New Minnesota DJ gets introduced to Pull Tabs

My dad was a Baptist Minister. The “Fire and Brimestone” kind. If you slept through one of my dad’s sermons, people would’ve probably thought you were dead.  

Get our free mobile app

Growing up in the 1970’s and 80’s in a house ran by a Baptist minister was very different than most other families in the Bible Belt. Everything we did was done with the perception of how it would reflect on my dad as a pastor. My mom used to tell me when I would leave the house as a teenager, “you are taking your dad’s reputation with you”. 

There were a lot of things we weren’t allowed to do including anything that resembled gambling. My sister and her family visited one time and brought playing cards, we had to play “go-fish” with them after my mom caught my niece and nephew trying to teach me poker. 

Fast forward to now, I’m 52, living in Minnesota. I play the occasional lottery ticket but rarely bet money on anything.  

When my wife and I moved here, we learned quickly that there were things that Minnesotans did regularly that we had never heard of. Meat Raffles were new to us and so was the concept of Pull Tabs. 

This past Saturday, we were having dinner with my co-worker Lee Voss and his fiancé’ Michelle and they mentioned pull tabs. This was a foreign concept to us, so as they explained how it worked, we thought we’ve got to try this.  

We made our way to H.R. Pestys, but there weren’t any tables available, so we went to Shooters Saloon and Eatery in St. Cloud. 

We found a table and then began to devise a plan of how we’d play Pull Tabs. We pooled some money together, and Lee took me to the pull tab station and explained what to look for and the differences in the games available.  

We split the tabs up amongst the four of us and began pulling. Michelle hit a winner in the first batch. We had a nice “score” for that game, and we used some of the winnings to fund two more rounds of tickets.  

The group left there with some money in our pocket, and my wife and I feel a little more a part of the community. A big shout out to Kyle and Nicole at Shooters who were so nice to me and welcoming us to not only Minnesota but to Shooters.  

We’ll be back and there will be more Pull Tabs in our future for sure.