Jack

I don't know what made me think of it this morning, but my thoughts went back many years, to the Crystal Bay Club, North Shore, Lake Tahoe. That was in the days when there was a slow, two-lane road around the lake, a Summer resort, many places closed for the Winter.

The North shore had a few casinos, as did the South shore.

I worked at the Nevada Lodge, first Winter it had been opened, and had a room under the Crystal Bay Club, which was right across the street, nice. Since there weren't many places open, we spent most of our time in the Crystal Bay Club. I got to know the bartender there well, Jack, only his last name is forgotten. Don't know why, but we called him Homer, Homer Lipschitz.

 In the mornings a crowd of us would often go to someones home nearby, around the lake, fixed great breakfasts, had some really nice times. The lake was beautiful in those days, before the Winter Olympics and all the crowds and new construction.

Back to Jack, or Homer. One shift at the club, he had a heart attack and ended up in the hospital in Carson City. As the story goes, when he came to and woke up some hours later, his wife was on one side of his bed, and his girlfriend on the other. He said he just closed his eyes and went back to sleep. Never did hear how the story ended, but knew the best part.

One more Tahoe story ..............

One came to mind. All the locals hung out at the Crystal Bay Club on the North side of Tahoe. Back then, there were not many places up there, open year round, so the Crystal was the place to be.

And, it was right across the street from the Lodge where I worked. Then, the Crystal had a number of motel type rooms under their main building, and I rented one of those.

Get up, shave and shower, go upstairs, have a coffee at the Crystal bar, walk across the street, put in your eight hours dealing to the few customers we had in those days. Generally, the North end was closed during the Winter months. They kept it open then, to get ready for the Olympics and the anticipated growth when it all expanded.

So, the days were pretty slow. Then, after work, go back across the street to the Crystal, amuse yourself at the bar until time to go to bed, and start the process all over again. There was not a lot to do then, very few places open, so entertainment was at a minimum.

One of the bartenders, Jack, and I cannot remember his last name, got to be a good friend of all of us. He had a great sense of humor, had many stories, knew everyone, and had been at the lake for quite a while, and had many stories to tell.

I ran around with him quite a bit, would occasionally go to someones house for an early morning breakfast, we all just had a lot of fun together.

One day, Jack had some severe chest pains and passed out. The ambulance to him to the nearest hospital, which in those days was in Carson City, quite a distance away. Jack was unconscious when they put him in the ambulance, and apparently stayed that was for quite a while.

When he finally came to, and woke up, standing on one side of his bed was his wife, and on the other, his girlfriend. The story goes, he just closed his eyes and prayed, not knowing what to do. This was told to me by a good friend of ours who was sitting outside his room, in a waiting room, and knew what was going on, and was helpless to do anything.

Knowing Jack, he probably talked his way out of the situation, but he had to do a lot of talking. I always wondered what ever happened to old Jack.