Have you reminisced on your Vegas memories?

I completely forgot about that, but you’re absolutely right - nine times out of ten the cab drivers would actually ask you which route they should take. Same thing with pickups at the airport to the north strip - LVB or Paradise Road? At the time I never thought anything about it. I also remember actually hailing a cab on the strip itself on several occasions.

Since we’re in the way back machine, who remembers tumbleweed constantly blowing from west to east on the strip? It used to pile up so much at the Desert Inn that they’d have to send out crews every once in a while to dispose of it.

 

Anyone remember the strike at The Frontier?!?!

 

It lasted the entire decade!

 

You get a better tan from the east side of the street anyway!

 

I remember them, but not them piling up at the DI... guess they always had 'em cleaned up when I'd get there.
They also used to blow across the north-side parking-lot/barracks area of the Stardust. I could see them from my cinder-block framed window!

 

reading posts like topcard's is why when I invent my time machine 80's Vegas will be one of my first stops... I was a late Vegas bloomer, first trip at 34 in '97...

 

Quick pic, topcard's version of the strip in 1990 (modified from one found on vintagelasvegas.com). You can spot all of the casinos I mentioned in my post, plus some!

Edited to use this pic... you can better see the casinos (except in 1990, the Silver Slipper was gone).

 

The one constant I get from this picture is the signage potential for the Neon Museum!

 

Uh, that can't be 1990! I'm VERY sure that Venetian and TI were not there in 1990.

 

You're right, but that was the date I thought was provided on the link I used. Might have been my misreading it too.
I'm sure that the actual year of that pic is is 1999. https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/index.php?posts/1803825/.

 

Great thread.

My first trip to Vegas was summer of 2005. We ended up going with a large group of friends and some extended family members - all in I think there were 13 or 14 of us. We were staying at MGM and at the same time, my grandparents were on a European trip, and were in the UK then. My grandfather always entrusted me the most in our family, so I had his itinerary and contact info for the hotels, train and ferry schedules, etc. in case of emergency. He also knew I could bail him out should there be any unexpected delays, changes in plans, and what not.

It was the eve of my bday and we all went out and partied hard. Ended up closing the night at Coyote Ugly at NYNY. We were all smashed. Awesome night and it went into the AM hours pretty far. I get back to the room, my soon to be wife at the time went into the bathroom and I plop on the bed and turn on the TV haphazardly to CNN of all things. Breaking news - the terrorist attacks in London, the buses and subways, one of which being King's Crossing. Here I am unable to form a sentence let alone do math and I'm re-reading my grandparents itinerary - train and King's Crossing lined up perfectly with the timing of the bombing. I mean - there was a legitimate expectation that this was their train based on the arrival and departure times. I'm watching all of this unfold for the most part live and I'm falling apart. My mother was with us on this trip so we woke her up and everything started to sink in. Getting contact was impossible back then with the disaster. I was inconsolable. Drunk.

Every single one of my friends, got back off their beds after being passed out, each drunk and starting to feel hangover effects, piled into my room and watched CNN until the sun came up. It took 25 hours to hear my grandparents voices - thankfully their train was delayed about 5 minutes and the bombing was only a short distance away. Miracle. Had they been on time they were told, that it would have been tragic. It took forever to get through but finally they showed up at the hotel to receive the call messages.

That night/early morning, with so many people packed into that room watching a hotel TV, all smashed but together, supporting me - I will never forget that. I felt loved and cared for to an unimaginable degree. We also lit that town up the day we got ahold of my grandparents! Ha! I only hope I can repay the favor some day.

 

The strike was on when I first moved to Las Vegas in 1991. It soon became my go-to casino.
BJ was single deck and they did not shuffle up unless you tripled your bet from the last hand.
Card counters heaven!

Played there on NYE that year. After ringing in the New Year, the pit bosses went to each BJ table and made the dealer bust on the next hand. Pit boss said the Frontier wanted you to win your first hand of the new year.

They had a great seafood buffet on Fridays.

 

That’s cool about the pit bosses letting the players ring in the new year with a win.

I used to go there a lot in the 80s when I was staying next door at the Stardust. One thing I remember from those days was that they had a little place, later on a cart, that served up incredible all-beef chili dogs. Between that and the great deals on lunches at the Westward Ho, on the other side of the Stardust, lunches were quick, inexpensive and tasty.

 

Don't think I went in during the strike. I do remember a trip in the late 90s when a bud and I went in for dinner at Gilley's. He had a great t-bone and my beef/pork rib combo was too. Probably my only time inside.

 

Pretty much. It's always that first trip. I still remember crossing the border into Nevada for the first time and putting literal pocket change into a slot machine at the first gas station we stopped at.

I also remember going down the Vegas strip for the first time and being amazed how it's was actually bigger and grander than I expected. Contrast that to where we had just come from (Hollywood) which was very much the exact opposite.

 

Every now and then i like going through my old TRs for a trip down memory lane. Ive been avoiding that during the pandemic because it also starts the drumbeat for wanting to go again.

 

I was taking a walk during the strike. As I passed the semi-circular entrance to the then Las Vegas Hilton, there were strikers marching on both sides and s-l-o-w-l-y crossing the entrance to it. A well dressed woman in a white Cadillac hit the gas and sped through the strikers. It was a miracle that nobody was injured.