“One Night in a Bar” – money and luck and growing up irresponsibly in America, in The Inlander
At Tod & John’s in Urbana, Illinois, I found $60 on the floor at the base of my bar stool, three $20 bills wrapped around each other. I was 21 years old, Sunday evening broke. Adjusted for time, memory and the inflation of both, those $60 would be worth $15,000 today. I looked around the place. Almost no one was there. I put the money on the bar, sipped my beer and waited. Maybe 10 minutes passed. I asked Tod to break a $20 for cigarette change. I ordered bourbon and Coke. I bought a fresh pack of cigarettes, put it under my nearly empty pack, and settled in.