Happy New Years

31 December 2024

By Frank Scoblete

The year is done and a new one begins.

I will spend New Years Eve watching my favorite movie of all time.

My wife, the Beautiful AP and I have a New Years Eve tradition. We watch “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the Frank Capra movie that stars James Stewart and Donna Reed and a host of some of the great “old-time” actors and actresses.

The story is simple really.

It is about a man who thinks he’s a failure because he was never able to go places and do things. He had no idea that his life had a deep meaning until an angel, Clarence, takes him on a journey into the world as it would have been had George Baily (Stewart’s character) never been born.

He wakes up to see the wonderful life he has really lived and the number of people who are better off because he did live. It is a revelation.

That is a lesson my wife and I like to think about. It makes our lives seem wonderful too because, well, our lives are. We have both lived a wonderful life.

I realize that I have had the privilege to be in a great family, with a wonderful father, a sainted mother, that I had good schooling (even though my roots are so lower class! I was the first to ever go to college!), that a 5th grade nun forced me to learn how to write. “Francis, you have talent and you will learn how to write!”

I went back years later and thanked her for that and she cried.

I lucked out about college because I only applied to one school, took a writing test no less, which got me a full scholarship. I didn’t even know I wanted to go to college until I got in.

I had never heard of the SAT exam until the day I took it. A priest said, “Scoblete, tomorrow you’re taking the test for college, bring a number two pencil.” He had signed me up.

This priest also signed me up to take a writing test for a scholarship. I took the test and I was given a full ride, plus room and board, plus a realization that I was heading into a brave new world. College? How was I supposed to go to college?

But I went to college.

I had angels in my life. Just regular people who took an interest in me. Nothing more; people just being themselves and teaching me what I could really, really do in my life.

When I look back I realized I fell into things. My planning was atrocious. The people who guided me did it as a routine. The nun who literally whipped me into shape to learn how to write. The brothers who put me in the spotlight in sports and academia. The priest who sent me off to take a writing test no less.

And Lucy a friend who told me to try to teach. So, I tried to teach.

Then I fell into theatre.

Loved every second of the 33 years I spent teaching and the 12 years I spent doing theatre.

Then I decided, during my divorce from my first wife, to tackle advantage casino play at blackjack and craps. I met the Captain and he taught me about dice control. I learned blackjack from books and serious practice.

Most important during my theatre years I met the woman of my life, the Beautiful A.P.

She became my partner and my wife and we continued to teach and then we headed for the world of Lady Luck.

I stayed close to my sons and I had them work my theatre company. I’m still close to my sons. They are now each (kind of) scratching 50.

And writing? I’ve had 35 books published, I’ve written a dozen television shows, over 6,000 articles, and two plays. I owe my writing career to Sister Patricia Michael of the Sisters of Charity. And the priest, whose name I only remember as “Konga,” is the one who signed me up to take the SAT and to write a scholarship essay.

There were some others too. Brother Jonathan who told me in 6th grade that I would become a professional writer and brother Barnabas the basketball coach who coached the winningest team I ever played for – we were 55 and 0 and we beat Lew Alcindor’s team in the La Salle tournament. (Lew changed his name to Kareem Abdul Jabbar.)

It’s been, without question, a wonderful life.

Happy New Years.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Frank Scoblete’s books are available from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, e-books, libraries, and bookstores.