I can’t remember putting my thumb out but somehow I was a hitchhiker in a world I knew nothing about and I managed to catch a ride with a busload of poker crazed lemmings heading for the coast. There’s something to be said for staying home, quietly raising children, cooking and cleaning, paying your bills, and slipping quietly through life in a comatose state with no mind ripping memories. That something is “FUCK IT!!” Continue reading Get ready for the ride
All posts by Linda
The haze of history
At times my ability to recall events and even words spoken, is amazing. At other times I find it difficult to put things into any order and decipher when certain things happened. The time spent behind the Oxford bar seems to roll into one dark pool of disgust and loathing. At first I was barely aware of the poker games that were going on in the establishment. Continue reading The haze of history
Despair
Today I went into Pahrump with my son. He went to a couple of the casinos looking for work. I sat down at a 5c keno machine for about an hour while I waited for him to fill out an application and take it back. It was strange. I used to play keno machines every day. Way back when the Mirage first opened, I went every night after work and played – the frequency became less and less. Now it’s been about 4 times in 3 years – and I have no desire. That’s the whole answer to the perplexity of gambling MOI thinks…desire. The sickness of addiction is what pushes the desire and makes it so paramount that you have to do it. Literally, some people HAVE to do it. I’m not sure what drove me at the time, but it left a long time ago. Continue reading Despair
Back to the present
Things seem a bit hectic but maybe it’s me, maybe it isn’t, I’ll just go with the thought that they seem hectic whether they are or not. I made a trip into Las Vegas on Friday – that was yesterday – to pick up my oldest son Dan. He’s going to be staying with me for a bit and look for work out here. His flophouse lifestyle of living was getting to him I suppose…hell if I know. The things my kids do/have done and their lifestyles are not mine but it’s certainly a peek into a completely different world than I live in. I like to know I have a place to live that no one else will show up at any time of day, and that my stuff is reasonably protected and I don’t have to worry about someone taking it out the door to trade/sell it for their next fix, and a variety of other things, like a hot shower and clean sheets. Maybe I’m just too picky. Continue reading Back to the present
Behind the bar
This bartending job was my first experience with people that had serious drinking problems and forced others to share their problems in public places. I had been a cocktail runner some years previous at the Elks Club in Sandpoint Idaho (on the weekend) but I was exposed to people who came in on Friday and Saturday night, mainly married couples, that wanted to dance and party, not sit at the bar and bludgeon their bodies and brain with alcohol. This was a very harsh environment and spiritually depressing but it was a job and I had kids at home and rent to pay. Continue reading Behind the bar
So ya wanna be a bartender…
The OX was open 24 hours a day. The bar was open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. and food was served 24 hours a day. The OX’s claim to fame was Brains & Eggs and listed on the Menu, as ‘He needs em.’ Continue reading So ya wanna be a bartender…
I got a JOB! The Montana Daze
October of 1978 found my ex (we were shacking up for a few years after divorce to see if we could patch it up) heading for northwestern Montana from Hawaii. My sis, Vickie (yuppers, the truck driving land mate of today), and her family lived in Missoula. She was willing to give us a place to stay while we got our feet on the ground. And we jumped…right into the basement of her place, no furniture and only the bags we packed from Hawaii…lounging on the floor and walls just like the cockroaches we had left behind in Hawaii. We had no money and nowhere to go. Continue reading I got a JOB! The Montana Daze
Back to the past
The last post sent me spinning around in the old hallowed halls of my memory and the crazy Montana Poker games began to take shape, losing the dusty wrinkles of being packed away for such a long time. Those were the days when poker was fun, when people had never heard of Facebook and MySpace and cell phones weren’t. Everyone socialized at the poker table and the table was your audience, you had center stage any time you wanted it. Continue reading Back to the past
The poker jigsaw puzzle
Poker has been a major part of my life for a major number of years, longer than a lot of the superstars of today’s poker fame have been alive. It beats me to death at times and I walk away from it when I’m in that frame. I never used to. I went back in a repeating loop to play again for a variety of reasons. As of late I’ve had no desire to play. While I believe a break from poker is a good thing, I continuously think about the amount of money that’s waiting out there to be won. Continue reading The poker jigsaw puzzle
Another chapter closes
It seems like only yesterday that Carmen Bates came to work at the Mirage, and Pete Popovich went from being a chip runner to a part time dealer and then to a brush and floor man. We used to go to the Peppermill one night each week after work and have a drink and talk about the craziness of poker and people and life…one drink running into the next empty glass. For a long time after Pete started on the floor, he used to say, “I can’t believe it! I’m the chip runner with keys!” Continue reading Another chapter closes