, reminisce, and rag on each other. In their conversing, they begin talking about females they had serious relationships with, but for one reason or another did not end up marrying.

In the early AM, their game is interrupted by female classmates, who crash their poker game and temporarily join the reminiscing and storytelling.

Besides laughing, you may get a tear forming. There is romance. There are some sexual situations, but told in a light, humorous way. They are non-erotic. If you desire eroticism, find a  different novel.

Male readers will recognize the risqué and off-color verbal jousting of old friends that takes place while drinking beer at a poker game or sitting around a campfire. Gals may learn how crude fellows are when females are not present.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chaunce Venuto
• Release date: Jun 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201084646

Book preview

Disclaimer

This story is purely a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. None of the incidents or events portrayed in this book occurred as depicted, and not to the individuals portrayed in the story. This book mentions two real individuals by name. They were the author’s favorite Math and English teachers, now deceased. They are mentioned in memoriam. Some of the characters in the story naturally have some characteristics and attributes similar to people the author has encountered throughout his life; however, the characters are either composites of several people or inventions of the author’s imagination. The events and actions of the characters are pure fabrications of the author’s mind. The characters in this book are fictional and are not to be connected to any individuals living or dead.

Dedication and Acknowledgements

I dedicate this book to the females in my life. Particularly those in my family, starting with my wife and daughter, and including my granddaughters, nieces, deceased mother and sisters, ex-sister-in-law, and ex-daughter-in-law law. I have been extremely fortunate with the women in my life. I have always maintained females are the better of the two genders God has provided.

A special thanks to my daughter, Amy, for all her help with this book. She helped immensely with suggestions, formatting, the use of the computer, and particularly for her encouragement even though the dialogue in the book is more risqué than she wished her father to be.

Thank you to Susan Meinershagen and Matt Dimick for their advice and encouragement.

Thank you to Betsy Brown of the Tooele City Library for her help with Microsoft Word and Canva and her patience.

And thanks to many of my zany friends who did things that sparked ideas in my mind. This includes, but is not limited to, my basketball, backpacking, Team Rubicon, and school buddies.

Introduction

Hello. How are you? My name is Chaunce Venuto. I am the author of this novel. I am glad to meet you.

I thought this was a suitable introduction, but my publisher thought it did not suffice So read on.

The cover of this book is colored magenta. There is a reason for this. It would make Pankowski happy as he would feel it set the right mood, although it does not. This is an inside joke. If you wish to understand the joke, you will have to read further inside.

The heart of this novel is camaraderie and bonding, with humor and romance mixed in.

This novel was originally to be titled Always Marry A Nebraska Farm Girl, with the subtitle Because no matter how bad things get, she has already seen worse. I stole that title from a quote I have always liked from Carl Sandburg’s The People, Yes. I highly recommend The People, Yes as a book that displays the American spirit and character. I hope this novel does the same to a small degree. There are females in this book, while not farm girls, which have the attributes in Sandburg’s quote’.

However, my daughter convinced me to change the title and subtitle because they were so long. She also thought the reader would be preoccupied wondering when a significant Nebraska farm girl was going to make an appearance in the story. There are only two actual Nebraska farm girls in this story, and both play minor roles in the story.

The prime characters in this tale are from Nebraska or South Dakota. This author is proud of his Nebraska and Midwestern heritage. Nebraska is still a wonderful place to raise a family. The author would love to live there again if it were not for the dearth of mountains in Nebraska. There is nothing like sitting next to a mountain stream contemplating your navel, or if you are woke enough, or where the heck this country is heading. What good is all the snow Nebraska receives from Mother Nature if you do not have mountains to ski down or canyons to explore?

This story revolves around former classmates playing poker at a high school reunion who begin discussing females who slipped away from them for one reason or another in the past. Therefore, the title Win Some, Lose Some, as both can be expected to occur in romance and poker.

This book has risqué language and inferences. It contains ethnic kidding among some of the characters but in a way to exhibit their close friendships and tolerance. It is too bad that ethnic humor has become so intolerable. We should not be so touchy. We need to laugh more and not look for things that upset us. This book depicts close relationships among old friends who possess many differences. The characters have differing insights, values, and opinions which are discussed and hopefully cause the reader to muse about.

This novel contains male/female romance and a couple of sexual encounters in a light, and hopefully, humorous manner. If you are seeking erotica, find a different book.

The story also jokes a little at a couple of religions, but the author hopes the reader takes them as just poking a little fun and pointing out religious misconceptions. He respects those religions and means no offense towards them.

The story revolves around two best friends and their high school buddies. in an all-night get-together. The two are Ernest Carradine and Randy Dirt Torveli, neither of whom have made any previous reunions

What to expect in this book? If you do not laugh a fair amount, you have no humor. If you do not get a little tear in your eye, you have little compassion. If you know little about romance or poker, you may learn more about both.

In authoring this book, I hope to introduce to those of the younger generation that times were much different when us old-timers were young, and yet not so different in other ways. For those older people, it may help you remember when you were young, and you wrote letters to friends not emails; spent time outside instead of on Twitter, and played cards instead of Xbox.

Hopefully, you will enjoy this book. If not send me your proof of purchase and I will direct my children to refund your money out of their inheritance if there is any. First come, first reimbursed.

Cast of Character

(Many are truly characters)

Randy Dirt Torveli—-A rascal and scallywag who fights with his conscience.

Ernest Carradine—-The dignified one who is the best of friends

Big Dorothy—-The belle of Belle Fourche.

Joey Amalfi—-Owner of the tavern where poker is played and the best poker player.

Glenn Wings Coleman—-The worst poker player and a blend of Rodney Dangerfield and Fonzie.

Arthur Chuckles Pank Pankowski—-The risqué one who is worthy of two nicknames.

Hank Vanwoort—-The tough guy with a tender heart.

Johnny Sandoz—-The Marine Corps officer of Mexican heritage.

Doug Parchins—-The Ivy Leaguer who is the most erudite. (Look up erudite on your own since Doug is not here to help with vocabulary.)

George Odle O’Dell—-The least listened to.

Corky Hardman—-Now a lawyer who was a student leader.

Mike Dolan—-A buddy who went to a Catholic high school.

Amy—-Big Dorothy’s cute little girl, who won Dirt’s affection.

Little Dorothy—-Dirt’s cute little girl.

Julie Keelan and Susie Prasad—-Confidants, one a redhead in South Dakota, one a brunette from Nebraska.

Roger Keelan—-Julie’s husband.

Claire Coleman—-Glenn’s young wife.

Lucy—-Doug’s wife and Odle’s dance partner.

Queenie Morton—-A small redhead with large breasts who wanted badly to be more popular.

Izzy Mitchell-—Johnny’s eighth-grade heartthrob.

Sandy O’Dell—-George’s livewire wife.

Joyce Lundstrom—-She was obsessed with Hank Vanwoort.

Nancy Taylor—-Comes in later in the story.

Maxine Carradine—-Ernest’s wife.

Vic and Todd—-Good buddies who were not present at the poker game.

Darlene Vanwoort—-Hank’s wife.

Miss Fischer—-An attractive young teacher with a podium.

Sandra Jamison—-A temporary wife.

Kiki, Nina, Ellen, Karen, Gloria, and Hayley—-Females who won the interests of fellows in this story.

Sam—-An ass.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Disclaimer

Dedication and Acknowledgements

Introduction

Cast of Characters (Many are truly characters.)

Table of Contents (This is where you are now.)

The Reunion (The class of ‘62)

The Gathering (Gender discriminant.)

Deal The Cards! (Getting started.)

Belle Fourche Rodeo (A short jaunt from Sturgis on a Harley.)

May I Have This Dance (While not being obvious.)

’67 Return (Is groveling the best tactic?)

Barbeque In the Rain (Tarps can be fun.

Back At the Barn (But’s are upsetting.)

’68 Return (Crying time.)

In Between (Story temporarily delayed.)

Wedded (A rebound.)

Unwed (Somethings have short life expectancies.)

To Belle Fouche Once More (Three minus one is two.)

Uh, Oh! (Clouds block the sunshine.)

Dorothy Communicates (In absentia)

A ‘What-Might-Have-Been Tale’ (And more poker.)

River Walk Princess (Sibling rivalry?)

Party Crashers (A female invasion.)

Wine For the Ladies (A gentleman’s bribe and histories told.)

Back To Poker (And more what-might-have-beens.)

Dawn (The party’s over.)

Epilogue (Everything is about over)

The Reunion

(The Class of ’62)

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It was the second night of a three-night twentieth-year reunion for Omaha’s Dodge High School’s Class of 1962. (For those with limited math skills, this makes the year of this story 1982.) Thus, most of the attendees were just one or two years short of being forty.

A substantial percentage of the attendees had enough disappointment of not having anything in common with their old friends. By now most attendees had spoken with everyone with whom they had cared to talk. Some dear friends from the past seemed like strangers. While other classmates they had barely known now seemed more interesting than their old bosom buddies.

The majority of their class still lived in Omaha, Nebraska, and nearby surrounding areas. So, many stayed connected often. A sizable number, however, had settled in other areas of the country and stayed connected with varying degrees of frequency, or none. Starting in high school and continuing during their college years and for a couple of years thereafter, the group of guys this tale revolves around would occasionally get together for beers and/or poker whenever enough were in town.

For a small number of the attendees, it was the first reunion they had attended. Two for whom this was the first reunion they had attended were Ernest Carradine and Randy, ‘Dirt’ Torveli. Both Torveli and Carradine had been separated from Omaha by a considerable distance since graduating from college.

Ernest’s furthering of his career took priority over the reunions. His dedication to his career had paid off, and he and his wife were doing quite well financially.

For Dirt Torveli, employment with Union Pacific Railroad in areas of considerable distances from Omaha precluded him from attending any of the three earlier five-year reunions held in June. Dirt had not been back to Omaha in the last eight years as his parents had moved to California.

Both had seen a couple of their old classmates when they had come back occasionally to visit their families at Christmas. However, they both spent the majority of their time in Omaha with their families.

Ernest Carradine and Dirt Torveli had communicated with each other periodically by phone and had seen each other a couple of times since graduating from college. For both Torveli and Carradine it felt like it was only yesterday since they had been together. Dirt Torveli and Ernest Carradine, as well as most of their close friends, had been enjoying seeing their former classmates, whom they had not seen since they wore their gowns down the aisle. With others, including a number of their very best friends from high school days, it seemed like talking to strangers.

Their class having graduated from Dodge High School in 1962, had grown up in a whole different era and way of life than we have at present. Dodge High had been primarily a middle-class high school when they had attended. Students ranged from the lower fringes of the middle class to those few who came from moderately wealthy homes. Very few were from truly poor families.

A good part of the class had gone on to at least a couple of years of college. Vietnam had affected the lives of a sizable portion of the males in this class, either by participation or the avoidance of participation. To sum it up they were Nebraskans, products of the Midwest culture of the fifties and early sixties. They had grown up with Ozzie and Harriet, Lucy and Desi, Howdy Doody, and Captain Kangaroo.

Most of them were products of two-parent nuclear families with mothers whose careers were in the home. Most were from families that had just one television and just one car until a teenager obtained a driver’s license and then an old jalopy was added to the driveway.

When young, the kids of this generation were hardly ever in the house till mom hollered down the street at night that it was time to come home. There had been few adult-supervised activities for kids other than scouts as they were growing up. Very few had dance or gymnastic classes. They did not have Little League. Omaha had recreational youth baseball leagues that played in the mornings. Therefore, very few parents attended the young boys’ games. Some teams had older youths coaching them. There were few teams with adult coaches.

Since Randy Dirt Torveli’s father was able to get his employer, Neal’s Aluminum Products Company, to sponsor a team with team t-shirts, limited equipment, and entrance fees, Randy organized and automatically became the coach as well as player of their team. Unlike Little League, they did not have complete uniforms including trousers and bloused stockings. Along with their t-shirt jerseys and caps, they wore Levi’s or Wranglers and tennis shoes. They were a ragamuffin group that won only a handful of games.

Those, like Ernest Carradine, who did not join a recreational baseball team or scouts were never involved in adult-supervised activities. Somehow though, they did get through childhood. Pickup games of baseball, touch football, and basketball were prevalent throughout the year. Occasionally a pickup hockey game was played on the few occasions when ponds froze over. They did not have actual goals but rather placed assorted paraphernalia six feet apart.to represent goals Therefore, there were frequent arguments concerning whether shots at goal were too high off the ice surface or were too wide to have gone into the net to be counted.

There were limited athletic opportunities for girls. In Nebraska high schools, there was only tennis or cheerleading for the girls and cheerleading was not as sophisticated as it is in many areas of the United States today. Gymnastic and dance classes were all but nonexistent.

Ernest and Dirt had both hung out with the same ‘crowd’ in high school. They, as did several other groups, considered themselves as the ‘in crowd’. and the coolest kids in their school. The males of their ‘crowd’ had consisted mostly of jocks, but not exclusively. Most had been average or above-average students. A few were quite brilliant students. Their ‘crowd’ included student body officers, sports team captains, cheerleaders, and also those that caused the most mischief in and out of school. With few exceptions, the ‘crowd’ went on to receive college degrees, a couple from very prestigious schools.

A substantial percentage of their ‘crowd’ had been good friends since junior high days and a few even longer. A couple were the goody two-shoe types in school, while a couple of the crowd had spent considerable time in the principal’s office due to misbehavior.

As a group, they had covered dating most all the cheerleaders or were the cheerleaders. They had been a fun-loving group; and even more loving of pranks and practical jokes played on each other, on teachers, or on anyone else they felt deserved a comeuppance. They felt they had not picked on the defenseless, but this could be selective memory. Their shenanigans, often as not, were aimed at poking fingers in the eyes of authority.

They thought they were also pretty worldly, although by today’s standards they were very naive. They did not have a clue about drugs. Drugs had become a prominent aspect of American culture about the time they were getting out of college. There were those in the group who would have smoked pot if it had been prevalent, but, thankfully, it was not.

Drinking alcohol also was not prevalent during their high school days. The guys had snuck beer on a small number of occasions. Beer drinking was limited to a couple of poker games and special occasions. such as after the last football game their senior year and senior skip day which found many in their class going to Yankton just across the border in South Dakota. In South Dakota, unlike Nebraska, the drinking age was eighteen at that time. There was never any coed drinking.

Likewise, cursing was confined exclusively to male companionship. The guys in the group cursed considerably and could be as raunchy as Marines in Tijuana when among themselves. They, however, never cursed when around the girls or adults. Being a prude was a badge of honor for the girls. In the Midwest of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, the word ‘damn’ uttered in school was enough to get one sent to the principal’s office.

As for actual sex, not just kissy face, most in their crowd were pretty darn ignorant. The sexual revolution during that era must have had a disclaimer; except in Nebraska. Those Nebraska girls kept the guys from being sexually experienced. As did the girdles which were all but mandatory apparel for young ladies in Omaha, even on the slenderest of girls Those girdles extended from waist to the mid femur. No butt wiggle was acceptable to be visible on young Nebraska maidens. Those girdles, which were more prevalent than poodle skirts and the circular ‘virgin pins’ were about as effective as any chastity belt invented. (Were ‘virgin pins’ popular throughout the United States or were they just an Omaha thing for a period of years?) Of course, their mothers’ lectures on proper behavior also helped to a slight extent in keeping high school boys chaste. A mother’s dictum such as, Young man you better not ever put any girl in the predicament that your cousin Alice found herself in. was effective, but not as effective as the girls’ dedication to abstinence.

Most of the guys in their crowd had graduated from high school with their virgin status intact, but for the majority, it was not of their own volition. The guys were horny, but mostly a denied group. They had been sucking on faces (necking, swapping, spit, or kissy face were other terms used most often those days) as early as junior high but the fondling or caressing of covered breasts was a rarity. For most male students at Dodge High during this period the female pubic area was off-limits. The area often referred to as the ‘bush’ was something only fantasized about in the bedroom while scanning a contraband Playboy. Thank God for Playboy magazine. It took the place of parents’ talks about the birds and bees, which often did not occur anyway. If parents did discuss sex, the talk was abbreviated to "Don’t!"

An antidote that illustrates just how prudish things were in this crowd’s environment was when Hank Vanwoort carried the nickname Shiner for about six months. Hank showed up one morning at school with a slightly blackened eye. This surprised the other students as Hank was the tough guy in the class. Word got out that Joan Martin, who he had been dating steadily for a year, had belted him in the eye when he had put his hand on her breast. His hand was outside the sweater she was wearing. Hank professed this act had been entirely accidental. It did not matter. Everyone began calling him ‘Shiner’, not so much as to embarrass Hank. It was to keep it in the forefront, to Joan’s chagrin. Hell, any one of the guys would have gladly accepted a black eye for the opportunity to touch one of Joan’s fine young breasts. Shoot, ninety percent of the guys would have accepted a broken leg as a decent bargain for the touch of one of her knockers.

Towards the end of this second night of this reunion, it had been Glenn Coleman, who had broached the idea of a poker game to take place, for old times’ sake, after the conclusion of the night’s formal festivities. While in high school and continuing while most of them were in college, many of this group of guys often played poker, as well as gin rummy and canasta.

There were several who had relished gambling and betting of any nature. Betting was a diversion that insulated them from boredom. They bet on anything and everything. Bets were made on spectator sports and sports competitions among themselves. They bet on test scores or who would be able to get the dower Latin teacher to smile first. The bet on getting the Latin teacher to smile took weeks to decide a winner. Oh yes, they had Latin classes back then.

In this group, it would not be out of the ordinary to bet two bits on which of two old ladies crossing a street would step on the opposite curb first. Bets were not limited to monetary stakes. There were bets where the loser would have to perform a form of personal servitude or perform an embarrassing or humiliating act like asking the old Latin teacher if she had sex when she was in high school. Another might be having to take an obnoxious girl to the prom.

Arthur, Chuckles Pankowski had lost his dog to Joey Amalfi for a week on a bet on the number of home runs Don Zimmer of the Dodgers would hit in 1959. Arthur was usually referred to as just Pank or Chuckles by his friends rather than Arthur or Art.

Joey most certainly did not wish to have the mongrel dog for a day, let alone a week. However, as Chuckles was inordinately attached to his mutt, Joey’s wish to deprive Chuckles of the dog’s companionship for seven days overwhelmed Joey’s distaste for the housing of the dog itself. Chuckles thought Joey was being quite magnanimous when Joey gave him back the dog after only four days. The truth was Joey could not take any more of the mongrel’s presence and his mother had also emphatically told him to get rid of it. Often the bets and consequences were quite corny. These guys were corny, but it was to be expected. They were Nebraskans.

The word spread rapidly among the guys there was going to be a poker game. The word spread fast among the wives also. Thus, a few of the wives had produced reasons for vetoing participation before their husbands confronted them with the desire to play poker. It should be noted there were also wives who supported and encouraged the venture. They knew it would be like old times and enjoyable for their husbands to get together to play cards or to just swap, exaggerate, or make up old stories. There were only a couple of guys from the old group who would not join in because their interests had digressed away from hanging out with the guys or had just become old before their time. They thought there were more than enough, however, who were enthusiastic about the new addition to the reunion schedule, and a couple who were not going to play, but would come for the kibitzing and camaraderie.

Since there were no other venues available for the game, Joey Amalfi offered the use of his bar as the place for the get-together. Joey owned a little neighborhood bar in a blue-collar neighborhood. Joey allowed, The few dollars I will lose by closing before the curfew will be more than offset by what I will win from Coleman and Pankowski and the enjoyment of old times.

Those two, Coleman and, Pankowski had most often been the losers in these poker games, and Joey often a winner. Joey also spread the word that he could exchange checks for cash out of his till for anyone short of cash. He also announced he would sell drinks at bar cost till closing time, but guys would have to produce their drinks after the closing time curfew.

The reunion dinner began to wilt around ten o’clock so eleven was set as the time to meet at the bar. This would allow time for the guys to take wives home or back to their motels and for Joey to close his tavern.

Those who had not stayed settled in Omaha and were friends with Joey were glad to learn of his success with the tavern. An uncle of Joey’s had owned the bar. When the uncle had known he was dying, the uncle wished to keep the tavern in the family. He offered it to Joey at a reduced price and terms.

While not making a fortune with the tavern, Joey was doing decently with the establishment. The tavern made a sizable income during the week and a half of the College World Series each June as it was near Rosenblatt Stadium, where the Series was played.

Dirt Torveli was particularly happy for Joey. Neither Dirt nor Joey considered the other as his absolute best friend, but they had been in the same circle of friends. Physically and athletically, they were quite similar. While decent athletes, neither of them had been stars. The two had been defensive backs and dual punt and kickoff returners together on the junior varsity football team during their sophomore and junior years. They both made varsity during their senior year but received only sporadic playing time. The two played five years of baseball together. Both played varsity baseball but had not been among the stalwarts of the team.

Both Joey and Dirt had been within a quarter of an inch of five foot ten and around 145 pounds soaking wet. They were both quick and agile. Physically, neither Dirt nor Joey had changed much from their wiry builds of high school.

In all other ways, Joey and Dirt were opposites. Dirt was loud and