Blog 51 My Very Confusing Years

(This little guy was now trying to live my own life in front of my family and old friends)

(Finding where I fit in)

I lived almost thirty minutes away from my new job. I liked my job very much, so I decided to move closer to the hospital. However, the costs were a little more than I wanted to pay, so I decided to ask Robert to be my roommate. Again, it was a two bedroom apartment. He agreed. Now things got funny here because I wanted him to move in December 15, 1987. But, instead he moved in December 12th. We have argued many times as to the official date of our connection.

Robert and I talked many times as to what was this friendship and we both agreed we would be best friends. So I figured we would be roommates for about five years. Neither of us were interested in getting married, we decided to help our families, and of course, his “girl” friend tagged around with us all the time. We had really fun times. Robert and I went to Las Vegas before it became the family vacation place that it is today. It was strictly bars and casino hotels– very shady. For room and flight it was $450.

We were staying at the Sahara resort at the end of the strip and for four days we would go to different casinos until we made it to the end of the strip. Robert had actually already won about $250 on the airplane coming in. The Flight Attendant came by accepting bills with your seat number on them. When we were legally in Las Vegas air, she drew Robert’s dollar and he won the entire pot! We were feeling very lucky.

We were too scared to play a lot of money at once so we started slow. We played at the Sahara for the first day, and ate at the Circus Circus buffet for very cheap. At night, we decided to try Blackjack. (Back then, you only had to bet $1.00). We sat at a table for beginners and the dealer was allowed to help us learn. We had a great guy, but Robert had tendencies to go against the odds. For example, splitting two face cards against a six. But, he never seemed to lose. I cannot say the same for me!…Thank you , Robert!

The next few days, we spent going a third of the way down the strip playing at all the casinos. Then at night we would meet our new friend at the Blackjack Table. We did this until we made it all the way down to the Tropicana. This was our last day and we had about $50. We decided, because we were tired from doing the entire strip, that we tried playing a dollar machine. We would lose, then win enough back to play awhile. I was getting tired and knew we had to walk all the way back up the strip to the Sahara.

We got down to $13, and I stood up and said to save the thirteen for breakfast. Robert, still sitting, turned to get up but said, “One more time!”. He pulled the bar and suddenly a 7, double-7, and another double-7 came up. Noises started going off and money began pouring out of the machine. I sat back down and realized that triple sevens were $200. The money attendant was behind us and starting to stack up coin holders. She congratulated us as we waited. When the machine did not stop at $200, but kept going, I looked back at the lady and she said, ” You just won $800!” I turned back around and Robert and I both just stared.

The lady explained that the double sevens doubled our amount. One Doubled to$400, and the second doubled that to $800. She gave us the coin containers and we started stacking them. The lady took them and gave us $800 in twenty dollar bills. For 1987, that was a lot of money. Now we had a huge dilemma. Our walk back up the strip to our room. Remember, the strip was very dark and shady.

So, we went to the restroom and got into the stalls and began separating the money all over our bodies, literally. I do not think too white boys ever walked as fast as we did back to our hotel. When we got there, I decided to take twenty dollars and bought dimes to play a dime machine for fun. Within minutes, I hit $120. We took this and went to our room skipping our blackjack game. We were ecstatic.

The next day, we had an early flight, so we had to get to the airport. To those that have never been to Vegas by plane, they have slot machines at the airport to play while waiting for your flight. We did not want to lose any money, so we played a nickle machine. Before they called our plane arrival, I hit another $50.00! They were ready to board and I had a bucket of nickles that I had to take with me. So, we started with a $450 trip, and Robert’s $250 from our first day. We came home with over $1,000. This became an addiction. (more Vegas stories to follow during my thirties.)

(Blog 52 Buying a house and changing jobs)