It's January 8, 1870 and after a raucus 2 days in Virginia City, I find myself in the Nevada state capitol in Carson City because the rumor in the Old Washoe said they were opening as US Mint in downtown Carson. That seemed to be something worth seeing. The goddamn building was eyecatching but they opened the joint and showed you the coin stamping machines but said they wouldn't be minting for at least another 2 or three weeks. There really wasn't a whole lot to do in Carson City then because the capitol building just broke ground and the railroad connection between Virginia City and Carson that I used was probably the most exciting adventurous thing to do there if you weren't a miner. Oh, the Comstock lode had Carson crawling with fortune seekers and if conversation was your passion, there was one of every kind to trade stories with. I, of course, zoned in on a gal named Kitty (honest) who was the finest looking prospector this side of East Sidalia. She hitched a ride from Truckee where she was born and raised to gather up some silver in the Comstock mines instead of staying on the farm like her non-gold digger friends did. I told her about the new mint and she said the only she cared about coin-wise was the silver used in them. I noticed a locket around her neck and asked if it was an heirloom or something her sweetheart gave her. She opened the locket and it was a picture of her son who she said was back in Truckee living with his grandparents. If we stop here, the shocking revelation of the boy in the locket turns out to be none other than Mel Gibson's dad from the earlier story. Wait, you say, Mel Gibson's dad wasn't born until 1918 so how could his boyhood picture be in Miss Kitty's locket? It's either "you can't handle the truth" or "the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind". I, myself am more interested in Kitty's cleavage which is why the locket is in this story in the first place.
