Dealers in the Making

Your Dad's job transferred us to Las Vegas in August of 1985 and within the month, I had enrolled in a dealer's school to learn the ins and outs of dealing blackjack. We always loved to play the game when we visited Las Vegas, so, I thought being on the paying side of the table was where I needed to be. That November, I was hired at a casino called Lady Luck in downtown Las Vegas, then moved on to the "strip" at Circus Circus in March of '86. In June of 1990, the company opened their new hotel/casino, The Excalibur, and I dealt there the remainder of my "career" until I retired in 2005. I fell short just a few months of spending 20 years with the same company. Twenty years of dealing casino games sounds like a long time, but, the people I worked with and for, plus the changing faces of tourists everyday, made the job fun and the years, short !! This photo was taken that fall of "85 -- we three gals became friends at the school and every day after classes, we would go to different casinos to check them out. Marlene, on the left, moved back to the Midwest a few years ago, to work on one of the riverboat casinos. I have lost touch with Kim, the young girl on the right.