There’s something in the color of a gift shop, especially one that specializes in kitsch, that seems to speak to an element of childhood that’s hard to pinpoint. It might be their remarkably uncanny way of appealing to the senses with splashes of contrasting colors, or there’s a common memory somewhere that’s hard to place. It could be connected to carnivals and circuses, but it might be wholly an invention of the imagination as filtered through the Las Vegas lens.
Gift shops are hard to avoid for kids, and very easy to pass by for adults. In Vegas, however, it’s hard to pass by the one on Sahara in the downtown strip. They call themselves the World’s Largest Gift Shop , and it’s a wonderful way to spend small amounts of money to get large plastic things to give to friends. It’s often tacky, and usually cheap, and speaks to a nostalgia for something no one can quite put their fingers on.
Perhaps there’s no good reason to. After all, it’s another world here, and a few nights in Las Vegas hotels can awaken the senses to all kinds of memories and sensations from another time. Whether that time actually happened isn’t important, but it’s a good idea to buy a souvenir.