After years of gambling, Donald Smith "Boo-boo" Smith has superstitions about lucky days, weeks, even months, and Friday, July 16, was not supposed to be lucky. But an employee at Greenwich Cigar and Stationery, where the Chickahominy resident buys his lottery tickets nearly every day, persuaded him to buy a one that Friday. Smith scratched it off and saw immediately that he had won $100,000.
At that point, Smith said his heart was pounding so fast that he had to rush over to the Bruce Park Grill, another favorite haunt, to settle down with a drink. A few minutes later, he called a friend who is a taxi driver, offered him $200 to chauffeur him around for the day and the pair took off for New Britain to claim Smith's winnings. They returned in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day celebrating at the Bruce Park Grill.
Paul "Gov" Rachl, a bartender at the Bruce Park Grill who has known Smith for more than 30 years, said patrons were dubious about Smith's good fortune at first.