Native Pleasures

Friday August 22, 2008
Mohegan Sun Reservation
Clinton, CT

One of the best things that ever happened to me was that the Native Americans got sovereignty in Connecticut. I believe that’s the right term. Anyhow, that allowed them to erect a monumental casino in a non-gambling state and make so much money with it that they erected a second casino just down the road, which is where I am at this very moment.

I would say that for me it’s a return to civilization, but you’d probably think I was nuts if you saw the crowd. That’s not very nice, but remember that I am including myself in that group.

This is not the glamorous group in ermine and pearls who frequented Las Vegas once upon a time. This is the short-shorts and tank top crowd, and that’s just the men. They come to smoke, gamble and eat, in that order. There’s not a whole lot of drinking. You want to be perfectly sober when you throw the mortgage payment and the baby-food money on that table. You want to be in your right mind when you cash in your life insurance policy and say the heck with the damn cancer as you light up another smoke.

But despite the fact that I contributed to the wealth to the tune of $100 in just under twenty minutes – blame my guilt over the miscegenation of my forebears, even though they were digging up taties in Ireland when this all went down -- I had a great time.

I paid twice the normal price for a pedicure in the spa and scraped the polish off two toes on my way out the door. I had a warm martini in a noisy bar, and went on to a lovely dinner that I could not eat because I was so full of pretzels from the martini bar.

But what made it all worthwhile was enjoying it all with our good friends Pam and Dick who were there for the Beach Boys Concert. We decided not to go, but later regretted our decision when we heard that everybody there was our age and that they were throwing beach balls around the concert hall. I always hate missing a chance to be silly.

We slept in the parking lot. (Remember, this is an RV story). And in the motor home just behind our bedroom window, a little puppy yipped non-stop for over five hours. YIP-YIP PAUSE YIP-YIP PAUSE YIP-YIP ETC. And guess whose owner decided to stay out until three in the morning? I hope they lost their shirts. Not really, but I was glad to leave the little yipper behind all the same.

Later that day, we were at Dick and Pam’s when they got the news that their daughter Sarah had just gotten engaged in California. That news was almost better than breaking the bank at Mohegan, but if I had broken the bank, I sure would have sent them a nice big engagement gift. As it is, they’ll have to be happy with a nice big card. Fixed income and all that.

Besides, that $100 I lost was the food money for the week. John will just have to learn to love Cheerios for dinner.
Betty