Where I Stand: Main Street Station rises again — in grand, Victorian fashion

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

GET READY FOR a happy occasion.

How sad it was when the Main Street Station in downtown Las Vegas couldn't quite make the grade and had to close its doors after a very short operating time.

The place was a veritable museum of lovely antiques and Victorian elegance, but that wasn't enough to keep customers coming.

For several years the place sat dark and silent, until the Boyd Gaming Corp. came along.

Monday night, members of the press got a preview of the refurbished and regenerated Main Street Station and it lived up to the excellence we have grown to expect from the Boyd operators.

With a Victorian train station as the theme, the new Main Street Station boasts of a collector's dream of antiques and replicas from the turn of the century.

Era-vintage street lamps from Brussels, Belgium, set the tone for visitors as they enter the station. Antique rail cars are on display. Inside, ornately carved mahogany cabinetry and blown-glass windows accent the theme.

Among the rare treasures are glass doors from Lillian Russell's mansion in Pennsylvania, bronze doors from the Kuwait Royal Bank of London, a chandelier from Figaro Opera House in Paris and teller windows from the Barclay Bank of London.

Main Street Station is truly a "must see and must enjoy" addition to downtown Las Vegas.

My conclusion is that Main Street Station is here to stay.

Apparently I wasn't the only one annoyed by the political pollsters who invaded the homes of citizens with their telephone queries.

In reply to a recent item in this column in which I expressed my displeasure with the calls I was receiving during the election campaign, Elizabeth Peterson wrote about the problems she had.

"I totally agree with you regarding the abuse of the telephone from pollsters. I would like to share my experience with you. I can laugh now, but it wasn't funny a couple of weekends ago.

"I am 75 percent hearing impaired with a dog trained to hear for me. My telephone answering machine is in the living room. I have my computer in another room.

"When the phone onslaught started on the Sunday you mention, the dog kept running to and fro to tell me the phone was ringing. After bobbing up and down from my computer a few times, I turned the bell and the voice control off of the answering machine. When the dog continued to tell me the phone was ringing I realized that she could hear the click on the machine. It was a no-win situation. Nine o'clock in the evening the calls were still coming. I admitted defeat. I switched off the computer, and took the dog to bed with me.

"How do you tell a hearing dog to take the day off?"

Now, if the dog could just pick up the phone and say, "Thanks, but I gave at the office."

A friend tells me of a recent visit to Plantworld to pick up some rose bushes.

A large cat was sitting on the counter near the cashier. He meowed for attention, so she picked him up to pet him.

Another meow was heard. She asked the attendant if they had another cat and he pointed to a brightly colored parrot, explaining that the bird was meowing and did so each time he heard the cat meow.

The parrot meowed a couple of more times and the attendant said, "That bird really has an identity problem."

It might be easy to sympathize with all the millionaire star entertainers who bemoan the loss of private life to the intrusions of pesky photographers.

Then again, what would they do if no one paid any attention to their pecadillos?

Nov. 24-30 has been proclaimed National Family Week.

As we ponder the present and future of families in America, an old prayer, whose author I do not know, might be in order.

"We thank you, O God, for our family and for what we mean and bring to each other. We are grateful for the bonds of loyalty which bind us and which keep us close to one another no matter how far apart we may be.

"We thank you for implanting within us a deep need for each other, and for giving us the capacity to love and care.

"Help us to be modest in our demands of one another, but generous in our giving to each other. May we never measure how much love and encouragement we offer; may we never count the times we forgive and that we are able to express our love in acts of kindness.

"Keep us gentle in our speech. When we offer words of criticism may they be chosen with care and spoken softly. May we waste no opportunity to speak words of sympathy, of appreciation, of praise.

"Bless our family with health, happiness and contentment. Above all, grant us the wisdom to build a joyous and peaceful home in which your spirit will always abide."

On Tuesday, 860 Clark County high school students will invade the Las Vegas Convention Center for the annual SUN Youth Forum.

The event won't make headline news in the media, but it gives all of us who are involved with the students a great deal of satisfaction to realize that the majority of our students are morally responsible, intelligent young men and women.

From Cy Peace:

"By the time many a man discovers that money doesn't grow on trees, he's already way out on a limb."