"What Luck These Friendships" by Landis Wade
– down the stretch
Their recollections of haunting the infield on Derby Day at Churchill Downs have lingered for decades—bad bets, good times, and best friends.
Landis Wade is a recovering trial lawyer, award-winning author and host of Charlotte Readers Podcast (www.CharlotteReadersPodcast.com), where local and regional authors give voice to their written words. His third book—The Christmas Redemption—won the Holiday category of the 12th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards. His essays, Shelby, Two Good Swings, and Southern Tides appeared in Bearing Up, Exploring, and Southern Thing, three earlier anthologies of the Personal Story Publishing Project.
Author’s Talk
Landis Wade
When I saw the prompt for this latest anthology, two personal stories came to mind to toast luck and opportunity. I thought about the trip my father, my son and I made to Las Vegas, when my dad turned 70 and my son turned 21. It is the story of three Hamlin Landis Wades, a senior, a junior and a third, with just the right amount of money to lose at the blackjack tables. It is a trip I will write about someday, but this time, I chose the racetrack, instead. I turned to Churchill Downs and the youthful antics of three longtime friends because I wanted to remember what it felt like to be in that iconic place again, with no money, less sense and two of my best friends.
I often find the truth about myself when I write to a good prompt. Once again, Randell Jones hit the mark with “Luck and Opportunity.” The words pulled me back to the betting windows at the storied track in Kentucky, but it was a feint, because when I got there, I discovered the point of the story. I caught my stride when I realized the story was about friendship. It’s how I found my way home.
