Saturday, May 26, 2007

Story tellers in my family

Who are the storytellers in my life?

Dad
In my family my dad liked to tell stories. They weren't stories of aunts & uncles, they were stories of criminal activity in the casinos... the Purple Gang, Frank Sinatra, Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald owned a casino called the Nevada Club in downtown Reno. I think Dad met my step-mom Marie there. Fitz also owned the Nevada Lodge in Crystal Bay (Tahoe). I met my husband while I was working as a waitress @ the N.L.

Dad told how someone (from the Purple Gang maybe?) shot F. and he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He had his own personal elevator in the Nevada Club that no one else ever rode. I vaguely remember F's wife. After he died, she would come to the N.L. during the time I worked there.

The other stories I remember my dad talking about usually involved a farm he grew up on in Oregon. He would talk fondly of his father. Grandpa was gentle and quiet. He died of emphasema when I was 4 or 5.

Marie
My step-mother would tell me interesting stories of her childhood. She was the youngest of 8 (I think) kids raised on a sugar cane farm in Hilo, Hawaii. Her stories involved siblings-both good and bad; playing on the farm; and a previous marriage & miscarriage.

Mom
My mom is a pretty good story teller. I've only heard her stories for the past 15 years or so since I didn't grow up with her. I'm not in many of her stories since I wasn't there.