Columnist Susan Snyder: To others, we’re quite fascinating

Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2000 | 9:11 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Tuesdays, Sundays and Fridays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

When you live in Las Vegas, venturing out into the world on vacation is like looking into a big, full-length mirror.

You see your town as others see it.

We just returned from a weeklong bicycle tour through Alberta, Canada. We stared in slack-jawed amazement at glaciers, thick fir forests and lakes of gem-quality blues and green.

And the locals, upon finding out we were from Las Vegas, stared in wonderment at us.

"You're from Las Vegas?" one hotel desk clerk asked as we tried to book a room for the night. "I looooove Las Vegas!"

Yes, yes, and we'd love a room with a hot shower and actual sheets, seeing as how it dropped below freezing in the old tent last night. So why don't we book a room first and talk about slot machines later, 'K?

It is odd to live in a place everyone figures they already know. We used to live in Utah. That information typically elicited a polite, "Oh," followed by a lingering look. It was as if they were waiting for tails or horns or something to appear.

But tell people you live in Las Vegas and watch their faces. Their eyes light up and they get this silly look as if they're waiting for the punch line. Then it's instant familiarity. Everyone has been here or hopes to visit here, it seems.

Take the young Swiss couple we met while camping along the Icefields Parkway. We shared coffee and conversation around the comfort of a wood-burning stove. He spoke some English. She spoke none. Yet both knew of and hoped to visit "Las Vegas." It's almost a universal term -- for what, we never were quite sure.

Some people were actually apologetic about not having visited yet or coming here and not gambling away their retirement.

We stopped to talk with an older couple from Michigan while walking around a milky blue-green glacial lake and listening to loons coming in at dusk. The couple said they spent most of last winter in Las Vegas.

"But, I hate to tell you we didn't spend much of our money in the casinos," the woman said in a hushed, apologetic tone. "We did the historical and educational things, like the M&Ms tour."

Yeah, that's us. More culture than a petri dish.

Those who haven't been here were intensely curious. Robert, the guy who shuttled us and our gear at the end of the tour, wanted to know how much of the movie "Casino" was accurate.

"You know the defense attorney?" I said. "Well he played himself. And he's now our mayor."

Robert giggled and shook his head.

I then told him about Oscar Goodman proudly showing reporters the label inside the tailor-made suit he wore to greet President Clinton in November.

"It's a mob suit," Goodman had said. "A client had it made for me."

We watched the postcard-perfect peaks pass by our windows. And Robert chuckled as we described billon-dollar hotels, red rock canyons, grocery store slot machines, dancing fountains and Hoover Dam.

OK, it sounded a little odd. But people figure they already know us, so there's no convincing them that the "real" Las Vegas isn't weird.

They would be so disappointed.