Cecil & Dipstik in

VACATION PARADIZE

by Ray Collins E-mail

Boulder City was scraped off a knob in the desert in 1931 as temporary housing for the men who built Boulder (now Hoover) Dam. The nearest town was a railroad depot 25 miles to the north, Las Vegas (The Meadows).

The main road to the dam was Boulder Highway, which soon attracted a bevy of brothels, bootleg joints, cribs and gambling establishments. The community of Pitman, shacks, shanties, tents and "auto courts" was formed and is still there today, although in order to disguise a seamy reputation, it's referred to as East Las Vegas on maps.

Hot, dusty and depressing, Pitman is a garbage-strewn, cheap housing haven for losers and underachievers. Pitman squats in the belching, noxious stack-plumes of chemical plants in its sister-city, Henderson, and is situated in a "wash"; the main exit for Las Vegas's waste-water.

Strips 7 & 8 were turned in two weeks early, but never published. The General Manager of the newspapers, a former proud Pitman resident, arrived in town in a white-lipped rage, ready to defend his hometown's honor. He had a phone call from a subscriber who identified herself as Raye-Bob Ricketts: "Ah'm down-rat tarred of that ol' boy Calkins a-funnin' at tus!"

Strip 7 was inspired by the murder of a tourist in an East LV casino parking lot. Cecil & Dip left Pitman for home, working their way from dumpster to dumpster under a hail of small-arms fire. They arrived at a gate in sister-city Henderson in strip 8. The mayor of Henderson was also an attorney for a garbage company and on the other side of the fence a parked garbage truck posted a sign, "The Mayor Is In". (Recently the ex-mayor was arrested in a Vegas casino for allegedly fondling a tourist's breasts in a drug-induced stupor. The lady had "allege" all over her blouse.)

Three people drove to Boulder City to be sure they had the complete series, but--

General Manager gave a direct order:

KNOCK OFF THE PITMAN JOKES!!!

Rather than bow to an ill-advised edict from a petty tyrant, Cecil and Dipstik wandered off into the Mojave Desert. I've often wondered where they wandered --

Click and visit more Cecil & Dipstik at these pages:

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UP ON YUCCA MOUNTAIN

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FOUR FAVORITES