USHA BRIDGES ...Will be sworn in as Family Court judge July 1 Gaffney attorney Usha Bridges felt like a million bucks Thursday.

That’s the day she found out she had won ... well ... a million bucks.

She was stuck in traffic in Columbia on her way back to Gaffney after attending the second of three days of “judges school,” when her brother Scott called and the conversation turned to the lottery, more specifically, the Powerball drawing.

Bridges had bought a lottery ticket the day before at a small convenience store.

“At Exit 90” she said when asked where she purchased the winning ticket.

“I stopped for gas and noticed the Powerball was up to $250 million,” she said. “I had a few extra dollars so I bought five ‘Quick Picks’ and the clerk asked me if I wanted to ‘power up’ and I said ‘yeah, why not?’

“It cost me $10,” she continued. “If I hadn’t ‘powered up’ I would have only won $200,000, and I would have been pleased with that.”

Bridges, who along with husband Allie have five children — Meredith, Allie (Man), Garrett, Samantha and Garrison; and three grandchildren, Jayden, Cici and Dylan — left the ticket in her vehicle Wednesday night and had paid no attention to it until her brother called the next afternoon.

“Scott called and started talking about Powerball, so I checked my ticket while I was waiting for traffic to begin moving again,” she said.

After her brother told her the winning numbers, she discovered five of the winning numbers printed on the first of the five tickets she had purchased.

Some excitement ensued.

It was only after some “You’re kidding me” — “No I’m not” exchanges did it begin to sink in that Bridges did indeed have a winning ticket in her possession.

But what was it worth?

When Scott asked her if she ‘powered up’ and she replied in the affirmative, he told her he thought she had won $800,000. He then hung up and went to a nearby convenience store to check the status of the drawing. He then called his sister back and told her no one else in South Carolina had five of the winning numbers.

“You won a million dollars!” Scott declared over the phone.

It would be at this point that most people would have reacted in ways involving some degree of loss of control, which may or may not have included consciousness.

But not Bridges.

“Scott asked me if I wanted to pull over and let him come and pick me up, but I said no,” Bridges said of her million-dollar reaction. “People asked me how I managed to stay so calm and I told them because I’m just old calm Usha.

“I took a deep breath and took my time driving back to Gaffney,” she continued. “On the way home, I called my kids, who, by the way, didn’t believe me. When I got back to town I went to Scott’s house because that’s where everybody had congregated. They were all gathered there and when I pulled up, they started clapping. It was like the end of one of the ‘Amazing Race’ shows when they win the million dollars.”

So now the obvious questions involve how she will spend the money and how much Uncle Sam gets.

“Let me assure you that the government gets their share,” she said when asked how much of the million she actually gets to keep.

“Ever hear of paying off a mortgage?” she answered when asked about her plans for the money.

“I’m going to give my church (Indian Hill Baptist where her mother, Rev. Mary Jefferies, is pastor) 10 percent of it and do some investing,” she said.

She said she wanted to clarify a misconception about public officials being able to participate in, and win, lottery prizes.

Some folks believed that she was not eligible because of her standing as a former municipal court judge and a soonto be Family Court judge.

“I’m not a judge, for one thing” she said. “My judgeship for the city ended on May 31 and I’ll be sworn in (as Family Court judge) July 1, but for my own peace of mind I asked the supervisor at the lottery place because I wanted to know and there’s no rule (prohibiting public officials).”

For the record, the only persons not eligible to play the lottery are employees of the Lottery Commission and their immediate families as well as vendors who sell lottery tickets.

One thing Bridges won’t be doing with the money is giving it away.

“Despite what some people might think, I have not made enough money off of my clients to give this money away,” she chuckled.

Then, in a serious tone, she said, “I don’t intend on going out here and blowing this money. I don’t intend on going out here and giving this money away. I look at this as a blessing to me. And I say God has entrusted me with this money to be a good steward and that’s what I intend on doing.”

Thus the newly acquired money in the Bridges family won’t change their lives to any noticeable degree.

“You know what Samantha and Garrison want?” Bridges asked, referring to her two youngest children. “An iPod Touch. That’s all they want.”

Steve Jobs would be so proud.