So, I'm noodling around online one night and it occurs to me that I should check my lottery numbers--maybe I don't have to go to work in the morning! I don't know if I'd quit my job right away, but I'd sure as Hell call in late. Anyway, I'm off to the Nebraska Lottery Website and there, amongst all of the numbers, was a link asking the question "Would you like to be in a TV commercial with Fate?"
Well, sure! Who wouldn't?
They wanted to know about me, where I lived and what games I had played, how much I'd won, how often I played and so on. I filled out all of the information and clicked "Submit" and... forgot about it all. A week later, I got a telephone call saying they wanted to talk with me in person. We set up a date and time and location and I met Jamie Vesay, who talked for a while about what all was involved in filming a commercial, what would be expected of me, what they were offering and so on. He took a couple of pictures and said he'd be back in touch with me within a week or so. A few days later, he called back and asked if I could be in Kearney on the 26th? To spend a day with Fate? You bet!
When we got to Kearney, the night before, the Great Plains folks were already there. I'd had visions of being up all night, drinking with Fate and the crew, but we were really pretty tired. We stayed at a Holiday Inn (on account of we're so smart). The next morning, at breakfast, in walked Fate, and Jamie and several others. We all drove out to the Gateway Arch for the day's shoot.
Here's where our journey begins, at the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument. I swear they could not have found a more difficult name for the place. Thank God that crossing the Prairie wasn't so hard. The GPRRAM is a giant bridge over Interstate 80, located a few miles east of Kearney, Nebraska.
This is me, early in the morning with a temperature in lower 50° range. Notice the traffic cones and light reflectors off my left shoulder, and the simulated picnic over my right shoulder. That was the premise for the whole shoot--that Fate was throwing we Scratch Game winners a picnic.
Copyright © 2001, Mark D Hiatt