As
many of you know Atlantic City is going through somewhat of a financial crisis
and many of the casinos are shutting down. Revel Casino has already been shut down and the Trump Towers is due to be shut down next. While I have never been
to either of those hotels, I was sad that they are closing because Atlantic City
is a nice little get away spot that I have gone to several times. What really
hit home was when they announced that the Taj Mahal would be closing. While I
have stayed there many times, and lost quiet a bit of money that is not why I am upset.
For
the last 3 years every summer I have gone down to Atlantic City with my
grandmother and we would have a blast. There have been day trips and overnight
trips but regardless how much we lost and what we did we always had a great
time. My grandmother would save for months at a time putting away money here
and there just so she could go down to "The Taj." Upon arriving at the casino she
would go to her special slot machine and I would venture off into a sea of
table games and cigarette smoke and I would always come wondering back out of
money but happy to see her. We would joke about how Donald Trump stole our
money from us but no matter how much she was down she would always offer me
money to go play some more, even though it meant cutting her money short (I
never took it and I would sometimes slip money into her bag). During one of our
overnight trips I had to show her how to use the Keurig in her room
because the water kept spilling everywhere as she made her coffee. When I
finally showed her that she was actually doing it wrong she called me a smart a** and
we laughed about it many times after.
This past
November I lost my grandma and my heart was broken. While a casino closing isn’t
the same as a death, to me it is closing down a part of my life that I wish I
could relive many times over. Even though those trips won’t be happening
anymore it was still nice to walk around and relive the laughs that we shared. The
Taj Mahal was more then just a casino/hotel to me, it was a little part of my
memories and the fact that it is closing truly saddens me.
