Gambling Gyros

In 2011, I went on a family trip with the Kessler’s to St. Louis, Missouri. The crew was composed of Leslie, Ben, Katie Herrell, Meredith, Mia, and me. The first day we did normal St. Louis things; went up in the arch, explored the children’s science museum, and played hide and go seek in the giant Macy’s. The car ride was full of screaming matches between Leslie and Ben and the hotel was sketchy, both trademarks of a Kessler trip. The next day we decided to eat lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall Greek restaurant in downtown. There was no one else there, only the owner. He was shaving meat off of a vertical rotisserie to prepare the infamous gyros, something I had only ever heard of from my parents. I of course had to try one, and it was quite tasty. Tzatziki sauce was magically creamy and cumumbery, and pita bread was soft as a pillow. We chatted with the owner and became good friends with him. Three years later the Kessler’s went back to that restaurant and said that the owner remembered them.

That night, Ben decided he wanted to go to a casino. The building had neon purple lights on the outside and us kids were super excited. Leslie was convinced that kids could go into the game area of casinos, they just couldn’t play any games. We tried of course, only to get very quickly stopped by security. Security told us that Leslie must stay with us on the outside the whole time while Ben went in. She did as she was told, and we all decided to climb on top of the seats to peer into the game area. In a lickity split, security was on us again, prohibiting all climbing and peering. They were on to us now; we couldn’t take any risks. However, it was midnight and Ben still wasn’t out. We needed Leslie to go get him, but she couldn’t leave us, so we hid in the only place that we thought wouldn’t have a camera; the bathroom stall. It was stressful, we felt like it was the end of the world if we got caught. After 20 minutes of cowering and listening to smooth bathroom jazz, we were freed by Leslie’s voice. What a rigamaror, maybe gambling just isn't my thing.