Las Vegas Weekly

July 8, 2010 · 11:22 AM

Pool partyin’…with the parents.

By Rick Lax

They've been coming to Vegas pools a lot longer than you have.

My parents flew in for the holiday weekend. They’ve been visiting Vegas for nearly 40 years, so they’ve seen the city transform from Old West to Sin City to Disneyland East to Camp Vegas.

“The pools are totally different now,” my mom said, after spending the afternoon at Mandalay Beach and Moorea Beach Club.

“They used to be for relaxing, but now they’re for partying,” she said.

My dad agreed: “Moorea is essentially a nightclub in the water.”

“What did the pools used to be like?” I asked.

“For starters,” my dad replied, “there were no waterfalls or wave pools. When we used to stay at the Aladdin—this is back when the property was a group of low-rise buildings—each bungalow had its own pool. Not much bigger than a hot tub. You’d usually get the whole thing to yourself.”

“And what do you remember?” I asked my mom.

“The bigger hotel pools had diving boards—you never see those anymore. And you’d hear, ‘Paging Mrs. So-and-so,’ ‘Paging Mr. So-and-so’ all afternoon, nonstop. And if you heard your name called, you’d walk over to a house phone, and call-”

“What’s a house phone?” I asked.

“Am I really that old?” my mom replied.

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