My sisters and a brother-in-law are visiting us in Las Vegas for a week. My sister, who lives in Puerto Rico, was going to bring a granddaughter with them but she was unable to take time off from work. My sister was telling us how excited the granddaughter was at the prospect of visiting Las Vegas. She said it was her dream to visit Vegas.
I thought about what a 20-something would do in Vegas with her grandmother, grandfather, great aunts and great uncle. Las Vegas is essentially three places: Casinos and madness, a quiet life in the suburbs and the mountains all around with Hoover Dam thrown into the mix. I’m afraid that my grandniece would be disappointed had she visited.
We did go to the mountains and the red rocks and Hoover Dam. We did stay at home quietly talking and eating the great cooking at which my sisters excel. We did drive by the casinos to look at the ugliness of daytime Las Vegas architecture. We did drive by at night to marvel at the beauty of nighttime Las Vegas architecture.
We did not go into any of the casinos to experience the gambling nor did we go to the many clubs, where we would probably have been denied entrance. Denied entrance because we would have taken up room reserved for the young and beautiful.
My grandniece would probably want to go to one or more the many nightclubs frequented by her generation. But grandma would probably not approve of her going alone in a strange city. So the poor kid would probably have wound up bored for a week of hanging with the old people looking at red rocks and dams.
I’m reminded of the Benjamin Franklin saying that “Fish and visitors smell in three days”. This saying would have not have applied to our visitors. We love it when my sisters visit. My grandniece would have applied the saying to us thinking that we old people were the ones who “smelled in three days.”
Some would say we smell in just one day.
Have a safe and Happy Independence Day. Please take time to remember what this day represents and the whose sacrifices provided the reason for this day. Enjoy your beer and hotdogs.
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