July 8, 2007
BY GINA DAMRON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Seven, it seems, might be Austyn Hunter Ruff's lucky number.
Being born at 7:22 a.m. on 7-7-07 and weighing in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces, it seems unavoidable.
"I say he's going to be my little gambler now," said his mother, Misty Ruff, 24, of Westland, from her room at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. "All these sevens."
It's a number so deeply rooted in the American psyche that 7-7-07 was a date not easily escaping the attention -- or pocketbooks -- of gamblers, psychics, mothers, brides-to-be and the superstitious throughout metro Detroit.
"I'm feeling good, getting everything together," said Brenda Hill, 36, of Farmington Hills, who was married Saturday at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, just off 7 Mile Road.
Sevens, numerologist Marion McKay said, are spiritual.
McKay, one of a handful of psychics giving readings at the Michigan Psychic Fair in Farmington Hills on Saturday, said that in the mystical world, the number evokes change.
And a little change -- or, rather, a little cash -- is what the thousands who flooded casinos in Detroit and the Northville Downs horse-racing track were looking for.
Ray Wess was betting only on No. 7 horses at the Northville track, where telecast races from all across the country were lighting up TV screens. A win, the 66-year-old Farmington resident said, could mean $5,000.
But for some at the track, the day wasn't just about horses.
For Ron Buczek, it was about his livelihood.
After working for 30 years at a now-closed Farmer Jack, the 47-year-old Dearborn Heights resident feared he would be out of a job.
But on 7-7-07, he got a call from Kroger, telling him he's hired to handle store merchandising. He was feeling so lucky, he thought he might play the lotto, too -- but not the 7-7-7 Daily 3 sequence the Michigan Lottery anticipated would be so popular.
"Odds of that happening," Buczek said, "it's probably a one-in-a-million chance."
Michigan Lottery Commissioner Gary Peters said there wouldn't be a cap on the number of people allowed to play three sevens.
By 1 p.m., the track had already sold more than 40 Daily 3 tickets playing 7-7-7.
There wasn't a single seven in the midday draw.
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