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Nancy Wait (aka The Nancy Who Drew)

Nancy Wait (aka The Nancy Who Drew)⁠

Artist, Author, “The Nancy Who Drew” memoir series

The Jackpot Within

2 min readAug 16, 2025
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Golfer, oil on canvas by NW 1983 / Tortoiseshell Comb, watercolor by NW 2025

…so after he taught me how to play golf, (I was better at painting his swing than mimicking it) we went to a course where the next hole was over the lake and he said, “I’ll give you $10,000 if you can hit the ball over the lake.” And while he was laughing and we both knew he was making fun of me, I was thinking what I’d do with all that money. The rolls of canvas, the tubes of paint and all sorts of stuff I could buy and not have to worry about money again for years. I teed up, swung, and heard a plonk as the ball fell in the lake.

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It disappeared, but there were ripples. There were waves. And that night or the next I dreamed I found ten tortoiseshell combs in the top drawer of my dresser, each worth $2,000. I hadn’t even known they were there. I hadn’t known what a treasure I had — already in my possession! It required opening the drawer of course. Drawers are said to symbolize hidden memories. They can represent subconscious knowledge.

In those days I didn’t know what I had inside, let alone it would have any value. But those combs were a clue, for they were the combs a mermaid would use when she came up from the depths to comb out her hair. I was going to have to follow her down, see what was there, then comb out the findings I couldn’t put a price on. Still, all I needed to know from that dream was that my riches were within…

Originally published on my blog:

https://nancywait.com/2025/08/12/the-jackpot-within/

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Nancy Wait (aka The Nancy Who Drew)
Nancy Wait (aka The Nancy Who Drew)

Written by Nancy Wait (aka The Nancy Who Drew)⁠

Artist, Author, “The Nancy Who Drew” memoir series