Cash Money DJ

Just after I college I was living in a house with three other people. One of the roommates moved out and we had to fill the spot so a friend of a friend recommended this guy and we needed the rent so we said yes. “Digi Don” was his DJ name and he was always slow to pay bills and was notorious for having an endless amount of excuses. He’d party like it was his job, which it pretty much was. His buddy in crime was a guy who we called Crackhead Matt.

He and Crackhead Matt had this routine where they’d do X and go to grocery stores and buy scratcher lottery tickets from the vending machines. He found if you pulled ever so gently he’d get two or sometimes three tickets at a time. They’d scratch them and redeem as they parlayed their winnings into more money going from store to store.

When the cable bill arrived, Digi Don would open his wallet and act like he was going pay the $57 dollars he owed. But instead he handed me two $20 scratcher winners: a $10, a $5, two one dollar and a free ticket for me for “my trouble.” I had to explain to him that stolen lottery tickets were not legal tender and that our cable company would not to accept them. This conversation went on for nearly 30 minutes. Really Digi Don? Still burns me.