by Donna Swagerty Shreve
I had just graduated from high school and I desperately needed a job to help pay for college. Nothing local in Stockton was very promising for an inexperienced seventeen year old. So my mother called her brother who lived near Lake Tahoe. Somehow it was thought by both of them I could make more money near the casinos than in town.
After much discussion, I was given the use of the family station wagon. Dad had a school district car and most everything the family needed was within biking range. To have a job in the Tahoe area I had to have a car.
Off I drove to my big summer adventure. My Uncle Ronnie was married and the two of them worked at Harrah’s casinos. They lived on the Nevada side in a small two bedroom, one bath cabin. Lorraine kept the place immaculate and I was challenged to keep up her high standards of neatness and cleanliness.
The first challenge was to get a job. I had assumed Uncle Ronnie had a position lined up for me. My tender age of seventeen became a problem. Any applicant for a casino job had to be at least eighteen. Twenty-one was referred.
So Uncle Ronnie’s solution was to accompany me to the various strip malls along the main highway leading to the casinos and insist I inquire at each one until I was successful. I spent an agonizing morning being rejected so many times I was numb. Uncle Ronnie finally took pity on me and decided to pull in a few favors.
If possible my day got worse. We entered a small dress shop where the owner was quite friendly to Uncle Ronnie. She asked me to watch her shop and she took him into the back. I don’t know what he said or did but they eventually came back and she called a few friends.
She set me up for an interview with a small chain known as Lawrence Department Stores. There were two stores and we were to go to the old original one. It turned out an employee had just been fired and there was now an opening. I finally had a possible job. The manager lived behind the store and I found out soon enough that he had a drinking problem.
When Mr. S. had had too many, he would wander over to the store and say very inappropriate things to my naïve seventeen year old self. I was confused about what my reaction should be to what was blatant sexual harassment. Fortunately I had a protective co-worker who ran interference for me which sometimes meant he would escort Mr. S. back to his house.
Various customers would be inappropriate with their comments and behavior. There seemed an unwritten code among gamblers that when away from the usual restraints of home, one could say and do whatever they wanted. My uncle and parents had little idea of what I was exposed to that summer.
One evening I was driving home from work and ran out of gas. I knew I was within walking distance of a gas station so off I hiked into the dark. The cute guy working at the station had me wait a half hour so he could close the station and then drive me to my car with a container of gas. He was tall, cute and so helpful. I agreed to go out on a date in the future.
My uncle had to approve and the guy passed scrutiny. I can’t even remember how we started the date but we ended up at his rented house. If I hadn’t been real strong, I would have been raped that evening. He finally decided I wasn’t worth the effort and was not going to stop fighting him. Somehow I got back to the safety of my uncle’s home. Looking back, I realize I did some stupid things being too naïve and trusting.
The end of summer finally came and I headed home. I had a small nest egg and a few new clothes. My aunt had taken me shopping for clothes. I was encouraged to spend my hard earned money on some impractical items of clothing that I ended up rarely wearing. Two months after I left Tahoe, my aunt and uncle got divorced.
I certainly didn’t help their relationship. I was use to my parents’ loving marriage and I had always adored my uncle. I now had a new view of Uncle Ronnie starting with his drinking that started most mornings.
My limited dating experience had been put on fast track that summer. I was now much more weary of men, my age and older. I learned so much that summer that would help me later with life’s decisions. I don’t think my parents should have let me loose with the family car and living in Tahoe. But maybe it is best they did, as I had to learn much so fast as I had been quite sheltered up to now. I survived intact and wiser. I remember leaving beautiful Tahoe area considered “God’s country” and entering the flat, dry valley and thinking the area had never looked better.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 