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Wanted the Jeep, got the Dalmatian
The bonus round
Roy was the day's biggest earner, so he played the bonus round for an open-air Jeep Wrangler with a retail value of $12,765. He won it. Terry was 19 or 20, in college in Iowa, and had friends crowded around the TV in a basement rec room that everyone called the bomb shelter.
The shopping round
Before the bonus round, Roy had to spend his winnings in the shopping round. He bought gold-plated sunglasses that looked like they came out of the Elvis wardrobe, valued at $300, and a crystal peacock valued at $800. With the little money left over, he bought the $154 ceramic Dalmatian.
The dog's afterlife
The Jeep never came to Terry. The dog stayed at Roy's house for years, until one day Roy told Terry to take it home. It has stood at the top of the stairs in Terry's house for more than 20 years. Roy's belongings had shrunk with every move during his years in a medical facility for dementia, and by the end the Dalmatian was among the few things left of his.
Terry jokes that the dog guards the upstairs hallway, which suits a man who spent his career in law enforcement. His family calls it Sajak, and it is not for sale. He would still have loved the Jeep, but the Dalmatian holds a dearer place in the lore of the family.
How did the Wrangler descend from a war jeep?
The Jeep traces back to the Willys MB, a light four-wheel-drive vehicle built for the US Army in World War II. After the war, Willys sold a civilian version called the CJ, short for Civilian Jeep. The Wrangler, introduced in 1986, replaced the CJ line.
Why do keepsakes mean so much to families?
Consumer researcher Russell Belk argued in a 1988 paper that people treat their possessions as part of their identity, an idea he called the extended self. Objects tied to a person can carry that person's memory after the person is gone. Belk's paper, Possessions and the Extended Self, appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research.
How does a car's retail value get set?
The retail value of a new car usually means the manufacturer's suggested retail price, printed on the window sticker. That sticker is required by the 1958 Automobile Information Disclosure Act, and it is also called the Monroney sticker after Oklahoma senator Mike Monroney, who sponsored the law. The sticker lists the base price and the installed options.
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