Have you ever had an experience with Murphy’s Law? You know, the old adage that states something like “things will go wrong in any given situation if you give them a chance” or “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” or more importantly “anything that can go wrong will go wrong, in the worst possible way, and at the worst possible time.”
Something brought to mind a couple of experiences I had many years ago. I’ll label it the Law of the Reverse Murphy’s Law.
Growing up in a farm community, the local fundraising events for the volunteer fire department included the traditional tractor pull, the penny pitch, and of course the greased pig contest. Not wanting to damage the good tractors, many times the tractor pull involved the older tractors. Some of them had been souped up with special modifications. The older men stood around talking strategy of how to hook up the sled to the tractor and women were generally selling baked goods and “sodie pop” at a stand nearby.
The penny pitch consisted of a checkerboard with grid squares approximately ¾ inch size. Each square had a number: 1, 5 10, and 25. If the penny landed without touching any grid, the person throwing the penny won the amount of pennies listed. There were many more 1 penny squares than nickel and dime squares and only one $0.25 square in the very center. A 2-by-4 frame held the thrower back from the grid.
Murphy’s Law struck.
When the game was packed, too many participants leaning too far in on the 2-by-4s caused the whole system to collapse, moving my $0.25 score making me unable to claim my prize. A traditional Murphy’s Law.
The Reverse Murphy’s Law lesson came in the greased pig contest. A 40-pound shoat was greased and let loose in a pen and 20 boys tried to grab the pig. The boy who ended up with the pig got to keep the pig. After several minutes of chasing the pig, there was a pile of 20 boys and a pig somewhere in the middle. Feeling I had no chance to get the pig and getting squashed by others, I decided to give up and withdraw from the pile. It was only then that I heard the referee say, “the kid in the black shirt has the pig, everybody else get up.”
I realized I had the black shirt and the pig! Or at least by referee decree I had the pig. A Reverse Murphy’s Law.
I think it was the same year that I entered a 4-H Flowers project. Having totally forgot about it, I planted no flowers that year. The 4-H fair that late July caught me flat-footed without anything to enter. Necessity became the mother of invention. I grabbed some bull thistle blooms, some Queen Anne’s lace, some mustard and a sprig or two of clover and added whatever other flowering weeds I could find. The judge was impressed enough to give me the grand champion ribbon. Another Reverse Murphy’s Law incident.
Educational material and not legal advice, written by the team at Adler attorneys. Email andrea@noblesvilleattorney.com with questions or comments.