Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno

62 Silvio E. Petricciani
what I know now and seen what politics and
everything was and so on, why it certainly
wasn’t worth it.
But as far as Reno in wartime during my
tenure here before I was drafted in the Army,
it didn’t change too awful much. Everything
went along pretty much the same. I guess
the changes came after I left because then I
understand that they closed the gambling
establishments at twelve o’clock at night and
allowed them to open up again at eight in the
morning. I suppose that was so there wouldn’t
be any absenteeism in work, although there
was no work here that entailed defense work
of any kind that I knew of. But I guess they
went along with the whole bit all over the
country, the old flag waving.
But then I’ll give you number one
observation on the effect of the war on
gambling in Reno, and that was about it. They
closed the cribs, and after I left, why they did
close up the places at night. And yes, we did
have one defense project going on, and that
was up at Honey Lake up in California. The
people used to come in on weekends and cash
their checks here. And they probably figured
that they would have an effect on absenteeism
at that place.
Then I’ll give you my observations on
being drafted, and the decision to lease the
Palace Club at the time was due to my being
drafted because my dad was in ill health. Of
course, we didn’t at the time know what was
wrong with him, but anyway we decided that
he was not capable, of course, of running the
place by himself. And I had two brother-inlaws
here and myself that were working in
the place. One was Pick Hobson, and the
other was Warren Nelson. And Warren went
into the Marines, and Pick went into defense
work, and I was drafted so it left my dad here
by himself. And being in ill health, why that
prompted the decision to lease the club out.
And of course the lease went for, I believe
it was eleven years and then an option for
another ten. Of course, we didn’t know what
was going to happen. I didn’t know whether
I was coming back or not. Actually we didn’t
know what was wrong with my dad, but we
knew that he would never be able to enter
the business again. I mean it was just an
impossible thing. So we leased the place out
to a group of people. There was Joe Hall,
Vic Hall, Baldy West, Jimmy Contratto, and
another fellow by the name of Archie—Archie
Sneed. And they all came in here together
and eventually they split up until Baldy West
wound up being the sole owner of the place.
They all agreed to disagree, couldn’t get along
I suppose, and he became the sole owner of
the place. And that was about it. And I worked
for them here for a while after I was drafted in
the Army; in July it was, and I had to report
in September. So I came back, worked here
for them, showed them what was what, you
know, the place and so on and so forth. When
I came back I assumed that I would have my
job back, but there was no offer made and I
didn’t ask so that will go into the “return to
civilian life.”
Now as far as Army service was concerned,
I went into Fort Douglas, Utah where I was
inducted in the Army. Well, I was inducted
earlier, and then I went on into Fort Douglas,
Utah which was more or less of a depot that
they took all the draftees from the Ninth
Corps area and sent them out to different
units throughout the country. And I myself
and another group of fellows were sent to
a place called Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi
which is right in the deep heart of Mississippi.
And a matter of fact, the camp got a write-up
in Time magazine as being a dismal array
of tar paper huts. I remember the article.
And it was very surprising the way the
Army worked because on my Army General