This incredible true story began in the mid 1950’s in rural North Carolina. In those days the young were called upon to help their families with labor. My responsibility was cooking stew over an open fire by stirring a 50 gallon cast iron pot until the stew was perfectly done, cooled, and packaged in gallon containers for sale to the locals who stopped in our country store.

Many mornings Smiling Ed (as he was called due to always having a contagious ear to ear smile) would stop by the store for a coffee and a slice of hoop cheese. After a few swigs of hot brewed Carolina coffee Smiling Ed would walk down to the fire and watch the young kid use an old oak oar to stir and keep the heat of the stew balanced in that old kettle.

Smiling Ed would stand around for awhile, comment on how good the stew looked, and drive away. I always enjoyed Smiling Ed’s visits because his smile was infectious and it would cause me to be in a good mood on those cold Carolina mornings.

One day Smiling Ed came down to the old iron kettle, stood around for a few minutes, and then began to speak about what would turn out to be a life changing event for the back woods Carolina boy.

Ed said, “Son I don’t have anyone in my family to tell this -they have all passed on, so I have decided to give you a secret that will make all your wishes come true—sort of like that genie in a bottle”.

Like any young kid twelve years old my eyes widened as I listened to the secret story.

Smiling Ed pointed his finger in a commanding manner and said, “For years I struggled with farming and the ups and downs of crops. During that time, as a hobby, I built a nice fire pit and started experimenting with Barbecue sauces. Over time I came up with what I thought to be the best sauce I had ever tasted. The sauce was thick, sticky, and sweet and was so good on the meat that I cooked pork almost every night just to use that mouth-watering Barbecue Sauce recipe.

At some point Reba Sledge, the old woman from New Orleans and soothsayer who lived in that shack back in the Johnson pine forest, got wind of my sauce and paid me a visit. Most people said that she was really a voodoo woman but I didn’t then nor do I now know the difference.

Amway’s after tasting some of my sauce she said the sauce was as good as she had heard and asked me what was in the sauce. After I told her she said that it was missing an ingredient and that I should add it to the next batch. She then went on to explain that this secret ingredient would add a certain type of luck to all who ate the sauce. She said that the sauce with that magic spice added- after it had been eaten for awhile, would tune the body to accept good luck.

Smiling Ed chuckled and said “Well, I actually laughed at the notion that a barbecue sauce would do anything other than taste good, but when I made the next batch I mixed it in a particular order as Reba had instructed and added the extra ingredient. Having a little too much to drink I did a little dance to bring on all the luck Reba had said would come to me. I went to sleep that night, woke up with a hangover, and barely remembered the foolishness of the sauce”.

Ed looked away for a moment and then continued, “For about two weeks nothing unordinary happened and I soon forgot the good luck sauce and Reba’s claim, but I did keep eating the sauce because for some reason I just couldn’t get enough of that taste. It was addicting!

Smiling Ed then added, “About three weeks after mixing and eating that sauce for some reason I thought about plowing some land to prepare for the spring planting and decided to get started on the lower 10 acres. Usually I put that off until early spring but I got in my mind to do it and soon set out with my tractor on land that I have plowed all my life but this day would be different-very different”.

Smiling Ed lowered his voice and said, “It was about mid-day and the hot sun was giving me quite a thirst and on an impulse right in mid row I pulled the plow up to drive over to the creek for a drink. But as the plow came up I noticed that it was unearthing some sort of box. As soon as I got off the tractor and went to the rear where that plowed box was laying was when I noticed that the box was opened and inside were bags and bags of confederate money, some pewter plates, and so many jewels your eyes would not believe what a treasure chest this was that I had found. My guess was that the family that buried it was concerned about the Yankees and hid all their valuables never to locate them again. Who knows what became of the person who buried the treasure? None-the-less I became rich and have never had to work again in those hot fields again”, ended Smiling Ed with a larger than that normal ear to ear smile.

Smiling Ed finished the story with, “Over the years I have had even more Luck but it’s too much to tell and I truly believe I owe all that good luck to the secret mixture of sauce. Today I have decided to give you the recipe and my hopes are that you will do good with your new fortune. The only thing I ask is that you wait until you are an adult to put the powers to work for you”.

I took the recipe from Smiling Ed but being around a country store all my life I had already heard a whole bunch of snake oil stories. That day in 1959 I hid the recipe in a chest at home and went about growing up never giving another thought to Smiling Ed’s claim about good fortune.

In the late 60’s after Viet Nam, becoming a police Detective, and suffering a failed marriage with two young children, depression set in and I found myself homeless and working in a day labor business. Life seem wasted to me and as a consequence I spent years lost in deep-deep depression. After several years I eventually moved into an apartment but with small finances while working three jobs.

One day after going through some items I came across the recipe that was given to me by smiling Ed all those years ago. I had completely forgotten about it but seeing it again immediately caused a big smile to come across my face and I thought it would be fun to mix it up and see what it tasted like. It took me quite awhile to obtain a particular ingredient but several weeks later I mixed it all up and cooked some chicken wings using the sauce to coat the wings good and caramelize before I took them off the grill.

I couldn’t believe how good the sauce was. It was the best I had ever eaten anywhere. Now I was regretting that I hadn’t made it sooner. It was that good! In addition I played the Lotto pick 4 and won $200 that night. Coincidence? Could Luck be possible from a barbecue sauce? Nope, No way, but that was the first winning ticket I had ever gotten from Florida’s new lottery. So just in case there was something to this sauce thing I played the normal lottery with a group and we won $3250.00 on that Saturdays Lotto. I was fast becoming a believer.

The next week I visited an attorney and took with me a can of sausages that I packed with the secret sauce. Before I left his office his firm actually wrote me a check to obtain an Investigators license to do all their work! Soon I had Tupperware bowls full of the sauce in every room of my house and in my car. Believe what you will but after being alone for years that week I turned a corner at a local mall and almost knocked down a woman I had known for years but had lost track of and we began dating and got married a few years later. I had found my soul mate.

Meanwhile I opened a Private Investigation Agency with the money the Law firm gave me. I could go on and on but let me finish with that before I sold my company for several million dollars in 2005 we actually had taken in over 50 MILLION dollars in the few years we operated.