scalping tickets

When mom was a kid, Taipei was still very rural, whereas now, my grandparent’s house is surrounded by highrises. The only major thing around my grandparent’s house was the national university, whose campus provided kids a place to play, income resources for many of the Taiwanese lowerclass, and delicious street vendors catering to the always hungry college kids.

The university gave away basketball tickets on game day to anyone who came by. The only rule, one ticket per person. The oldest uncle found a way to make some money for the family by rounding up the younger siblings, my mom included, to go get these free tickets and the scalping them later to others. Since it was crowded, they tried one of the tricks to get extra tickets by sticking the other hand into the crowd. Yes their little hands were slapped a couple of times when caught, they were all in elementary school. These kids never thought to keep the money to themselves, they all went to grandma, because every penny counted.