THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 8, 1996 TAG: 9609080058
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON
LENGTH: 66 lines
Money can't buy happiness; just ask Buddy Post.
In 1988, he won the Pennsylvania lottery. A whopping $16 million. His wildest dream come true.
Just imagine the lifestyle that kind of money can buy. All the lobster you can eat. Limo rides wherever you want to go. Moving into a big, expensive house. Living in the lap of luxury.
Or, think about Buddy's life.
His good luck was dogged by bad. He's been convicted of assault. His sixth wife left him. His brother tried to kill him. His landlady sued him for a third of the jackpot, and won. The mansion he bought with his winnings is mired in lawsuits and bankruptcy proceedings. And his gas has been cut off.
Now he's trying to get rid of the darn winnings by auctioning off the future payments.
He's not the first lottery winner I've seen do the million-dollar meltdown. I've seen others on talk shows, complaining about how the money caused family fights and financial woes and accounting headaches. Wah, wah, wah.
To Buddy and all his whiny little pals I have this to say: What is wrong with you people? Just give me the chance - a one-million-dollar one please - and I'll show you just how wonderful winning can be.
Brenda Harrell of Virginia Beach has already done that.
She won a million-dollar Virginia lottery in September 1992, and has nary a complaint.
``It's a wonderful thing,'' the 54-year-old single woman says. ``I can't praise it enough. For six months, my feet didn't touch the ground.''
She still travels about an inch above ground level, by my estimation.
Nine months before winning, she had sold her beauty shop of 17 years because she had a ruptured disc in her back and couldn't work the long hours on her feet.
She was about to run out of money from the sale of the shop when she bought a winning Pick Six ticket at a 7-Eleven store near her old beauty shop.
Instead of going out to look for a new job, she rented a limo and went to Richmond to pick up a $54,000 check, the first of 20 annual payments. On the way home, she stopped to buy Caribbean cruise tickets for herself, her two sisters, a cousin and a friend.
Since then, she's gone on eight more cruises, bought a new car, and given friends, sisters, her daughter and grandchildren gifts she couldn't afford pre-lottery.
And a year ago, she moved to a condo on the beach, where she's always wanted to live. From her seventh-floor setting, life looks good. Real good. Buddy Post could learn a thing gazing over the Chesapeake Bay.
Harrell can't imagine why anyone would ever complain about winning a lottery. ``I think some people just like to wallow in self-pity,'' she said.
A recent study by two Minnesota psychologists backs up that thought. A study David Lykken and Auke Tellegen did of 1,500 pairs of twins found that happiness is determined largely by genes and not reality.
However tragic or comic life is, people return to whatever happiness level is pre-set in their constitution. A lottery winning gives happy people a way to celebrate in style, and unhappy people something more to gripe about.
Harrell, it seems, was a generally happy person even before she won. Luckily I am, too. But I wouldn't mind moving up the happiness scale just a tad.
Just a million-dollar-tad more, please-oh-please-oh-please.
Hey, it could happen. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
You won't find Brenda Harrell whining about winning lotto. You may
find her on a cruise, though. by CNB