The first Leader Senior Expo of the year was held Wednesday morning, April 19, at the Knights of Columbus Hall in De Soto and 500-600 seniors attended. There were speakers, music, food, prizes and bingo.
And, as it turned out, a psychology lesson.
Your correspondent is a little slow on the uptake because the same thing that happened last year happened again this time. I wrote it off last time as a quirk.
A bit of background. For you young ’uns, the Leader holds four Senior Expos a year, in De Soto, Festus, Cedar Hill and Arnold. In addition to the entertainment listed above, there are exhibitors who have goods and services that seniors may be interested in. They also give away things. Seniors love free stuff.
The Leader’s grand prize at the De Soto Expo for the last few Aprils has been a limousine ride and tickets to Busch Stadium to watch the Cardinals play that same day. We get four seats in the Cardinals Home Plate Club, so we draw two names and the winners each get to take a friend. We encourage all attendees to wear their Cardinals gear in case they win.
We publicize the heck out of this prize in the paper. Limo ride to and from, seats behind home plate, leave from the Expo directly and we’ll bring you back there after the game.
To enter for the grand prize drawing, they put their names on a slip of paper in a drum at the front gate at the Expo. The winners leave right from the event for the 12:45 p.m. game. All sounds pretty straightforward, doesn’t it?
I thought so last year, too, but when I pulled out a slip and announced the first winner to the crowd, a lady raised her hand, then made a face when I told her congratulations and that she’d better hustle outside to the limo.
“Well, I am not going,” she announced to the room.
Perhaps a misunderstanding?
Undaunted (well, maybe a little daunted), I pulled out another name. A man standing in the crowd acknowledged it was his name, then shook his head “No” vigorously. At least he had the decency to look a little embarrassed. By then I was thinking, “What in tarnation is wrong with you people?”
Eventually, we found people willing and prepared to go. But the question that hung in the air was this: Why in the world would you sign up for a prize you either don’t want or can’t accept?
Sadly, I haven’t studied psychology since the Nixon Administration (Richard, not Jay), and wasn’t that great at it then.
I have, however, had the opportunity to observe Senior Behavior at the roughly 50 Senior Expos the Leader has sponsored over the last 15 or so years. Somewhere in that span, I crossed over into Seniortude myself and probably started exhibiting some of the same irrational behavior.
Otherwise normal people completely lose it when offered a chance to get something for free. They sign up for it, compete for it, wish for it, elbow out others for it – even if they really don’t want it or can’t use it.
It probably is caused by something buried deep in our caveman brains. Sure, I have enough brontosaurus meat to last for a while, but there’s a nice one walking by just outside the cave, so let’s get it.
In my younger days, I always drove junky, cheap cars because they were all I could afford. This meant I was frequently in buying or selling mode. My main transaction tool was the classified section of my employer’s newspaper.
It was remarkable how many people would call about a car for sale, ask a few questions, swear they’d be right over to look at the heap, then never show up.
This happened so often I started asking for names and telephone numbers. If they didn’t show, I’d call them up and ask in a worried voice if they’d had a wreck on the way over. (Those were delicious conversations.) Those few aside, I learned that if someone gave a name and number, they were 10 times more likely to show up.
The shield of anonymity, which encourages bad behavior, was pierced once you had that information.
This was way before the internet, but it predicted the toxic behavior we see there today. With its anonymous bashing and bullying, the internet is hostage to the same principle.
Back to the Expo, the lure of free stuff or just winning anything is so powerful it does not need the protection of anonymity, even when the follow-up behavior is going to be embarrassing.
I’m talking about you, Ralph Meuser, at the risk of never again being invited to your pig roast. You entered our contest, I drew your name, you spurned the prize.
For shame!
Ralph, who did send along a nice note apologizing for his “bail out,” shouldn’t be singled out because he was not the only one. But if you can’t pick on your friends …
It just is a heck of a world when you have to drag people into a limousine for a luxurious round-trip ride, free ball tickets behind home plate, lunch included, all of which they signed up for!
So far, no charges have been pressed – either way.
