Vegas

(This blog was written way back in 1996 or so and has been hiding on a flash drive, waiting to get out. When I read it again, a year or so ago, after years and years, it brought back memories.)
In 1986, Uncle Walter and Cousin Doug went to Las Vegas with a group of friends of Doug's, led by Chris, our wedding photographer who was writing off the expense of his trip due to a convention in the city at that time. Doug and Walter left their wives behind, making the trip boy's only. They had a wonderful time, coming back telling us the fun they had at that fabulous city. Doug asked me to go with them for several years. I always declined, without even asking Phyllis. I just didn't think that it would be a good idea for us. In the fall of 1988, I had minor back surgery. Actually it was the removal of a hilonital hernia. (Sort of an open sore on my tailbone due to a cyst or something. Anyway, I had it removed. The incision went clear to my backbone. I determined not to return to the dirty steel mill with an open wound, so I had a six week recuperation time. By the second day that I was home, I felt fine. The only problem was that I couldn't sit down or drive a car. I could lay down and walk just fine. I could cook and eat and do anything except for the sitting. Phyllis and I talked about her taking a little trip. She and her Mom went to Las Vegas for a few days. The boys and I were fine. The girls had a great time. Two years later, when Doug asked me to go to Vegas with him and Uncle Wally, Phyllis said I could go.
My first trip, February of 1990, was doomed to be a disaster, from the start. We were delayed 12 hours when our charter flight plane broke down. When we got to the hotel, we found we had a sleeping problem. Dad had invited his good friend, John, the minister to join us, and surprisingly, he agreed to come along. I say surprisingly because John was very strongly against drinking, gambling and just about everything in Vegas except for the good, cheap food. Dad said that we would be able to get a day bed and Dad, John and I would share one room. When we got to the hotel, they said no day beds and no additional beds at the Lady Luck, (our hotel) or at any other hotel in Vegas that weekend. Dad had said that if there was any problem, I would still get a bed. When It came down to the nitty-gritty, guess who didn't have any place to sleep. Son Greg. I was able to catch a few naps for a few hours when Dad wasn't sleeping but whenever that happened, he and John would come into the room and make noise, waking me up. On Saturday, I lay down for a two hour nap. We were planning to see a show. Uncle Wally suggested a show called "Nudes on Ice," a true Las Vegas novelty. I told them to decide but that one sounded fine to me. When I woke up, they told me they decided against the "Nudes" in favor of another show. When they told me the name, I said I thought that it was a puppet show. They all said, . . "no, that couldn't be." When we got to the show, sure enough, there were the life-sized puppets. Within five minutes, Walt, Dad and John were sound asleep. They slept through the entire show. They didn't miss a thing.
From the time we got off the plane, John decided that he was the tour director, even though he had never been to Vegas before.. When we would walk through the Casino's he would hold up his arm and point in the direction he thought we should go. This particularly angered Doug. He was on the verge of really telling off John a bunch of times. Four years later we laugh about it and point like John did to get a laugh but on that trip, it wasn't funny. Also, every time John would bump into us, he would always ask how well we were doing at gambling. If we were winning, John would say, " ..better quit while you're ahead." If we were losing money that day, John would say, ". . .better quit before you lose any more money." I was so excited about being there that I stayed up all night, every night. Much of the time was spent, watching the other people play but late at night, I was comfortable playing. Doug and I were both kind of lucky at the "Four Queens" casino, not far from the "Lady Luck." We went back night after night. Dad and Uncle Walter would do no gambling except for the video poker machines and John, obviously, did no gambling at all. I particularly loved the fifty cent shrimp cocktails at the Fremont Casino and Hotel. It became a tradition for us to drop off our suitcases at the hotel and run to the Fremont for shrimp cocktails. We all also loved the $1.98 sixteen ounce New York strip steak breakfast at the Golden Nugget Casino from 2 AM to 4 AM.
We rented a van so we could take a few side trips. Walt took us to see Hoover Dam, located about 45 minutes away. That was super impressive to me. We also visited a major shopping mall and basically saw the sights with the van. They were just building the Mirage Casino and hotel. The volcano was not yet built. Neither was Excalibur.
The next year, 1991, Doug and I said that if John Mellinger was going, we weren't. John wasn't interested so we didn't have a problem. I was determined to have my own bed so I invited my friend, Sam Yannitelli, a retired LTV man and member of my bowling team, to come along ,and he did. We had decided to pay the higher plane fares to avoid another problem with a charter flight. We also decided to switch to the Golden Nugget Hotel instead of the Lady Luck. We didn't like the long walk from the room and having to use two elevators to get to the casino, even though the rooms and the hotel were very nice. My brother, Larry, was able to join us, although he came in a day later and left a day earlier. He and Dad shared a room, Doug and Walt had a room and Sam and I had a third one.
We took one side trip to Laughlin, Nevada. It is a small group of casino's, built along the Colorado river. Across the river, which was nothing but a muddy stream, was the state of Colorado. I particularly enjoyed the ride down, as I laid down in the back luggage compartment and slept the whole hour-and-a-half trip, each way. I was still very excited about being in Las Vegas and was staying up all night, every night, and not getting much sleep. Really, I still didn't need a bed. Doug called Larry, "Mister Blackjack" and "One Bet Larry" and he was extremely lucky the whole trip. Larry had never been much of a card player his whole life and I don't think he had ever gambled. He was very timid at first about gambling at all. He had not brought much cash with him and was planning to borrow from me to pay for his room . We persuaded him to play blackjack with us and was he ever lucky. He got blackjack after blackjack. And kept winning and winning. . . . two, three and finally, five dollar bets. Doug and I also won a few bucks in Laughlin, but Larry won about two hundred, with his biggest bet being five dollars. Dad and Wally continued to play the slot machines and video poker machines. It was really fun being all together, the adult male Fedak-Fedyk boys.
Sam was an expert slot machine player. He had been to Vegas a number of times and he was confident that he would win money. He played nothing but dollar slots for two days, and lost and lost and lost. He was way over a thousand behind and going further behind every time he played. It took the fun out of the trip for him. Not only that, his wife was furious about him going without her. Four years later, her voice is very cold on the phone when I call Sam and give my name.
One of the high points of the trip, for me was at Caesar's Palace. Phyllis' Mom had given me ten dollars to bet at roulette on number seventeen, in two separate bets. After playing a little blackjack at Caesar's, I had a five dollar chip left. I tried to bet it but was told that the table was twenty-five dollar minimum. I found a five dollar game and bet the chip, and it hit. Doug came up just as I was collecting my money. He said " . . that's great, now you're even for the trip or maybe ahead." I told him that the money belonged to Phyllis' Mom. Doug said, "You're not going to tell anyone about that!!" I gave the money to Grandma Poczebut. She was thrilled to pieces. I was super glad I gave her the money. That made my trip!!
This time, without John, we saw two girlie shows. One was "Nudes of Vegas" or something like that. I think that Dad enjoyed the nude girl shows the most. He was extremely animated and never closed his eyes at one of those shows, for a instant. I think that we all must have had our fill of the nudies because we never went back to another one. We saw the dinner show at Excalibur that year. That's the one where you eat dinner without knives or forks.We were all very hungry and the glass of beer that they gave us with dinner must have made us big drinkers a little high. They gave us Cornish hen, which is a small chicken. When I saw it, I told Dad that it was squab, pigeon. Dad started to gag and say he wasn't going to eat that. Larry almost swallowed his hand and arm to keep from laughing. Dad asked Wally what squab was and Wally told him it was pigeon. I really thought that I was going to get to eat Dad's dinner that time. Finally, I think Dad realized that I was teasing, and ate his own dinner.
The Fedak-Fedyk Vegas trip in 1992 expanded to include two of Doug's friends, Tom and Jerry. Also, Doug's brother-in-law, Al Richardson, Gayle's husband, joined the group along with Dad, Larry, Doug, Walter and myself. We again stayed at the Golden Nugget. We seem most comfortable downtown and like the Nugget. We didn't see much of Doug, Tom or Jerry the whole trip. They were off gambling by themselves. By the second night, all three of them had losses of over $1,000 each. Tom and Jerry were getting extra gambling money off their MasterCard's within 24 hours. Ouch. We saw a couple of shows and did a lot of good eating and spent time together. This was a slightly nervous trip for me. I had quit smoking eight months before. I was afraid I might smoke again around the gambling and drinking and everything. That was not the case, however.
1993 was a tough trip for me to make. I had been unemployed for about a month and had no prospects of a job. I had determined not to go up until two days before we left. My brother couldn't go because he was in the middle of a major company merger and it looked like a Dad was not going to go without me. So I went, and it turned out to be probably the best of the first four. Our group included Doug, Walt, Doug's friend, Tom, Al Richardson, Al Richardson's father, Ed, Dad and I. Tom had a single room. His friend, Jerry decided to go too late and couldn't get a reasonably priced plane ticket.
The trip was memorable, not for what we did or didn't do, but because we did it together. We casino hopped and ate and gambled and relaxed together. Walt and Dad actually started playing blackjack every morning for several hours. I did a lot more "craps" then I had ever done before. The food was great, the weather was cold and drizzly but no body minded. Tom, Doug and I went to to Palomino club, a few miles down La Vegas Boulevard from “downtown.” They were famous for fabulous nude dancers. They had Playboy playmates and Penthouse pets. All the girls were beautiful and sexy. One had “88’s”. We tipped the guy at the door for front row seats. Good move. We went there every trip. We also had a very good run at Jerry's Nugget, across the street from the Palomino. It's really a local type casino and kind of run down and scruffy. For some reason, Doug likes it. There was almost no one there. Right at the bar by the entrance were four or five dirty, smelly bum type characters, who watched us the whole time we were there. As soon as we hit the crap table, we started winning and winning and winning. There was one local guy that was betting against Doug and I as we rolled, and he lost his ass . . .and cursed and complained. Tom didn't bet but Doug and I were quickly, over a hundred ahead. I saw those bums watching us and told the boys it was time to move on. And we did. And luckily, nothing happened.
We saw one memorable show, Sigfried and Roy at the Mirage at $70.00 a ticket. Tom didn't go but Doug and Wally and Dad and I went. We sat in the very last row of the theatre, but we could still see and hear everything, perfectly. As soon as the show started, Dad fell asleep. I gave him a little nudge and he would wake up. I would guess that Dad fell asleep fifty times in the hour and a half, show. I kept a close eye on him to keep him alert, nicely, but persistent. The show was spectacular. In the end they had dozens of pure, white tigers all over the stage. They must had done 50 magic tricks and had one hundred costumed people in the act. I would see that identical show again, if Phyl or the boys were with me. It was that good, even at that price. Actually, I wanted to see Sher but couldn't get tickets. She was the only big time act in town, besides Sigfried and Roy (They are 50 year old unmarried roommates in a huge mansion outside Vegas.) The other show that I remember was Don Rickles. His show was cheap but he wasn't that good. Actually, he was a nice guy most of the show and his popularity always came from his nastiness, which was what we expected and wanted. Dad stayed awake for that show.
The only problem on that trip, from my point of view was the room accommodations. Dad and I shared a room, at the Nugget, adjoining Doug and Wally's room. The problem was that Dad and I did not fit well together. Dad and Wally were ready for bed at nine or ten at night and I was just getting started. By the time I would get in, at three A.M. or so, Dad would be in deep sleep and he snored terribly. He snored so bad that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep. A couple of times I moved him or asked him to turn over and Dad became extremely angry that I disturbed him. Dad actually cursed me out a couple of times. Then, when we would both fall asleep, Dad and Wally would be up and wide awake at five or Six A.M. and take showers and rattle the newspapers around and talk. The problem with that was that my sleeping habits had changed. For some reason, since I left LTV, I have been a super light sleeper. And, on that trip, I was not able to fall back asleep, easily. I asked Dad to read the paper or talk with Wally in the lobby of the hotel or wherever, to let me sleep. Dad was sort of irate, saying that it was his room, too. We actually got into a couple of minor arguments about the room situation. I told Dad and Wally that I would never be able to share a hotel room with Dad again because of our sleeping differences. Dad and I will not have that problem, again. After the funeral, I told Wally that I would not consider the Vegas trip in 1994, because it would be an emotional problem for me. ( As well as financial due to the job situation).. I overheard Larry tell Doug that he would like to go to Vegas in 1994 and that Doug should let Larry know as soon as they decide, when the date would be as he would like to go. There will be major changes in the personnel in 1994 with Dad and I not going and Larry back with the group.
As it turned out, the Fedak - Fedyk boys Vegas junkets ended in 1993. Although Larry wanted to go in 1996, Doug and Wally scheduled the trip for weekdays, not over the long weekend which Larry would have probably attended. I will probably never go to Vegas again, without Phyllis. With Larry living in San Diego, only a three hour drive to Vegas, possibly he will join Doug and Wally. I have told Donny and Joe that I would take them to Vegas when they are 21, so we could have a big time North Royalton Fedak Vegas junket in a couple of years.
(It happened….that’s another story.)
I'd like to add pictures to the blogs. Jean gave me one of the Vegas group. I'd like some more. Gayle & Al??