Where do I begin? . . .(you already have begun ding bat. . .) Oh yeah, right.
SO, they got married in Las Vegas. . . . . Now, now, I know what you’re thinking. Forget about it. Elvis was no where to be seen. They got married in a lovely chapel with loads of wonderful flowers in the very nice hotel.
They had a quite avuncular minister that I liked instantly. K. without a doubt, wore the most beautiful wedding gown I have ever seen. BUT, I get ahead of myself.
While the happy couple went off to get the marriage license and finish up the last minute details before the wedding in the afternoon, K sent my husband and I off with her parents. (They needed to get us out of their hair I am sure)
I had never been to Las Vegas before. So I was all agog. You have never seen a more luxurious tacky place in your life. Fantastically expensive hotels with lobbies that made your jaw drop in awe, with slot machines on the side. Kind of like filet mignon served with collard greens.
Her mom L. started our tour off with an introduction to the nickel slot machines. I had never gambled before in my life. I always thought it was the dumbest thing one could possibly do with one’s money. Sort of like someone saying , “Here let me whack your thumb with this hammer, WHAM! , now give me a dollar.” I have made dozens of comments about how stupid gambling is and how gullible the people are who do it. But that’s before I met L.
Now, I had decided in the spirit of good fun, I would gamble with 5 dollars.
K’s mom was oh SO happy to show me how the nickel slots worked. I sat next to her while she played 20.00 through the machine for about half an hour. I pretty much got the gist of it and decided to give it a try. My 5 dollars lasted about 15 minutes. Bye bye ! But it WAS kind of fun.
We were playing video slots with fun little bonus games and music and about 20 ways to bet your nickels, BUT I lost my 5 dollars. I thought, well, that was my brush with “risky business” for the day. What else is there to do in Las Vegas ?
We all went on a tour of the different casinos, each with their own theme. If you ever get to Las Vegas you MUST go in and see the hotel lobby at the Venitian. When you first walk in, you are flooded with the smell of roses. There are mountains of fresh flowers all over the place. I mean MOUNTAINS of them. And I won’t even TRY to describe the ceiling, which is a large group of glass sculptures that is almost beyond words. I felt like I was seeing the wonders of Rome or something. It was a little eerie, and very decadent, but without a doubt breathtaking.
So for about an hour, be did a little more casino hopping, just popping in and having a look see here and there. And finally started to get hungry and went to the one called New York, New York and had lunch. After that L.wanted to go play the nickel slots again for a little while. Okay, so off we went to the slot machines. I sat behind her again and watched. Now this time when she put her 20 dollars in she kept winning a little, and then a little more.
The machine just adds up the “credits” until you push the “pay out” button. Well, she was getting more and more credits and after a while I said, “L, push the pay out button! Look, you have 50 dollars now, you put in 20, now there’s 50 !” Now, she wanted to keep playing for the chance to make the big jackpot of about 1500 dollars. (That’s the hook you see ) But I begged her. So she pushed the pay out button and all the nickels started coming out. I was so excited! Now here’s the thing I never knew about slot machines. The nickels get all covered in what I think is graphite so when you gather them up, your hands get dirty, really dirty. They even have little foil packets with towelettes in them at the cashier to clean your hands. L. said that is why she usually keeps playing for the big jackpot because she doesn’t want to get her hands dirty with those nickels. If you win big, the floor person comes and pays you your money in bills. I said that I didn’t MIND going to the cashier, I would be HAPPY to go get the folding money, no problem! So off I went, washed my hands and came back with 50 dollars in bills.
While I was gone she had continued to play and pretty soon she had 120 dollars worth of credits. I was jumping up and down. “Push the pay out button, push it. I’ll GO to the cashier, I don’t CARE about the dirty nickels.
That’s 120 dollars ! “ She was laughing, we all were laughing and people were starting to look at us. ( What’s with the country bumpkin? )
We were having a great time. ( On L’s 20 dollar bills by the way ) Anyway, she said no, that she wanted to keep playing for the jackpot this time. I leaned over and pointed to the pay out button on the video screen, “Oh L !
Push the button this one right here!” And I touched the screen. Well, what I did not know what that the screen is touch sensitive and the machine started to pay out ! “OH NO!”, she said. “OH NO! , I said, I didn’t know it would do that HONEST!” We were laughing hysterically by now and the slot machine was clanging away and dumping out 120.00 worth of nickels.
Off I went to the cashier again feeling like a bank robber. So in a matter of minutes she had cleared about 130 dollars.
And here’s the scary part. . . . . I was having FUN. . . . . Gambling.
Well, suddenly we remembered that we had a wedding to attend. And then there was the moment of truth. . . I wanted to stay and keep playing those slot machines and pushing that pay out button, CAN’T THE WEDDING WAIT?. My own son’s wedding ! And then I knew. I found out what gambling was all about. Playing a game and winning, or maybe winning , or even losing, but having FUN doing it.
I had been dipped in the graphite of gambling fever.
We DID tear ourselves away from the casino and rushed over to our hotel and made it to the wedding in time, but just barely. The rest of the evening I was trying to figure out how I could get some more money to play the slot machines, but I didn’t have any. Good thing too. Or I might never have come home.
For the year since, I have been saving up some of my extra change and one of these days I will take my miserable little pile and try it again. I just need to get someone to take me to a casino.I wonder how long it will take to gamble away 35 dollars? But, I have a SYSTEM I want to try! My system is simple : PUSH THE PAYOUT BUTTON !