Columnist Ruthe Deskin: Memories don’t cost too much

Ruthe Deskin

Thursday, July 12, 2001 | 8:18 a.m.

Ruthe Deskin is assistant to the publisher. Reach her at deskin@ lasvegassun.com.

What a difference the years make.

I can remember buying a house in the old Huntridge area for $8,000. It was sold for $15,000. That same residence, almost 50 years later, would demand a minimum of $50,000.

We purchased another house for $21,500, and later sold it for $90,000. Today it would bring at least $115,000.

The same formula is true of everything from groceries to cars. A box of cereal sold for 50 cents. Buy it today for $3-plus.

Salaries for government jobs were listed at $1,800 annually. Students worked at drive-ins or Woolworths for 25 cents an hour.

We've come a long way from those days, but remembering them is one reason for being a bit bedazzled listening to our county commissioners discuss the salary to be paid new Clark County Manager Thom Reilly. How glibly the sums were tossed around from a peak of $193,000 to the final agreement of $160,000.

Surely some teachers, nurses and other professionals make annual salaries around $30,000 per year must have wondered about their career choices. You get what you pay for, one commissioner claimed. But, oh my!

Soon the University Board of Regents will be in the process of boosting Dr. Carol Harter's salary and benefits.

Oh, my.

If our mayor and City Council can explain, perhaps I can understand why a baseball stadium is a desirable element for the development of the 61-acre parcel in downtown Las Vegas.

Forget the rather hasty and even unusual manner in which the proposal of Southwest Sports Group was accepted; just consider the need for the baseball stadium when Cashman Field offers a viable alternative, with a few improvements.

Professional sports in Las Vegas haven't fared too well. Franchises have come with fanfare and failed. Do our city officials really believe a new stadium can make the difference between success and failure?

The entire matter reminds me of an old saying:

"It may be so, but I don't know. It sounds so gosh-darn queer. I hate like heck to tell you so, but, you can't peddle that in here."

Who would not sympathize with parents over the death of a child? But one has to wonder when a stupid, parental mistake is the cause. Just how can a parent "forget" a baby is strapped in the car seat in this abominable heat?

I remember when a local humane society plastered car windshields with notices that heat kills pets in locked cars -- children, too.

A note signed "tough customer" suggests we solve the gang and drive-by shooting problems by putting all the gang members in a holding cell on the city's downtown property, give them guns and let them fire away.

No comment.

A bit of trivia for newcomers, who have been led to believe Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo was the first Las Vegas Strip casino:

That honor goes to the El Rancho Vegas, which opened April 3, 1941, and was destroyed by fire in 1960. Nothing remains but a valuable patch of land at Sahara and the Strip.