When I saw an ad recently for KC and the Sunshine Band playing at Four Winds Casino at New Buffalo, it brought to mind some years back when my wife and I were at the Island Casino just outside of Escanaba on one of our trips across the Upper Peninsula.

It happened just the night before were to leave for home the next day.

Two nice, well-suited casino gentlemen came up to Peg’s slot machine and said Peggy Gill, you have just won two tickets to tomorrow’s KC and the Sunshine Band appearance.

Peg said thank you, but we were leaving in the morning for home and couldn’t use them.

The men said she could give them to someone who could go. So, sitting next to Peg’s machine were a nice young couple.

Peg offered them the tickets and they were two happy folks.

Peg told them we were up there to visit her brother, who was a teacher at Gladstone.

She said her brother was Douglas Lombard, and the young lady said, my gosh, he was my teacher a few years ago when she was in high school there.

A small world, huh?

So Peg’s act of kindness made a Yooper couple very happy campers.

There was another thing that happened at the Island Casino.

Peg left her slot machine to go to the ladies room and she met Joe Winchester from Dowagiac, who was a friend of ours. He said where’s Charlie and she told where I was playing a five-cent slot machine.

Boy, what a surprise I had when at 10:30 p.m. someone came up behind me, put his hand on my shoulder and I looked around and it was my friend, Joe.
Joe and I always shared the same day in February for our birthday.

Berenice Vanderburg always had our two names in her column on the back of the Daily News.

It seems he and number of the Potawatomi members were on a bus trip to some of the Indian casinos, checking on information on how they operated for the one that had been chosen to be built at New Buffalo.

I’ve always felt bad that Joe Winchester passed away before he got to see Four Winds Casino built and running.

He sure would be amazed at what has transpired since its beginning.

Joe and his older brother, Richard, had a lot to do in getting the Pokagon Band recognized in Washington, which enabled them to have casinos.

And just look what they have done. One in Hartford and, soon, one in Dowagiac. And maybe someday one in South Bend. The Potawatomis have been very generous in giving a good share of the casino earnings to the local area.

“Cardinal Charlie” Gill writes a nostalgic weekly column about growing up in the Grand Old City. Email him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.