Vegas, Baby! — part 1

When the weather was still cold in North Carolina, we flew to Las Vegas, Nevada for my niece's wedding.

We stayed at the Downtown Grand, which was lovely, except that nothing in Vegas is the quoted price. They hit us with significant extra fees before allowing us into our prepaid-online rooms.

Restaurants are expensive, with a mixed-drink around $14. We really liked the Triple George, where we ate and relaxed out on the sidewalk several nights.

Culture shock continued as we ventured beyond the casino-filled lobby and our hotel block. Apparently Vegas laws don't require clothing. At least, not on Freemont Street.

The Downtown pedestrian area was an overwhelming sample of "Sin City," full of lights, casinos, restaurants, and ... strange folk. An overhead light show plays every night, punctuated by screaming zipliners.



Beggars abound. So do artists – both the visual arts and the musical kind – and costumed people posing for photo ops. I liked many of them, from Darth Vader to Bumble Bee (the transformer) to David Bowie.

"Downtown" is the original heart of Vegas, whereas "the Strip" is the newer area filled with mega-hotel-casinos like the Luxor and Ceasar's Palace. We walked all around Downtown, visiting the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop where the reality show Pawn Stars is filmed.

We took a bus tour to the Hoover Dam. Our driver told us how the mafia started Vegas. As law enforcement cracked down and things got too hot for the mob in Chicago and New York, they moved to this desert area where gambling and prostitution were legal. There's a Mob Museum Downtown, but I didn't visit it.

We went down into the dam and power plant. It's amazing how power (and water) for the entire area is still supplied by state-of-the-art 1930s technology. Public areas are decorated with Art Deco carvings and signs.

The dam and newer bridge were very similar to the one I visited last year at Glen Canyon.

Next time: from the depths of the dam to the heights of the towers.

The Little Bookseller

Those of you who "like" Tannery Books' Facebook page know that I had an "assistant bookseller" for a couple of days.

My 4-year-old great-nephew Aidan helped me put away the Christmas tree and I assigned him to the window display. I had borrowed a little snowman and started pulling winter-themed books. Aidan informed me that we needed more kids' books, and he proceeded to fill the display with Dr. Seuss, The Berenstein Bears, and Star Wars. He finished the display all by himself, and did a great job!

Of course, when you're 4, all work and no play make for a dull day. We adopted the philosophy of work-a-little, play-a-little. He played with his new toys while I listed books, and our agenda included an afternoon game of hide-and-seek among the bookshelves (I had no idea my one-room shop had so many hidey places!). And of course, we had to read a few books.

When Nana came to pick him up after work, she was amazed that we hadn't pulled out any of his electronic games 'til after 4 p.m. Even better, the next morning he picked up his packed lunch and told Nana he had "to go to work."

My new apprentice chose classic Dr. Seuss and Thomas the Train for his paycheck. Excellent taste, I must say.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Girl of the Limberlost

I walked into the room and recognized the old book, which had no words on its cloth cover, before I even set my things down. "That looks like Girl of the Limberlost!" I said.

My sister nodded. "It is. I thought you would take good care of it."

Let me explain how sweet this was. The 1909 edition had been given to our mother when she was a teenager; it was inscribed to her in 1944. She had read it and, many years later, my sister had read it. My mom was not a bibliophile like us (Daddy was); she just didn't read novels. The headboard of Mom's bed had a built-in bookshelf, and this was one of the few books, along with the family Bible, that lived there forever. And since it was always there, I came along (a few years later) and read it, too.

Oh, the book is nice - both old and sentimental. But my sister is the treasure.

Snow and books

Was it two weeks ago - when the first big snow came, and they were telling everybody to stay home, and off the roads? I was fine with that. It was the weekend, I had milk, bread and toilet paper, and I was ready to hibernate.

But then I got a call from my sister, who knew the magic words: "Would you like to go to a book sale?" We're not talking about a big box store, we're talking about one of those annual church sales (a synagogue in this case) where you scrounge through tons of books to find treasures. With wine and snacks. Oh, and they would pick me up and I wouldn't even have to drive.

I said, "I'll meet you outside."

Although the crowd was light, Beth David Synagogue in Greensboro had planned this all year and they were going through with their sale. The selection was great, although I finally had to stop looking after almost filling a box. They had everything by major category, and I was thrilled to find a vintage book table. And, thank the Lord, we crazy bibliophiles (yes, it runs in the family) made it home safely, although it took nearly an hour to go 20 miles and we passed several cars abandoned in ditches.

I got a heavy volume of Shakespeare; no date, but it looks late 19th-century, with the gilded cover unusually sharp. A 1962 paperback of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. Another decorative book with the gilt worn off, Don Quixote, undated but the owner wrote 1885. A few Modern Library editions (they had many) - Classical Myths, Oscar Wilde, Jane Eyre and The African Queen.
Some modern ones for me to read: Burning Bright, by Tracy Chevalier; Tears of the Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith; and all three of the Griffin and Sabine series.

Yep, 'looks like I went a little wild. But when they totaled everything up at less than $40, I didn't feel guilty at all. What a great deal!
It's just that ... where am I going to put all these books?

Advent Calendar - Dec. 24, Christmas Eve

As long as I can remember, my mom's side of the family, the MANESS family, has gotten together for Christmas Eve. Just like Thanksgiving, we have a potluck meal with lots of yummy food. When I was very small, we gathered at Mamaw and Papaw's house, but for many years we have taken turns hosting Christmas Eve at different houses. In 1996 I wrote down what food we had: turkey, stuffing, potato and sweet potato casseroles, artichoke dip, pinto beans, salad, pecan pie "and lots more!"

When my generation was little (school-age), each family branch gave us a gift and got a gift for my grandparents. After we grew up and starting having our own families, we drew names at Thanksgiving to give one nice present on Christmas Eve. Last year, we did away with the present thing. The family has grown and sometimes the name drawn would be almost a stranger. Less stress for the women of the family, who tend to do most of the shopping, and for the breadwinners, who save some money.

Again, when we were little, the church held a cantata and candlelight service late on Christmas Eve. Sometimes we went to the service, but 11pm seemed to feel later and later, and as we stopped going, the church changed to a Sunday morning service the week of Christmas. We had a couple of attempts to incorporate the Christmas story into the family gathering - my little cousin performed his own cantata one year. We enjoyed it, but never kept up with a particular tradition.

In 1992, before I knew about scrapbooking, I bought a Christmas book. Every Christmas Eve, we sign our names in it and write down the big events that happened in our family that year.

We always enjoy being together. Our fourth generation has to leave early to celebrate with in-laws, and some have started staying home with their babies. But many of us stick around just to visit. The women gravitate toward the kitchen with cups of coffee for our "hen party," and the men relax in the living room to talk about hunting or cars.

I think as long as my (3rd) generation is able, we will keep gathering on Christmas Eve. We cherish our time together - and good food! - too much to give it up.

Advent Calendar - Dec. 10, Christmas presents

Today's Geneabloggers Advent Calendar prompt brought back a childhood memory. One Christmas morning, I woke up and went to the living room to find what Santa had left me under the tree. At our house, Santa's gifts were never wrapped, but they were set up, assembled and sort of set out in display style.

My Santa gift that year was a Mission Control Center! I was a big fan of the Six Million Dollar Man, and this little facility had a blow-up, clear dome over a space-age looking cardboard set. You could hook up wires, change out pictures in the display screen - no batteries required, back then!

I don't remember which I got that same year, but over time I acquired the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman dolls, and Oscar Goldman and his exploding briefcase!

December, already

Whew! I did that thing we think we're too old to do anymore - stay up late almost every night the last part of November! Nanowrimo is over now, but I'm still exhausted. I didn't quite make my goal of 25,000 words, but I met my real goal of adding lots of needed scenes as I revised my draft from Nov. 2008. I finished with just over 20,000 words, and got virtual pats on the back for it being all handwritten. Several people that I met at the coffee-shop write-ins won this year, cranking out 50K on their laptops and Neos - way to go!! And, we drank lots of coffee and had fun.

Now, what? First, I'm trying to catch up on sleep. Second, I'm back to reading. Writing is great, but that fire needs fuel and books are a good source.

Today I saw that Geneabloggers has an idea for people who are writing more about their ancestors than about their own lives: an Advent Calendar of blog prompts. Although I missed Dec. 1, I'm going to answer the one about Christmas trees. Here's a picture version of the calendar.

When I was small, we had one of those aluminum, silver trees. I think we may have hung a few ornaments on it, but it didn't need any extra glitter or sparkle. We had one of those rotating lights that hypnotically turned it into different colors (the 60s version of a lava lamp!). Somewhere in our family's collection is a photograph of me with my "Dancerina" doll, lit only by the red glow of that light.

(The link is to someone else's YouTube video; we didn't have videos back then.)

A day for aunts

I didn't plan it this way, but yesterday became a day of aunts - and what a blessing it was.

First, I spent a couple of hours with my maternal aunt, Florence, who is recuperating from surgery. We chatted and visited until my uncle came home, not quite as long a visit as yesterday, when I spent the whole afternoon.

Then I came home to pick up my paternal aunt, Dianne, for a little road trip. She had invited me to go see a play in Sanford, N.C., and we made a fun "girls' night" out of it.

On the way, we stopped to see my great-aunt (maternal), Mary. She's very sick, but I hadn't seen her in a year and her town is on the way. She is amazing. Even when she tells me about her illness, she smiles. She was a missionary to China during World War II and spent two years as a prisoner of war. We talked about her careers after that, as a preacher and then a teacher. Dianne had never met her, and told me how glad she was that I had taken her along. It was hard to leave Aunt Mary, but we went on to Sanford to see the play at the Temple Theater.

Today is both Florence and Mary's birthday; Mary is 93 years old. I am so thankful for my wonderful family!

Camping and reading

Just got back from a nice weekend RV camping with my sister and her husband. Quiet time in the woods. Finished "Books," by Larry McMurtry - enjoyed the adventures of another bibliophile, who not only loves to read, but has spent a lifetime as a bookseller.