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Mar. 4th, 2009 08:04 amWent out to lunch with my great-Aunt Jane yesterday. We went to a restaurant she'd always gone to with Uncle Eddie (now deceased), and she told me about how my family narrowly missed making a fortune in gambling twice:
My Great-Grandpa Whiskey (so nicknamed because of his fondness for whiskey, an attribute my brother seems to have inherited from him) was a gambler, and he and his brother, Alec, were friends with a lot of men in the Purple Gang. This was in New York; they'd go bet on the horses in the daytime, and go to everyone's private backroom casinos at night.
One day, Uncle Alec told Great-Grandpa Whiskey that they had a chance to open a casino in Cuba. "Take the kids and Katy (my great-grandma) to Detroit, out of the way," he said, "and let's go." So they went to Cuba, and they'd only been there a couple of days when the Cuban Revolution broke out and their plans for the casino were ruined.
A little while after that, Alec invited Whiskey to come out with him to Vegas to work at the Flamingo. They were getting ready to go when my great-grandpa had a heart attack, and Alec took off himself, leaving my great-grandma and her daughters in Detroit. Alec stayed in Las Vegas, working at various casinos and living the high life, and we got to stay in Detroit for a couple of generations.
Family history! So cool. I'm going to get a tape recorder and see if I can interview her and my grandma about family history and see if I can dig up any old family documents.
(After she told me about this, we went to the hardware store to get a new flush handle for my toilet, and ran into a weather-beaten Elvis. He was asking the salesgirl where the electrical fixtures were. He did not say "Thank you, thank you very much," much to our disappointment.)
My Great-Grandpa Whiskey (so nicknamed because of his fondness for whiskey, an attribute my brother seems to have inherited from him) was a gambler, and he and his brother, Alec, were friends with a lot of men in the Purple Gang. This was in New York; they'd go bet on the horses in the daytime, and go to everyone's private backroom casinos at night.
One day, Uncle Alec told Great-Grandpa Whiskey that they had a chance to open a casino in Cuba. "Take the kids and Katy (my great-grandma) to Detroit, out of the way," he said, "and let's go." So they went to Cuba, and they'd only been there a couple of days when the Cuban Revolution broke out and their plans for the casino were ruined.
A little while after that, Alec invited Whiskey to come out with him to Vegas to work at the Flamingo. They were getting ready to go when my great-grandpa had a heart attack, and Alec took off himself, leaving my great-grandma and her daughters in Detroit. Alec stayed in Las Vegas, working at various casinos and living the high life, and we got to stay in Detroit for a couple of generations.
Family history! So cool. I'm going to get a tape recorder and see if I can interview her and my grandma about family history and see if I can dig up any old family documents.
(After she told me about this, we went to the hardware store to get a new flush handle for my toilet, and ran into a weather-beaten Elvis. He was asking the salesgirl where the electrical fixtures were. He did not say "Thank you, thank you very much," much to our disappointment.)