Friday, May 13, 2005 | 6:26 a.m.
Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.
WEEKEND EDITION
May 14 - 15, 2005
Where did the time go?
I can't believe it has been 100 years since the first piece of downtown was sold at auction, starting Las Vegas down a path that would take it from a sleepy little railroad stop in the desert Southwest to an all-American city and the envy of the modern world.
Of course, I wasn't here when that gavel dropped a century ago and some of the town's most respected names bought their piece of an American dream that keeps others awake all night trying to duplicate what we have grown, but I remember the stories that put names to faces and families that we learned about in the very early days of the second half of Las Vegas' centennial years.
I have trouble trying to figure out where the best part of the last century went as I and my peers look back on a Las Vegas that grew from 16,000 people following World War ll to well over 1.6 million today. For that matter, I have trouble trying to figure out where last year went!
Yesterday, my sister Janie joined a couple dozen brave young women who marched in the Helldorado Parade as former Las Vegas High School Rhythmettes and suddenly the decades disappeared, as did their ability to high-kick and march in unison. Most people today have no idea what the Rhythmettes were, but back in the day, somewhere between 1949 and the late 1960s, Evelyn Stuckey and Joyce Shamley were personally responsible for creating what was arguably the best high school drill and dance team in the country. The Radio City Rockettes had nothing on Stuckey's girls and everyone in this town knew it.
The fact that most of the girls marching Saturday are at least grandmothers is a tribute to the self-confidence and sense of achievement that was instilled in these girls at a time in their lives when such character builders were essential. And speaking of Evelyn Stuckey, when is the Clark County School Board going to recognize the selfless contributions she made to the fabric of this city and the quality of so many young people's lives by naming a school after her?
Many of you had never heard of Helldorado until this year. That's because it went the way of most things in a small town when progress and a lack of institutional knowledge seem to overtake any desire to maintain roots as most newcomers clamor for bigger and better and most oldtimers tire of trying to hold on to what was so good about the past.
I remember when the Helldorado Parade was the biggest event of the year. People from across the county lined Fremont Street (those of us who were lucky enough got to sit high up on the second floors of the gambling joints that actually had a second floor) to watch the Shriners, the marching bands and the beautiful floats representing our tourist economy travel down what was one of the few paved streets of our youth.
Helldorado Days imbued us all with a sense of pride in this community. It gave us an opportunity to visit with our friends and neighbors -- all of whom we knew -- and it connected us to a past only a few of us experienced and a future for which all of us yearned. It would be nice if Helldorado's success this year would mark its return for today's young people to enjoy.
All that was last century. In this century, specifically Thursday night, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Thomas Friedman spoke to a jammed-packed audience at Artemus Ham Hall on the campus of UNLV. Fifty years ago the name Ham was well-known and respected. Fifty years ago, what is now becoming a well-respected university was called Nevada Southern University on good days and Tumbleweed Tech on most others. We have, indeed, come a long way.
And what did Friedman have to say to the close to 2,000 people who came to listen (almost all of whom weren't here when the Rhythymettes were kicking up a fuss)? He talked about the world flattening out so much that students in India and China were vying for our jobs. Not the industrial ones of the last 100 years but the knowledge-based jobs of this brand new century. Las Vegas grew up in an American 20th Century. In this new one, we will need all the luck and skill just to hold our own.
To keep things in perspective, the city of Split in Croatia just celebrated its 1,700th birthday. There is a lot of history in Split. All that means is that we in Las Vegas are just getting started. So as we look forward to all that life and hard work and opportunity can bring, we should do so with an eye toward the past, because not everything that once was is worthy of forgetting.
So Happy Birthday, Las Vegas. Here's to at least 1,700 more, complete with Helldorado, Rhythmettes, parades and everything else that makes a good city a great one. And here's to our ability to remember it all.
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