TIVERTON -- 'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the state, families were hoping Powerball would transform their fate.
All the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in the hope that a quick pick would answer their prayers.
Then what to my wondering eyes should appear, my six lucky numbers bringing oh so much cheer.
Bruce Lincoln is a very lucky guy. He hit the Megabucks for $6.5 million 15 years ago. Since then, he's missed winning the lottery by one number seven times.
So here he was at Guimond Farms convenience store in Tiverton, hoping that lightning would strike twice. Lincoln wasn't alone. With an estimated $280 million Powerball jackpot at stake, the cash register was ringing more than the bells on Santa's reindeer.
"I'm getting these tickets for myself," said Lincoln, 52, who won't say where he lives. "If I win, I'll be buying a lot of gifts."
Not everyone was buying Powerball tickets for themselves, however. Joanne LaMeire, of New Bedford, bought 40 tickets with the money her husband gave her for Christmas.
"I'll put them in a tiny gift box," she said yesterday. "I'll wrap them up. Then, when I get home from work on Thursday morning, I'll open the paper, check the numbers, unwrap the package and see if we won."
Today's Powerball drawing will be announced on Channel 12 at 10:59 p.m.
The last Rhode Island winner was in February 2001, when Michael Gouldon, of Pawtucket, hit for $93.5 million.
Although the odds are 120 million to 1, Gerald Aubin, the Rhode Island Lottery Commission's executive director, prefers to look at it this way: "You have 120 million different options to play."
Only 60 percent of those numbers will be played by today, which means there is a 40 percent chance that the winning number won't be picked. If it isn't, the jackpot will jump to $320 million.
Guimond Farms is one of the biggest sellers of lottery tickets in Rhode Island, in large part because it's near the Massachusetts line. (The Bay State doesn't offer Powerball). Guimond has sold at least four winning tickets for $100,000 each and one for $7.6 million.
"This place is lucky," said Paul Nedoros, 56, of Bourne, Mass. "We've won here before for a couple of hundred. If I win, I'll have my family sit down and give me all their bills."
With a jackpot this huge, it's almost impossible to imagine all of the possibilities. Most Powerball customers simply wished for a slightly grander version of what they already have: a bigger house, a newer car, money for the grandchildren.
"What do I want?" said Sharon Duggan, 53, of Fairhaven, Mass. "A nice house, a heated garage, a car that starts and a big area for the animals that have been abused. That's the first thing."
Although she bought five tickets for her family, Duggan said, "If this one is the winner, the rest are theirs."
Mark Flick, 46, of Tiverton, has bigger dreams. He wants to move to Montana and buy some land near the home of former Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe.
"I'll quit smoking if I win," he said, tucking a carton of menthols under his arm. "I want to be around to spend the money."
In an informal survey of Powerball customers, only half said they were buying tickets as gifts for family and friends. When pressed, however, most said that if they picked the winning numbers, they would share their good fortune with loved ones.
"Are you kidding? I'd be in the Carribean somewhere," said Kellyanne Sullivan, 38, of Westport. Then she paused and said, "Yeh, I guess I'd have to share with family."
One thing is clear: the Christmas jackpot has been a boon to the more than 900 Rhode Island stores that sell lottery tickets, each of which makes 8 cents on the dollar.
"It's like a Godsend to them," Aubin said. "Some are doing extremely well during this crush of selling."
Gilbert Guimond, the store owner, jokes that he never saw a penny from the $7.6 million jackpot he sold 12 years ago. Personally, he's won the lottery only once, for $100.
Still, he said this store has meant so much to his family:
"I don't know about karma, but I bought this place after going bankrupt. Twenty five years ago, I started my life all over again. Now I have my health, five children..."
As customers began to queue up by the cash register, Guimond topped off the coffee of the regulars at the counter, many of whom were figuring out what numbers to play.
"I haven't bought my own Powerball ticket yet," he said.
