Totally Nevada Since the 1970s

I’ve thought “Totally Nevada” since I was a kid in the 1970s, when we traveled through the state. There were so many things to do (skiing, horseback riding, swimming at Lake Mead and Lake Tahoe, sneaking into the Sahara pool on the Strip, and wandering the casinos looking for loose quarters in the coin trays of slot machines, to name a few), I was always busy.

I played Keno with my dad overlooking downtown Reno from the Horseshoe restaurant, did the same from the coffee shop at Barney’s at Lake Tahoe, and waited until he had put a few nickels in the slot machines at the Commercial hotel-casino in Elko before wandering out of that coffee shop to pull the handles when I was 10 or 11 years old.

I don’t blame my dad for getting me started with gambling; I thank him. And after all, I was obviously getting fed, just like the slots were. And he taught me to play poker, but it was my Grandma Marge who taught me blackjack. Her dad was a riverboat gambler who failed to return to the family farm from a trip to New Orleans when she was young.

On the other side of the family, my great-great-uncle lost the family’s fortune in Monte Carlo, causing the Baron and his daughters to move to the US. That’s pedigree, not despair. Live and learn.

When I’m not writing about Nevada and casinos, I’m in the casino, and the only thing I see wrong with that is the smoke—got a question? I’m smarter than I look.

Thanks for reading – Al W Moe