Atlantic City Beach + Boardwalk Trek

johnwindbell.hu...
Gambling, no.......
.....not much into it, and not the reason I went to Atlantic City. I figure life is too much of a gamble in the first place, and I need not add another one on top of it. Not that I didn't enjoy watching others loose their$ in the name of entertainment, which I did as my breakfast digested at the Hilton. Great inexpensive breakfast there, by the way. But all the hotels with casinos have cheap breakfast, so the customer has more to spend at a gambling table of their choice.
Roulette I enjoyed watching, and thought hey, why not just play even and odd or black and red all the time. Wouldn't the 50-50 chances be better? The babe with an ID pinned next to her cleavage reminded me of the '00' and '0' part of the wheel, as well as some other technical stipulations. She said there was a time you could do that and make-out quite well. "But then the Casinos wanted more," I added. She smiled, then looked back on the green felt table. I left through the smoke, yes they allow smoking, and headed for the door.....but not without passing 'GO' .... and the enticing chimes of the Slot Machines. I noticed that they don't call them 'One-armed bandits' anymore. Bad for business, I guess. Is this a case of 'Casino Correctness' ?
No, the only reason I was there was because I needed to get to the beach, the ocean, the sun and the salt air. I'm more of a 'beach comber' or 'beach bum' if my finances would allow it. And it's been way too long since my last baptism, and Atlantic City was the closest and most direct rout for me. Like Ishmael (Melville's 'Moby Dick') I felt like knocking peoples hats off and growing grim about the mouth, and knew it was time for me to get to the sea. So instead of signing up with a whaling vessel, against my roommate, Queequeg's wishes, I remained on land. And if a beach getaway has a boardwalk that I can trek on as well, then I knew I just had to do Atlantic City.
The last time I was here 'Jaws II' was playing at the theater. You do the math. 'See it before you go swimming' was on the marque. I didn't, and am sure I swam till my appendages 'pruned' but I can't recall. The serf of hormones were crashing against this teenager's beach of existence. And, as fate, or faith, would have it, seems like a dream now, it happened under the boardwalk, and I don't even think the song was written yet.
Except for the Casinos arriving, there's little that has changed since I trekked on these boards. There are still many tee-shirts and beach apparel shops as well as arcades, miniature golf, pizza and pretzels and hot dog and taffy and candie joints. But what I noticed more of, on this trek around, maybe I just didn't notice them before, are the number of massage parlors and fortune tellers there are. There were two to three on each block. And why wouldn't they be; a massage for the stress of losing money, and a fortune teller to guide you the right way and give you more confidence so you can get back to the gambling table. Do they get a percentage? I imagine it's another part of casino correctness. I don't know. I went back to the beach.

[@jrhager]

Well thank you, John, for your comments, and good to hear you win money there. AC is a very nice place to visit and I've always cherrished my friends and times I've lived in Jersey. Take care and thanks again for your comments.