Royal's Sin City Journal

Sometimes this City is better than Disney land for cuteness and family attractions. Not usual but sometimes _ Photo by Royal

Sin City Sidewalks and being cool when you sleep

By Royal Hopper

This week I saw a man curled up in a ball on a sidewalk a mostly empty plastic bottle of Vodka near one side of his head a mostly empty plastic bottle of water near the other.

If you ask the sidewalk sleeping veteran commonly seen clutching an empty Vodka bottle in his gnarled hand as he lies curled up on the Sin City Concrete will tell you his name is George.

I have to tell you fellow sinners when I first saw George I thought the dude was gone, a victim of whatever demons drove him to the life of a sidewalk sleeper. George however still had some life left in him and when roused from his sound sidewalk slumber picked up the trash bag containing his meager possessions and prepared to find a more peaceful sidewalk to slumber on.

Sin City Conspiracy Theorists started showing up on Sin City streets as soon as the weather turned cooler…Photo by Royal

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too parade across Sin City Sidewalks late last week much to the delight of a nearby tourist who was busily snapping photos of the two and everything else around her…Photo by Royal

As he made ready to leave his lonely corner of Sin City concrete between a sidewalk and a planter full of blooming flowers he stopped for minute as if forgetting something then suddenly remembering what that something was.
With shaking hands he picked up his almost empty bottle of water and attempted to pour the remaining liquid into his nearly empty bottle of Vodka. After several futile attempts he gave up and proceeded with a futile attempt to put the lid if the water bottle on his beloved  plastic Vodka container.
Perhaps he was hoping some magic would transform the ordinary water in the container into that tasty fermented and distilled potato juice (that’s what Vodka is ) It was a futile effort because the lids were clearly different sizes but George was not to be denied. He   kept trying to make the odd sized lid fit  where he wanted it to fit. No many how many times he turned the lid

When told he was holding the wrong lid George mumbled his agreement but did not try to switch lids. Instead he stalked away the still open bottle of Vodka in one hand and the disobedient lid in the other.

George like many of us Sin Citiers  is stubborn. We don’t give up our way of doing things just because it doesn’t work and is kind of weird and unpopular. We are who we are …We make things fit…..

This week began with the last few Roller Derby Chicks preparing to leave the City of Sin tattoos, skates and all.

The Roller Derby girl or woman I met this week who I will call Zoe could do both and was actually a pleasant person to talk to all things considered. What do say to a chick who might win a fight with your high school PE teacher flirts with you and knows more about comic book history and retro jazz rock fusion music than you do.
“Where were you when I was a teenager Zoe?”

“Yes Mam,…”
Five thousand of these roller skating tough girls and tough guys rolled into and out of town this week showing off tattoos and colored hair and flexing well earned muscle and treating Sin City to their uninhibited in your face glory…and hip checking the occasional trouble maker.and what did these wild, fearless roller skating trouble makers do when they were in the City of Sin. A lot of the time they went to classes, shopped for new gear and went swimming…go figure.  

As high season in the City of Sin begins rolling to a stop and desert temps ease down into the low 100s, the city as always is filled with tourists, tattoos ..and the usual assortment of party animals, has beens and talented ner do wells…
This weeks visitors were so busy getting new body art, tattoo artists in town reported hand cramps from all the skin art they wrote this week. Tips were good  and the tattoos were better but little else changed in the City of Sin.
People still held signs, partied all night and woke up in hall ways and Elvis still makes an occasional appearance.
One enterprising sight seeing nomad …apparently found a cardboard sign like the kind commonly used by the local panhandlers to ask tourists for money …where he had decided to take a quick Jack Daniels inspired nap. He quickly snagged the sign and lay it on his face either to shield his eyes from the glare of Sin City neon or perhaps he believed if people thought he was a homeless beggar they would leave him alone and let him catch a few zzs on the sidewalk.

Such is Life in the City of Sin
Rock on Sinners
Stay Cool and Free