Charlie Knuckles Plays Roulette

Charlie Knuckles was a big guy. He didn't much care for the name Charlie, much preferring to be known as Charles. I guess he felt that Charlie suggested he was lacking in brain power. Despite or because of this, we continued to call him Charlie.

His main claim to fame at one time was that he shared a joint bank account with his father which I guess made his father a Charlie too because Charlie Knuckles used the joint account to run up a big debt on the roulette tables.

Like most gamblers he thought that if he spent just one more night on the tables, he would be able to put the money back in the account and the old man would never find out. Another night on the tables, another big loss, Charlie couldn't put the money back in the account and his old man did find out.

We expected to see Charlie hobbling around with broken legs but it didn't happen. He just ended up with broken knuckles.

He bet us that he could get the fairground test your strength punch-ball to register "Very Strong" on its dial. We bet him that he couldn't. He jumped at the chance to make some easy money, took a great swing at the ball and hit the steel frame that supported it. The test your strength dial registered zero, he lost the bet and broke the knuckles on his right hand.

Once a Charlie always a Charlie, or as Charlie Knuckles preferred to say, "You win some you lose some." Trouble was, Charlie never seemed to win.