"Summertime and the livin' is easy"

15 September 2020

By Frank Scoblete

“Summertime, and the livin' is easy”

George Gershwin’s song lyrics seem to inform us that summertime is a time for easy living and fun. Of course, the song is being sung by a black slave to the baby white girl and, well, obviously everything in life is not so easy is it?

Summertime in the world of the casinos seems to be a great time as well but we casino players know that summer can be brutally hot or numbingly cold and everything in between when we are indoors in the temples of our good or ill fortune.

But I’m fooling you here. This article is about summer in my two most-visited casino towns, Las Vegas and Atlantic City. It really isn’t about luck being “ a lady tonight” but about what it’s like outside those gambling palaces during the summer months.

Las Vegas in summer is so hot that the first time I ever went there I was in for a shock. This was 30 years ago and my wife the Beautiful AP and I were staying at the Maxim Hotel right across the street from Bally’s. When we went out for our walk it was about 112 degrees.

I felt fine. We were going to walk to Caesar’s Palace. I was in good shape and so a walk of about a half mile, even in such heat, didn’t perplex me. When we got to Caesars I was then perplexed. I thought I would be sweating but I wasn’t. I was dry as a bone.

Except I had all this sand on my forehead. I touched my head and some sand stuck to my hand. It wasn’t sand! It was salt. I had indeed sweated and that sweat immediately evaporated and left a desert of salt on my head. I suddenly realized just how thirsty I was and I drank a couple of bottles of water.

Walking the Strip in Vegas in the heat of summer is an experience fraught with perplexity. The heat will get to you even if you don’t fully realize that. If you want to walk that Strip, then by all means do so but bring along a couple a bottle of water; maybe a couple of bottles.

The best time to walk the Strip in summer? Between 5 to 7 a.m. The day is at its coolest then, about 85 degrees or so.

Atlantic City in the summer can be hot, although nothing whatsoever like Vegas. After all, you are on the Atlantic Ocean which is just about one hundred or so feet away from most of the oceanfront casinos. You can stroll out of your hotel and frolic on the sand for as long as you like. So there is actually fun-in-the-sun along the Atlantic City shore.

A walk along the Boardwalk at just about any time in the morning, noon and early evening is a fun experience too. The further south you go, meaning the further from the casinos proper, you’ll see lone swimmers and plenty of fishermen looking to catch what I assume will be their dinners.

You don’t have to stay indoors at all hours when you are in a casino town. Think bigger – take a walk.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Frank’s web site is www.frankscoblete.com. His books are available from smile.Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, kindle, e-books and at bookstores.