I lived in Nevada for several years back in the 80′s and I loved it especially Reno because it was a smaller city than Las Vegas and the people were also a lot friendlier. It was a party all the time, but it was very sad to see all of the homeless people and it wasn’t very pleasant to see people lose everything they had. They have pawn shops all over the place and people would also actually sell their cars for more money to gamble with.

At the time it was a big adventure for me. I tried Las Vegas first, but couldn’t find a job. I joined the Culinary Union and got my health card, but it was back when the MGM had burned down and so many people were out of work. I would have loved to have stayed in one of those fancy las vegas suites, but couldn’t afford that. Instead I lived in one of the cheap motels for about a month before I was forced to find work in Reno.

The very day I got to Reno I found a job in a small casino called The Colonial on Arlington. I was waitressing there and they had a good reputation for their food so we had a good clientele among the casino workers and were always busy. I made very good money in Reno and had a ball for 3 years, but it got old and I returned to a more stable life where the streets rolled up after a certain time of night, I’ll never regret those years though.