I met Sailor Harris on a summer day in Taos, New Mexico. The year was 2003. I was shopping for a patio door. A business park had just opened and was hosting a grand opening. A man walked up to me, he said, “You’re Michael Vernon, aren’t you.” I said, “Yes, I am, but how would you know that?” The man pointed to my car and asked, “Isn’t that your car?” He was pointing to my licenses plate holder that read, “Dice Man – Playing 4 Keeps.com.” He introduced himself, “Hi, I’m Sailor Harris, I used to run the Taos Flea Market.”
Sailor had been a long-time subscriber to my Playing 4 Keeps® Newsletter. We discussed blackjack and Las Vegas. Sailor encouraged me to keep up the work on the newsletter and we shook hands and went our separate ways.
It was late October 2005, just before the Taos Balloon Festival when I ran into Sailor again. I was not living in Taos at the time, as I had recently moved, with my wife, to Pueblo, Colorado to care for my terminally ill mother.
Sailor and I chatted for a while, mostly about poker and blackjack. I was in Taos on business to complete a real estate deal. Neither one of us had time to meet later at the casino, so we said our goodbyes and departed.
Two months later, just after Christmas, I received an email from Sailor. It was just a simple email saying hello and happy New Year. However, what followed became the inspiration for “On the Coat-Tales of a Gambler.” Sailor asked in the email if I had ever heard of a certain, rather famous gambler, Scarpone Tabor. I replied that I did not recognize the name.
Excerpt from one of Sailor’s emails: Ever hear of Jonny Scarpone Ladrón? SCARPONE KILLED long ago in a poker game…
I renamed the afore mentioned gambler, Scarpone to satisfy Sailor’s request that I use aliases, when retelling his stories. My grandfather’s nickname was Scarpone. He had big feet, he wore big boots, and worked at the local brick yard. His mode of transportation was a freight train, (D&RG RR) which ran behind his house, on Goat Hill. At the time, Italian immigrants inhabited Goat Hill. Anyway, my grandfather used to hop on a moving train as it slowly rolled out of the trainyard, through the town of Pueblo, Colorado. He’d hop off the train as it passed by the Standard Fire Brick Company.
After a week or so had passed, Sailor sent two more short email messages describing the gambler in question. As I read his email, I began imagining the gambling character Sailor was describing in the email. The synchronicity of meeting Sailor was the spark of inspiration prompting me to capture his tales under the title, On the Coat Tales of a Gambler. In an email to Sailor, I explained my idea and asked him for permission to write about the stories in his email messages and publish them in my newsletters. He liked the idea and gave me permission, asking for anonymity. The episodes have fictitious names, and places, with the stories set in the South.
As Sailor recalled more stories, I developed the installments one by one and published them in the Playing 4 Keeps® Newsletter. After three years of receiving periodic emails, Sailor stopped sending stories, but I continued to write episodes made up from my imagination and inspired from my younger life. Amazingly, after publishing one of my stories, it prompted an email from Sailor, saying, “That last story you wrote about building the raft read exactly like it was from my days as a kid. How could you know that story?”
I believe that somehow, I had dialed into the energy of Sailor and Scarpone. I actually felt that I was channeling the stories, as though I was on the coattails of Sailor and his gambler friend, who I renamed as John “Scarpone” Ladrón. With each episode, I became more immersed. While writing Sailor’s stories, I was a vicariously witnessing a wild, wide-open, gun-toting, professional gambler.
In the beginning, Sailor asked me to keep his name and Scarpone’s anonymous, along with all the other details, like specific times and places. I agreed and dubbed him with his alias, Sailor. Since Sailor had served in the navy, and several of his stories referred to his service in the U.S. Navy, “Sailor” seemed an appropriate alias. He was content with Sailor and liked the way I set his stories in Alabama.
After a year and a half of publishing the episodes, Sailor sent an email encouraging me to publish “On the Coat Tales of a Gambler” as a book. He said he did not want to be compensated, asking only, that I acknowledge him in the book, so his grandchildren could read about his life. He requested that I state in the book, that the stories were pure fiction. Nevertheless, he wanted it known that the stories were loosely based on the life and times of Sailor Harris, born in Holyoak, Alabama, 1941, and he grew up in Robstown, Alabama. His excerpted email follows.
NOW, when you turn all the Scarpone stories into a big best seller book I WANT NONE OF THE $$$ OUT OF IT. But do me the favor of saying it is pure fiction, but loosely based on the life and times of SAILOR HARRIS, born in Holyoak, AL – 1941. Say that I grew up in Robstown AL. I would like my great grandkids to read it. ha ha ha
On the Coat Tales of a Gambler episodes were published at my original Playing 4 Keeps® website. Unfortunately, needing to keep up with technology, I moved the website to a Web Press platform. It was not practical to transfer all the pages from the old website. A lot of my articles, including the newsletters, had to be left behind. Of course, I still had the original stories from Sailor that I wrote, saved as documents, and a backup of the old website. I also have Sailor’s email messages.
In 2023, I revisited On the Coat Tales of a Gambler stories contemplating re-publishing them. I decided to begin with a prologue and republish the episodes at the current Playing 4 Keeps® website.
Late November 2023, while rereading Sailor’s emails, in one of the last emails he sent, I discovered a phone number. I called the number, no one answered, but it rolled over to voice mail. I left a message for Sailor. About two weeks later, I received a call from Sailor. I will share some of that conversation in one of the episodes.
Sailor’s episodes do not appear in chronological order. I considered an attempt to sort them out but decided it would be best to present the stories as I received them from Sailor. His email stories wandered from memory to memory. It is as though events appeared in his memory, while he was writing about them in the email. One story ends and another follows, skipping from one time to another time without an identifiable transition with the events. Nevertheless, the stories in each email did relate to his theme, growing up in the south and his run in with a professional gambler.
Sailor also shared stories told to him by Scarpone before he knew Scarpone, along with the events he witnessed while in Scarpone’s company. I am satisfied to keep with the original order of Sailor’s stories, the chronology of events is not required to enjoy his stories. Perhaps I was influenced by his irregularity, waiting for the next email story. (They were months apart.) My anticipation inspired my imagination for how it must have been for Sailor, hanging out with guys gambling on the knife’s edge. During the waiting time, I created some of the episodes, and added them to the monthly newsletters. The episode collection of Sailor’s emails spans about three years, 2006 to 2009. Sailor’s time in the company of Scarpone lasted less than a year. After that, Sailor joined the U.S. Navy, and served for 16 years.
I last received an email from Sailor in November of 2009. He said he was done using email because he was getting too many. I assume he meant junk mail. He gave me his phone number and asked for mine. We spoke on the telephone a few times, but after that, I lost contact with Sailor. Probably due to changing cell phones.
It is my intention to present Sailor’s stories edited for grammar and clarity, however, I feel that it is necessary to write in his voice, and in his words, as much as it is practical. I experienced visions of life in the south, as well as life on the road with a notorious gambler, from a guy who lived it firsthand. I intend to translate that vision, on these pages, as though the reader is on the coattails of a gambler.
On the Coat-Tales of a Gambler is dedicated to Sailor Harris. Sailor Harris, born in Holyoak, Alabama 1941and he grew up in Robstown, Alabama.
On the Coat-Tales of a Gambler is pure fiction, but it is loosely based on the life of Sailor Harris. Names and places of events have been changed at Sailor’s request.
On the Coat-Tales of a Gambler is not for sale. It is the author’s intention to provide stories of man’s history for the purpose of offering embellished entertaining stories only.
On the Coat-Tales of a Gambler is copyrighted and protected.
Written by Michael S. Vernon
As told to him by Sailor Harris
Copyright© Michael S. Vernon 2006 – 2023
On the Coat Tales of a Gambler continues in
Episode 1 – I am $5 blackjack player.