There is a family story that our enormous old Funk and Wagnall’s Encyclopedia was won in a sweepstakes.

This was a 27 volume set, published in 1963, including (as an added bonus) a standard English dictionary, and taking up approximately three feet of shelf space, proudly displayed in our living room. Gilt-edged, leather-bound, it was part reference library, part showpiece. And Uncle Joe won the whole thing because he was wooing a girl.

He followed that girl (name lost in history, probably at the urgings of Aunt Renee, whom he married a few years later) to a dance at the local Elk’s Club, and, to impress her, purchased a bunch of raffle tickets. When he won a 27 volume encyclopedia, he gave it to Mom (his sister). After all, what was a bachelor to do with something like that? My older brother was already around and I was “in the oven,” so Uncle Joe’s unsuccessful love life contributed to our education.