Las Vegas bar regular, 92, tips one back every eve among friends

Bud Woehrle spent 23 years running two bars he and his wife owned in Los Angeles. Now, at 92, he’s spent nearly as long hanging out on the other side of a bar as a regular at Kixx Bar in Boulder Station, 4111 Boulder Highway, where he isn’t just a regular — he’s a friend.

“These guys here, they’ve taken me under their wing,” Woehrle said. “They take me to ball games; they take me fishing. Some of the parties they’ve taken me to downtown — that’s another story. We don’t talk about that.”

The Boulder Station bartenders don’t just take him to baseball games; they get him on the field.

“We’ve organized Bud throwing out the first pitch twice at 51s games,” said bartender Norm Lindhorst. “Once last year and once this year.”

Woehrle said both times were a thrill, as he’s a big baseball fan.

“I love the Giants,” Woehrle said. “I used to watch them play at the Polo Grounds in New York. I’m from Pennsylvania, from a little town north of Philly, so I grew up loving the Giants.”

Woehrle walked into the casino on opening day in 1994 and ordered a drink from Lindhorst. Within minutes, they were cracking jokes and talking together like long-lost friends. When Woehrle came back a few days later, Lindhorst called him by name, and the pair picked up right where they left off.

Woehrle has since made the casino his regular watering hole, coming down to Kixx about five times a week. He usually walks from his home about a mile away around 1 p.m. and wanders back home around 4 p.m. to feed his cat and make his dinner.

Bartenders Lindhorst, Mark Griess, Jason Dreyer and Mathew Sims work at the property and make up the core group of Woehrle’s Boulder Station friends, although there are quite a few other regular patrons and staff members who spend some of their free time with the personable senior.

“It’s great to be accepted at 92 years old,” Woehrle said. “To have these young guys take hold of me and say, ‘C’mon, Bud, let’s go here; let’s go there;’ it’s a wonderful feeling. Sometimes, I feel down in the dumps, and I come here, and these guys make me forget my troubles.”

The group recently went trout fishing at Eagle Valley in Utah. When the weather is cooler, they fish from the shore of Lake Mead. They don’t catch much at the lake, but they see a lot swimming by.

“We go downtown, and we go barhopping, drinking and talking to people,” Sims said. “We play a lot of craps. He’s been teaching us all how to play it. We’ve been playing a lot of blackjack. Jason is Bud’s seeing eye dog.” Dreyer poked his head around Sims, correcting him, saying “Sherpa!”, which made Woehrle and his friends laugh.

“My eyes are bad so I have Jason sit next to me and read my cards,” Woehrle explained. “He tells me when to hit and when to stay.”

Woehrle graduated from high school in 1942 in the early months of the U.S. involvement in World War II. He joined the Navy right away and served on the U.S.S. New Jersey, Admiral Halsey’s flagship.

“I saw a bit of action, but I don’t like to talk about it,” Woehrle said. “It’s a long time ago. We won the war. That’s what counts.”

Griess offered that Woehrle had served as a signalman, working with semaphore flags and flashing lights on the upper reaches of the ship to send messages from ship to ship and using a telescope to read those same messages.

“It was like a 50-yard line seat,” Woehrle said. “You could see everything from there. When it got a little rough, we could see more. I’d rather be on top than down below wondering what’s going on and hearing those guns go off. At least we knew what was going on.”

When the war ended, he and his wife moved west. He worked several jobs before opening his bars. The first was a neighborhood bar that just served beer; the second was a bar and grill. He wouldn’t begin to estimate how many drinks he’s hoisted at Boulder Station, but many of them have been Captain Morgan, which he dubbed a “Tommy Boy” in a fit of whimsy one day.

“One day I told them, ‘Did you know Captain Morgan’s first name was Tommy?’ ” Woehrle said. “I don’t know what it really was, but I just said it, and now when I ask for a ‘Tommy Boy,’ they all know what I mean, and we all sing ‘Oh, Tommy Boy…’ ”

When Woehrle and his wife retired, they first moved to Palm Springs, Calif., for 12 years before moving to Las Vegas.

“I had a boat,” he said. “I went fishing in the Salton Sea. It’s a mudhole now. My wife and I had always loved Las Vegas, so we came here to buy a house, and we bought a mobile home to stay in while we were looking. Two months later, she passed away.”

If Woehrle doesn’t show up for a few days, his friends at the bar worry. Last year, it was with reason when Woehrle ended up in the hospital for a couple of weeks. His friends at the bar set up a schedule so that someone was always at the hospital with him.

“There were days I had trouble concentrating, I was so worried,” Griess said. “Desert Springs Hospital did a great job, but we were so glad when he got out of there.”

When Woehrle’s longtime friend Jack died recently, it was his bartender friends who made sure Woehrle got out to the grave.

“I miss that old guy,” Woehrle said. “We made a bet that whoever died first was supposed to pour a bottle of Budweiser on the grave. Sure enough, when they put old Jack in the ground, I told everybody to leave and had the bottle with me, and I did it. That’s how much we meant to each other. I’m sure he’d have done the same for me. I don’t know what these guys are gonna do.”

Greiss was having none of that talk. “You’re going to outlive us all,” he said.

That brought a smile to Woehrle’s face.

“This is my family here,” Woehrle said. “No two ways about it. Boulder Station is my second home.”

To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor, email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.