Careful!

Pretty soon I had most of the panels completed for the Money Tree casino and it was time for me to actually begin some work on the project. The building consisted of a basement and two floors above that. A very small project for downtown Reno.

The basement held the money counting rooms, slot machine repair and general supplies for the casino. The first floor was almost all open floor space and would be filled with slot machines and table games. The second floor was reserved for a large restaurant and bar.

When we started the project, it was understood that we would have to be finished by July 1. Every new casino in town was aiming for that date and there was going to be a grand celebration downtown when about 7 casinos opened at the same time. Ads were going to be placed in all of the major newspapers throughout the country, but focusing mainly on California, where most of Reno’s customers came from.

On the corner opposite where the Money Tree was located, the new 24 story Sahara hotel/casino was being built. On the other corner, the Gold Dust casino was being given a major remodeling. A few blocks away were the Circus Circus, Comstock, Harrah’s and a few minor remodels among the smaller casinos. And Solari held the contracts for all of them. It was soon evident that there weren’t enough carpenters or lathers in town for all of the work that we had and we were soon forced into overtime. Major overtime!

The Sahara and the Circus Circus were among the largest contracts and so they received the most attention when a call was made for additional labor. My project was usually ignored and so I had to fight for any additional help. At one time, our superintendent told each project foreman to tell the crew that could work as many hours as they wanted and anywhere at all in the downtown area. Some of my crew would work at the Money Tree for 10 hours and then walk across the street and work for an additional 10 hours at the Sahara or Gold Dust. They would then sleep for a few hours, resting their heads on their tools, somewhere on the floor of the casino, away from the crowds of workers doing their own shifts. (Giant rolls of carpet or padding were great for sleeping on) Someone would always come along and wake them up in time for another shift.

One afternoon, I left my project and went across to the Gold Dust for lunch. Sitting at the bar, I saw about a dozen of my morning crew asleep, while sitting up and leaning against a temporary partition in the bar. A few were sprawled out on the floor itself. Customers would simply step over them carefully.