April 27, 2008: There are still a lot of people in this world who don't believe - or realize - that Las Vegas (that is, Nevada - not New Mexico) - is a place where people actually live. Now that's not an unexpected misconception, what with everything people see and hear about the city and county (since Las Vegas is in Clark County, as is the Strip, which actually isn't in the city , but only the county, and which is referred to as Las Vegas - oh well..) is from movies, TV shows, and maybe some books - all of which mostly focus on downtown Las Vegas and the Strip.

Some people around the world seem to have the perception that Las Vegas is a country unto itself, and they may not be too far off the truth - that is, as long as we can keep all those new people moving in (Californians, that is) from remaking the Las Valley into what they left.

A dozen years ago my wife and I were on our honeymoon in Italy, and being that we dress indigenously (western clothes), locals in Florence and Milan always shouted greetings of "Hi, Texas", so part of our enjoyment was getting those folks straightened out. Anyhow, in Milan, while strolling down one of their interesting streets, a couple of carbineer came up and shouted "Texas". When I said no, Nevada, I was greeted with a blank stare, but as soon as I said "Las Vegas", a big smile came across their faces, and one of the cops high-fived me, with the shout "Mafia!". Las Vegas sure is a great town.

Of course, here in the Valley we have some very interesting social situations. For instance, we have Las Vegas welfare - where you are bombarded with gifts and cash from your local casinos - one of the strange (to outsiders) benefits of life in this part of the high desert. Of course, all this proves businesses can make a lot of money from giving away money (most of the time you don't get to keep it - it's all in the machines as 'Xtra Play Cash'), and giving away great merchandise (most of the time. Why, if you're a pretty smart gamer (Nevada parlance for gambler), you can get a pretty good collection of useful merchandise - coffee makers, pots and pans, tools, and, of course, the most popular article of clothing for most people moving into the area, T-Shirts. T-Shirts, shorts, and sneakers seem to be what is considered "real fashion" by too many residents. The "good old days" of dress in the town have just about gone away, unfortunately.

We also have what I call "Las Vegas Alzheimer's" - go away for a week or two, and when you come home, you see buildings you don't remember ever seeing before..

Another phenomenon here is the rapid growth of shopping centers, The Valley has around 6000 new residents per month, with about half that number leaving, so with this growth, new shopping locations are required. No longer do you have to drive across the Valley to find the store you need - a good thing these days, since what used to take up to twenty minutes is now about a one hour drive. All you have to do, figuratively, is fall out of bed and you can roll into a new super-dooper shopping center. These are not your old fashioned strip centers, although there are plenty of those in the area, but upscale palm tree designed locations that have a wide variety of fancy and not so fancy retail establishments, with plenty of local bars and food markets supplied with your favorite video poker machines.

Gaming is the life-blood of Southern Nevada, as well as most of the state. I believe we may have lost our last local ranch a short while ago, and it's getting more difficult to find property to keep some horses. Cattle?, forget about it. And like being a bad place to raise children - a lousy school district, not enough for the kids to do, and a growing gang and crime problem, regardless of what law enforcement and local government reports may say, even the horses can have problems, due to the increasing number of cars and air pollution which causes skin problems on those great animals.

Oh, yeah, lest I forget, this is a beautiful area - the mountains surrounding the Valley continually change colors with the rotation of the earth - becoming more colorful as the day goes on. And the light effects provide a Japanese-like painting scene in the late afternoon Unfortunately, developers ignore that beauty by building more shopping centers and blocking much of the view when you're driving to you favorite casino.

Not withstanding the above remarks, I can't think of a better place to live - as long as people don't try to screw it up. Las Vegas is a place where you can be what you want, a tough town for many people, but a great place for those who want to be independent, who have the determination to make it (that's for the younger folk), and who want to be a citizen of Nevada - the state always advertised as the "real West".

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