$12 six, $12 eight, Working on the Come Out

“…Las Vegas is a major family destination. Nevada casinos have become American family values now. It's considered just fine to go into one of these windowless scary gambling-malls, drink yourself silly, lose your ass at roulette, and then go ogle showgirls with breast implants. Republicans do this now. Working-class folks do it in polyester stretch pants. It's normal…” BRUCE STERLING.  When I saw on the news the Tropicana was closing so they could build a sports stadium there. I figured a bunch of mob guys rolled over in their graves; baseball and football are fine, you can bet on them, but how are ya’ gonna’ skim a ballpark? I miss the old Las Vegas; the Blonde Bombshell and I would have dinner at Piero’s and then go shoot craps at The Riviera. We knew we could always get a table at Piero’s because we were in the book. No fancy computer did it, they kept a pen and ink book of the past customers, and you could always get a table. One late night, Ann and I were playing blackjack at Harrah’s and the dealer told us, “…I used to look up and see Angie Dickinson sitting in front of me, anymore, I look up and see beer and ballcaps…” Before it changed and became family friendly, Las Vegas was our adult getaway and we loved it-when your cab pulled into the Flamingo or Caesar’s, they took your luggage, you checked in at the desk reserved for people in the system, your luggage got sent up and the maids unpacked you. You wanted to see Siegfried & Roy, you didn’t look it up on your phone, you asked a pit boss, he stepped over to a phone, came back in a couple of minutes and said, “you’re on at 9 o’clock”. You walked around with a pocket full of casino chips because they were legal tender, you could pay a cab, the dry cleaner, or the poor box at church. Everybody did everything for you and everybody got “toked”- damn, it was fun. It was the old Las Vegas, men in coats & ties and ladies in dresses after 9PM in the casino. No children allowed in the casino, manners were everything, and you’d never see a mouthy drunk or someone causing a problem. In the old days, Las Vegas was run by Chicago and New York wise guys, they had a cash cow and they protected it ruthlessly. There was no street crime, panhandlers, problems on the strip or in the casinos. The guys in the Armani suits only issued one warning, smart people listened. But that was old Las Vegas, times change, things move on. The mob guys have died of old age, the Riviera, Desert Inn, Stardust, Sands and Landmark are gone. The Flamingo and Caesars Palace remain, but they’ve changed with the times. Today’s Las Vegas caters to families and buses loaded with day trippers clutching their plastic cup of nickels. Ann and I were lucky enough to have been part of it, but everything changes and sometimes you’re better off just leaving it there ….