Vegas

This was the fist time I was ever on a plane. Back in those days the planes were big , really big. I remember our seats facing each other, sort of the way it's pictured when you see the inside of Air Force 1. Landing in Vegas was surreal, the strip ,the hotels, all in the middle of a desert. Who could of envisioned that. We stayed at the Tropicana Hotel, which at the time was one of the best hotels on the strip, who cared where we stayed, we were in Vegas baby!!! My brother, Sammy and me were in one room, and my father and mom stayed in another, as things turned out that was a good thing. Two 16 year old maniacs and my 12 year old brother, who was constantly being thrown out of the casino for paying the slot machines. Sammy and I were smart enough to have a lookout while the other one pulled the one arm bandit. We didn't get thrown out of the casino, but I think after 4 days the security guards got wise to our plans and by the last day they were on us. One night as we were going into our room we noticed a lot of noise coming from one of the room at the end of the hallway, we looked down and one of the people in the room was calling us to come down. So Sammy and I looked at each other and said "PARTY" LET'S GO!!!. As we entered the room we noticed this room was a lot different that our room. First it had a living room with couches, other rooms inside this room, a bar and many, many pretty girls all over these guys. Sammy and I grew up in the Bronx and were pretty street smart, we put two and two together real fast and came to the conclusion everyone reading this would......say no more. All the guys in the room looked like business types and one of them even showed me a check written to him for 200,000 dollars. Remember this is 1971, 200,000 dollars was like a million today. It was more zero's that I ever saw on a check. The guys offered us what ever we wanted. We stayed awhile thanked the guys for their hospitably and when to our room to discuss what just happened. At age 16 you could imagine what was going through our minds. That same night my father had tickets to the see Bobby Darin, a well known Vegas entertainer, his famous song was "Mac the Knife", but before the show we had to eat. My father told us we were going to the Bacchanal Room in Ceasers Palace. Ok.??...we didn't know the difference between the Bacchanal Room or any other room at this point in our lives. We got in the cab and drove to Ceasers Palace. As we entered the gates it was as if we were transported back in time to the Roman ages. Ornate fountains, Roman Guards, and women dressed in "I Dream of Jeannie" costumes....man this is going to be good!!! We we entered the restaurant, I thought we made a wrong turn because the restaurant had a summing pool in the middle of it with more "I Dream of Jeannie" girls serving the customers. At 16 years of age, I thought I died and went to heaven, to this day I still look at pictures of this place. Sammy kept telling me this is unbelievable, they served us a seven course meal which include wine and beer. I guess my father thought this night would be my growing up night, my entrance to adulthood, my experience into adulthood. So he let me and Sammy partake in the beverages that were on the table. This was great food, wine, beer and women dressed like Barbara Eden,( one of my all time favorites). What could get better than this. I stuffed myself and drank to a point of feeling no pain. That's when it all turned bad. During the cab ride over to the Bobby Darin show I developed a headache that I thought was going to split my head open. We entered the theater and my father must of greased the head waiter and got the best seat for the show, dead center 3 rows back. By this time my head was hurting so bad that I just wanted to lay down and die, so I put my head on the table to try to alleviate the pain. What I didn't know was that Bobby Darin had an opening act. A it turned out the opening act was a Chinese Drum Troop with about 1,000 drummers banging drums like maniacs. My head was splitting before this, you could imaging how it felt when they started to bang the drums. This was the most excruciating pain I have ever felt up to this point in my life. I had to get out of there, but NO!!! My father made sure I was going to me a man and if a man drinks to much, it is his responsibility to deal with it, and he made sure I dealt with it. I felt that I was trapped in that booth for 100 hours. My mother and Father went to see Bobby Darin and they were going to stay until the last song. This became torture after the first hour. He kept asking me if I needed anymore to drink and the more he asked the more nauseous I got. It was a miracle I didn't throw up that night...or did I? We went back to the Hotel about 2:00AM and I couldn't wait to get into the bed. I woke up about 4:00AM and as I entered the bathroom, I felt something very slimy under my feet. Somebody puked and I couldn't remember if it was me or not, then it dawned on me that Sammy was drinking too. He puked all over the bathroom. Even the maids were cursing at him. We packed our bags and headed home. My life's education continued.........

As sophomore season began we had a coaching change, Mike Dorney replaced John Houlihan, which was a good thing because Mike Dorney was also the gym teacher and he was fond of his football players and gave us preferential treatment( if there was such a thing at The Mount.) My mentor Hugh Glassey was still our other coach and that gave me the edge at wide receiver. As the football season began we stared to win some games and I think we won our first 3 games. We had championship dreams. The QB Kevin and I were clicking on all cylinders we were scoring at will and our defense was holding teams down. Sophomore year was also a tough year, we had to take Geometry (who in the heck was going to use this), Spanish (it was a good thing our kicker George Girata was in that class that year or we all would of failed Spanish. We developed this code when we had to take a test. I am not going to reveal the code because it probably is still in use at The Mount. We were always on edge when George would be absent, we prayed that Brother wouldn't throw a pop quiz at us or we would all be screwed. This was he same year, Sammy DePaolo's, (my best friend to this day), step-brother Stevie was caught in the library by Brother (No one knew his real name so we just called him Brother Library) copying phony draft cards, he got thrown out of school. That also put a crimp in the cash flow of my friend so we had to find alternate avenues of revenue. We always had this entrepreneurial side to us in high school. Money was hard to come by so sometimes we had to improvise to stay ahead. I had to survive on two dollars a day. That was my allowance. That would buy you two hot dogs, french fries, something to drink and a snack. During this time of our lives and with this type of diet you could imagine how many pimples we had on our faces. Stridex, Clearsil, Alcohol could not hold back the onslaught of acne. Our only saving grace was that there were no girls in or school or this would of been a fate worse that death. As the football season wore on we lost a few games and and won a few more , I think we wound up at 5-3, not the championship we envisioned but better that last year. As the school year continued we started to prepare for finals. Right after the year ended my family was going to take a trip to Vegas and I invited Sammy to come, but there was one hitch, Sammy needed at least 65 on the Math regents. If he didn't get that mark or better he was headed to summer school and no Vegas for Sammy. I remember taking that final in The Mount's Gym. It was about 100 degrees in that place and we had a lot riding on this test. If Sammy didn't pass I would of got stuck going with my parents and little brother, that would be no fun. The test ended and we meet outside and I asked Sammy how he did, he told me it didn't look good....no Elvis. no Follies Berger, no jackpots. We were only 15 at the time but we had visions of gambling, girls, and money in our heads. We had to wait a week before Mr. Ciola would mark the test. To make matters worse, Sammy wasn't Mr. Ciolo's favorite student, if you get my drift. That was the longest week of our lives . Finally Sammy was notified that he got a 64 and 1/2. What the heck did that mean ? By the rules Ciola had to give him a 65......Viva Las Vegas......Viva Las Vegas......Viva, Viva, Las Vegas!!!!!!!.