Knot My Line

The Boys Weekend Out (as memory and legend has recorded it.)

About 20 plus years ago the wife and her sisters got together in California for a fun time together.  Rose and Bobby came together but Roger couldn’t get away.   Anita and I were already here and so were Linda and Bill.

As you all know, when the ladies are together - well, lets just say it is impossible to get a word in edgewise.  So after a few days of listening to their stories, the boys needed to get away.

I don’t know who suggested it - probably the ladies cooked it up just to get rid of us - but suddenly a plan evolved for the boys to spend the weekend in Las Vegas.  Our wives were so much in favor of it that I am convinced they just wanted us out of the house. The anticipation of an adventure had us all interested and soon we were driving to Vegas.

Since Bill and I had work responsibilities we departed in the evening and drove the nearly 5 hours to “The Strip”.  Now, you need to understand that this was the “old” Vegas.  It was before they really cleaned up the town, got rid the mob, cracked down on the prostitute population, and began encouraging families to come there.

We arrived about 1 am. and Bill headed straight to his favorite casino so we could begin the fun.  He drove into the somewhat darkened parking lot and wound around the aisles looking for a parking spot.  Finding one he pulled into it and parked.  Anxious to stretch our legs after such a long ride, the three of us immediately began heading to the casino.  We had taken, maybe, as many as a dozen steps when from out of nowhere we each had a prostitute tugging on our arm and telling us all the wonderful things they were going to do for us.  It was amazing how quickly they materialized out of nowhere. It still amazes me.  Concerned for our safety <ggg> we rejected their overtures and continued into the casino where the massive loss of funds began.

The next day Bill had us in an old beat up motel he had been coming to for years.  Not quite the stylish, modern, and ritzy palaces one thinks of as being Vegas.  More like downtown, any old town USA.  But it sure fit into the kind of weekend we were having.

There must have been a prostitute convention in town!  Everywhere we went we were propositioned.  We would stop the car at a stop light and while we were waiting for the light to change we would be under siege!   A prostitute or two would jump off of the curb and come up to the car and proposition us.  It quickly became a joke.  My guess is that we were accosted at least a dozen times.  Just wandering around the casino I got hit on and so did Bill and Bob.  At the service bar ordering a drink there was another prostitute.  I can only imagine how many diseases we avoided that weekend.

Meanwhile we were all losing and so finally it was time to go.  As we were walking out Bill asked Bob and I how much money we had left.  When we told him he said “I have $40, lets take it all and go flush it down the toilet and eliminate the middle man”! That has been one of my favorite comments ever since.

A moment later, just as we were walking out, Bill said, “wait a minute”.  He took out his credit card and went to the cashier and got a hundred dollar chip.  He walked up to the crap table and bet the chip and won, bet that and won again and then lost several times.  He finally cashed in a profit for the weekend and we left Vegas and drove back to our wives and thus the legend was made.  I have been back to Vegas dozens of times since, and that trip is still my favorite.