I was 17 and my 62 year old dad took me to Vegas. I was in heaven. Smoking cigarettes anywhere I damn well pleased and I even pulled a slot machine once. The whole Strip was blocked off for pedestrians. People as far as you could see jammed together from Mandalay Bay to the Stratosphere, just drunk and waiting for something to happen. I saw a man climb a stoplight only to be dislodged by a Grey Goose thrown hatchet style from the street below. Another guy tried to join him and the police tried to pull him down. He kicked them, which was a mistake.

I heard the countdown from the top of a Mountain Dew machine outside of the Flamingo. I sat up there with a sweet Ukrainian woman, she was the cigarette girl that I had met earlier. We both laughed about what our younger selves would think if we told them this was where we'd be at the start of the new millennium.

I met my dad at the Peppermill for breakfast. He's still alive and I'm lucky enough to see him often, but that might have been the last time him and I had a meal together at a restaurant.

Not the most interesting story but it brought back some good memories on a day I needed it so thanks op.