Letter: Longtime Las Vegas Valley resident yearns for past

Wednesday, July 1, 1998 | 10:21 a.m.

Casinos with an 18-cent breakfast. You could eat three meals a day for $35 a week. Playing penny slots and winning $20 gold pieces on Fremont Street. Driving from one side of town to the other in 20 minutes. You didn't read a book while waiting for a light to change to green. No triple left turn lanes.

Having a drink with Sinatra in the lounge. Car insurance payments based on accidents you had, not ZIP codes. House payments for next to nothing. Sleep with your doors unlocked.

Rob a casino? Boy, that's a first. Better hope the police found you first or there would never be taxpayer money wasted on your court appearances. No Jesse James robbing banks.

Two-story casinos where firemen didn't have to play Jack and the Beanstalk. If you needed work, a casino owner would usually help you. These were some of the good ol' boys of Vegas that knew what tough times were. Most all of the nostalgia is gone.

Seems like now everyone wants only to be the biggest and the best. Where? In the Las Vegas Valley, of course. So if I had my druthers, I still love those thrilling days of yesteryear when the city was small and Fletcher Jones Sr. was advertising on TV to help the animals in Las Vegas.

Those were the days. What great memories for the long time resident here.

Charles A. Hagen