The Night Abe Became Andrew

   The Night Abe Became Andrew

Suzanne Marsh

The load of a lifetime: Las Vegas. I could just envision all the lights and sounds, the casinos, the inexpensive food. I just could not contain myself. My husband is a truck driver and at the time an owner operator. I was the one that took the loads and made the arrangements. I happily made the one for Las Vegas. I had seen Viva Las Vegas with Elvis Presley; that was my idea of Vegas. Well, twilight city was exactly what I thought. Oh, it might have set my soul on fire except that were delivering to a convention center with a huge commercial driver. However, that did not stop me from staring out the truck window and watching places like: Caesars’ Palace, Excalibur and New York, New York go by.

I had arranged to have a short layover in Vegas. We decided to spend fifty dollars and no more. We parked in the truck at a truck stop then walked to Excalibur. The first thing that greeted me, were the one-armed bandits. I had heard the term frequently and decided I would try my hand. I had no idea nickels could disappear that quickly. I was amazed to watch people go through money like it was tap water. I wasn’t thinking that I was doing the same thing. I shot ten dollars in less than ten minutes. I don’t that is any kind of record, but one never knows.

Moving on to Caesar’s Palace the first thing we saw was a huge state of Caesar. It was dusk at that point and there was a light show; that was really enjoyable. Once again, we went into the casino, spreading our wealth of now thirty-five dollars. The one arm bandits are almost addicting. I put a quarter in one and son of a gun and got a return of a dollar. I guess I am the last of the big gamblers. I put another quarter in and once again I heard the clank of change. I made three dollars. This was fun up to a certain extent. I watched as silver poured out of these things. One woman won over a thousand dollars. She got so excited she raced out of the casino with a guard chasing madly after her with her bucket of money. I wish...that had me however I was up to thirty-eight dollars, which of course was burning a hole in my pocket. I put another quarter in, pulled down the handle only to lose my quarter.

My husband took me by the arm, and we walked to New York, New York. I am not a roller coaster person; I get sick looking out a second story window. My husband convinced me it would be fun to ride on the roller coaster. It goes in and out of New York, New York, it was like being on a subway in New York City. We got off of that, my head reeling and my face white, I think there are several of my fingernails embedded in the roller coaster seat. Frankly, I was ready to play the one-armed bandits once again. My husband was beginning to wonder if I was obsessed with them. I will

admit that they intrigued me, and I really wanted to win something while I was there.

Once again, we gambled, my husband did better than I did, we had enough money to buy dinner. That was something in and of itself. Fun does have its limitations. We walked back to the truck; it was time to call it a night. We had a pickup for noon but with a wee bit of compromise, I settled for breakfast at Excalibur.

We walked back to Excalibur the following morning. The breakfast buffet looked fantastic. The best part was we didn’t have to eat in the truck. That was a rare privilege since most times we were waiting to load or unload. Things were looking up. I could smell bacon and ham. Eggs naturally entered the picture. Real orange juice, coffee and tea. Danish for a small, sweet treat at breakfast. I noted there was a show going on with a falconer. He had a beautiful falcon that perched on his arm. This was infinitely more interesting than the one-armed bandits. I never did try “blackjack” now I wish I had. We walked around for several hours. Eleven o’clock we were headed into a small cafe on the next to New York, New York.

I done my gambling and was satisfied to sit and just watch people roaming around just as we were doing. It was almost time to pick up our load, so we strode back to the truck. My husband fired it up and away we went. We were headed for California on Interstate 15. I hated the thought of leaving. There were so many more casinos to see and basically investigate but trucking does not often give you time to sightsee. This was no exception. The load was not ready when we got there. About five o’clock, we decided to go into the small casino and have dinner. It was set in the fifties theme. Red and white tables and table clothes. It was a hamburger place but who cares when you are hungry and no idea when you are going to get to leave.

I had somehow stuck a five-dollar bill in my jacket pocket; to this day I am not sure whether I won it, or it was simply the last of our gambling money. In any event it was five dollars. We sat and waited for the waitress. She took our order, then asked if we would like to play Keno. Boarded with simply sitting there, my husband winked at me, and I handed over the five-dollar bill. I marked the numbers I wanted to play. The waitress took it and brought our dinners. She returned shortly with a ten-dollar bill. Son of a gun Abraham Lincoln had turned into Andrew Jackson. She asked me if I wanted to play again:

“No, I finally one more than a dollar. I’ll just keep the ten.”