Scotty, a 13-year-old boy, picked a bunch of newspapers while going back home. He was going to use those newspapers in lighting the fire in the woodstove. On reaching home, he began rifling through it and stopped dead at his track when he saw something really ODD. It was a Flexi disc. He rushed to listen to its content. The boy skipped a heartbeat when he heard what the record had to say. This record literally changed his life. Later on, that particular object turned his life completely. This amazing incident took place in Galax of Virginia.
Scotty belonged to a very poor family and that is why he used to work even though he was only 13 years old. He was a young boy with big responsibilities. As the boy did not have a father, he had assumed all the responsibilities of his mother and the sister.
Scotty and his family lived in Galax, Virginia. It is a beautiful independent city located in the southwestern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Interestingly, this place is also famous as a hub of old days music and musicians. This culturally rich city was going to be famous once again.
His mother Charlene Price used to work in a grocery store. She and Scotty were toiling every day to bring food to the house. The family would see each other at night. They had a fixed routine. After coming home from work, his mother would make dinner and the boy would light the stove.
Scotty was an introvert who would spend most of his time working. And when home he would help his mother in household work. The boy did not have time for himself. Unfortunately, he did not have enough time to study. But soon his life was going to change because of some trashy newspapers.
They used to live in a house off a farm. As the area was open from all the sides, their house would get really cold in winters. Unfortunately, they did not have any electrical device to keep them warm.
Scotty had a sister too. But they were not very close as they never got much time to interact with each other. They were a family of strangers. A very quiet and introvert family who lived away from local settlements. They would not keep much contact with their neighbors. They preferred minding their own business.
Charlene would always wonder if she could ever give a better life to her children. They had been living in utter poverty since her husband left her. Even though she was doing more than enough to provide her kids with all the necessary things, she still felt bad.
But as they say, time keeps changing. Landreth family too was going to undergo a drastic change. Scotty had never imagined that one of his daily habits was going to bring a tremendous change in his and his family's life.
Even though he had taken up all the responsibilities he still was a kid from inside. Sometimes, he too would want to leave everything behind and go out and do fun. However, he did not have many friends. The boy would spend most of his time alone.
The boy was running late. He had to reach home as soon as possible. So he picked up the newspapers hastily and rushed home. The night was full of bone-chilling winds. Sadly, the boy had not worn enough clothes. The chances were high that he would catch a cold.
He held the bundle of newspapers on the side of his arms and started running towards his home. The snow-covered roads were slippery that made his speed slow. The boy for the first time realized how beautiful his city is. The snow-clad trees looked beautiful at night.
This one wood stove served all the purpose. They would use it for cooking the vegetables they grew in their backyard to cook hunted animals in the Appalachian hills. Not only that they would also use it to keep the house warm at night.
He had no idea at that time that the paper he had picked up was not ordinary ones. He was going to find that out once he reaches the home. The snowfall was going to begin very soon and before that, he had to reach home.
It was freezing cold outside and the only way for them to fight the chilly wind was to light chimney in order to keep themselves warm. He unfolded the newspapers in order to throw them into the woodstove.
He sifted through the newspaper and began burning them piece by piece until his hand touched something odd. He looked down only to see a gleaming and black object. The light was brighter than gold. He took it out only to learn that it was a record.
Due to persistent poverty, Scotty never had any record with him. However, his parents did own an AM/FM turntable that could come to use in playing them. He wondered what could be in the record. The newspapers were very old and unused.
The boy finally had a record of his own. It was after so many days he was feeling so happy. But what was inside it? An old song or something else? He decided to play it. What came out of it shook him from the inside.
He rushed to the turntable and placed the vinyl on top of it and then dropped down the needle. It was working fine. It played a song. The boy knew this song. He had heard it somewhere before but could not exactly remember where? His eyes widened with surprise when the tune ended trailed by a man's voice.
The voice conveyed a set of instruction to the listener. He told the listener to make a call on a number. He directed him to do so in order to claim his prize. Well, this came as an unbelievable surprise to Scotty. Had he just found a lottery or should I say just won one?
He ran to his mother and told her everything. His mother too could not believe what was she listening to. It was then the boy played the record again. This was not a dream nor a lie. It was all true. They had won a contest worth a million dollars.
https://youtu.be/cXC4TXexrLI
Do you not want to hear that record? Well, here it is. As mentioned before, the contest had only one winner. Even though the incident has grown quite old, it still has its impact. Additionally, this really helped McDonald's to emerge as one of the most popular food chains in the world.
Without wasting one more second they called on the number mentioned in the record. This was it. They actually had won the contest. It was miraculous. What Scotty considered to be trash was a million worth prize.
The thing he had mistaken to be a record was a Flexi-disc instead. These discs are made of thin slices of vinyl or vinyl-covered paper. The aim of manufacturing them was to get it distributed all across the country at affordable prices. They were solely made with the purpose of promotion.
The production cost used to be very less and they were available in every shape and sizes. In those times, almost every house had turntables and that is the reason one could find it glued to the magazines' spines. They were also mailed out as postcards or sometimes even found on the backside of the cereal boxes. It was owned by everyone but a specific industry that used it the most was the fast-food industry.
Its popularity reached a peak in the 1980s. Flexi-discs had become a new favorite of fast-food industries. They began placing them inside a child's meal. The flex-disc by Burger King featured Alf and then McDonald too jumped into the bandwagon. And this flex-disc proved to be a great advantage for the company. They left their competitor behind.
McDonald’s soon became the leading company to produce the maximum number of Flexi-disc in one day, 80 million flexis of “Menu Song,” to be precise. It equals the 80-times-platinum record, which leaves behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller that happens to be the best-selling album of all time.
The McDonald's "Menu Song" was on everyone's lips at that time. It was a hot cake. Due to its popularity, the song was used in all the huge ad campaigns featuring on national television. In fact, still, the song is remembered by many people in their 30s. Do ask one.....
The "Menu song" is replete with all the food items that were there in the McDonald's menu. You might have heard on the flexis that a "class" is endeavoring to learn the song but fails every time. But there is just one record in which the song is recited correctly without any mistake. And whoever gets their hand on that record happens to be the winner.
Ironically, Scotty and his family had never eaten in McDonald's. Though he never got the opportunity to taste its food, he called it his favorite restaurant. Eating out anywhere was a privilege to the family as managing a square meal was a difficult task for them.
It was the real version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Scotty in the lead. This is amazing that he accidentally got his hand on that song record that offered a prize worth $1 million. Just so you know, there were 80 million songs records. Now the winner was found. It was Scotty Landreth!
Scotty said, “I figured we might have won a car or free meals: either way it would have been good to me.” “I never ever could have thought that it’d be a million dollars.” The record was going to change his life completely. The whole town of Galax, Virginia was going to prosper.
Isn't it strange that the boy won a contest initiated by McDonald, the place he had never eaten in?s If you think it was strange then even the stranger thing is waiting for you. Their story did not end right there. Their lives were going to take one more twisty turn.
But there was one hurdle as Scotty was a minor he was not allowed to collect the prize money. However, his mother could. So, his mother Charlene Price collected the prize on behalf of her son. It was indeed a big development not only for Scotty but also to the world as finding the McDonald’s contest winner is indeed a big deal.
In no time, the low-key family became the talking point of the town. The media thronged at their house and even locals visited to get a glimpse of them. Scotty had never imagined that they would get so much popular. It was just the beginning of their complicated life. There was a lot to come.
Scotty revealed, “Before that, it was working every day for a small paycheck, it was digging in change.” “Keeping enough food in the house for everybody.” But “Once that record came about, all the worrying went away,” concluded Scotty.
Galax is not the place where you can make lots of money. Scotty explained, “Galax is a small little place and there’s not a lot of money to be made, that’s for sure.”
The contest had finally gotten its winner. So, the food chain arranged for a promotional tour. So, a tour too was coming to Charlene's way. She was approached for the same and she said yes to it without giving it a second thought.
Charlene went on a tour to Chicago to advance the promotion of the campaign and let the world know that the McDonald’s contest actually has winners. She was on cloud nine and even got her hair styled by Oprah’s stylist during the tour. Not to mention, Scotty's family had acquired the status of a minor celebrity now and that provided them with a purpose.
The family made it back to Virginia with new confidence and an idea. Before winning the contest, Charlene Price had been working in a local grocery shop. And now as she had enough money to buy anything she decided to buy that store. She renamed it into The Price Is Right.
Now a businesswoman, Charlene roped in her family members as her employees. Not only that she even created a credit system for economically deprived locals. Everything seemed to be on track for the family. Just when they started feeling secured life threw another joke on them.
Their life was on track. Soon after opening her own store, Charlene tied the knot with her long term boyfriend. But their happiness seemed to be a nine days wonder. As their doom days returned when her business nosedived steeply. Everything had changed once again after 30 years for the Landreth family but unfortunately, this time not for good.
Just a decade after winning the lottery, Charlene Price gave up her soul that too in extreme poverty. Some believe that the family who had never seen so much money before could not channelize it properly nor were they well equipped to do so.
This was not a unique case. History has it, many lottery winners could not sustain the money they won. Different people tell different reasons for the downfall of the Landreth family. Some say that Charlene collected the money in a lump sum that was a too big amount. The assumptions did not end there.
Whereas some believe that some of her greedy family members took away money from her. And then there were some who held Charlene's lavish lifestyle responsible for their destruction. But no one knows exactly why did this happen to them.
Unfortunately, Charlene had to close down her the Price is Right. Her personal life too suffered a setback when her husband divorced her. What worse, some alleges that he took away all her money from her account and ran away. But nobody is sure if that is true or just a fabricated piece.
It is also believed that Price could not put up with the setback and eventually died. Her business collapsed and then her boyfriend left her perhaps after stealing all her money. The woman had gotten depressed and was also full of guilt for not being able to manage it all proficiently.
Scotty who had won this lottery was back to his previous life. Having no source of income in hand, Scotty had to start working in a restaurant to help his family financially. Could you guess which restaurant?
He started working in a local McDonald's. Besides that, Scotty makes extra income by doing other jobs like gardening and tree-trimming. Tammy, his sister resides at the Galax motel. The two are not on talking terms. It is said that the duo had a fight over the Flexi-disc. Or should I say the Golden disc that gave them everything but then took away all they had?
There was another surprising revelation waiting for them. Scotty soon learned that the Flexi he had kept inside a three-ring binder was not even the real one. The man had kept it with himself for three decades. What he considered to be a prized possession was nothing but just the incorrect record.
How did they find it? Well, they played the record again after three years. Though it was difficult, they managed to find a turntable that could play this record. And when they played it they realized it was nothing but a flimsy old piece of plastic.
Scotty became the unexpected winner of the contest and got his life changed. It is difficult to say whether the change that came in his life was a good one or a bad one. What do you think?