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Transcript of interview with Priscilla Scalley by Claytee White, July 24, 2014

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2014-07-24

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Priscilla and Joe Scalley arrived in Las Vegas in 1972 with their two young daughters. Joe had just completed his residency in radiology and came to Las Vegas to practice at Sunrise Hospital, where he eventually became Southern Nevada’s first neuroradiologist. The couple took out two mortgages to buy their house at 2900 Justice Lane, in the Rancho Nevada Estates section of Ward 1. They were the second owners of the house, which had been built in 1967. In 1993, after their daughters had graduated from high school, the Scalleys sold the house and moved to Summerlin. Joe Scalley died in October 1994. After Joe died Priscilla became reacquainted with and married the father of one of her daughters’ childhood friends, Joel Jobst, who was also widowed. Joel was a nuclear physicist retired from the Nevada Test Site. Priscilla and Joel bought a vacation home in Montana, where they spent every summer. They celebrated 13 years of marriage before Joel passed in 2013. As a young mother Priscilla joined the West Charleston Elementary School Parent Teacher Association and eventually became president. She helped found the Friends of the Libraries when the Clark County Library District had only two libraries—Flamingo Library and West Charleston Library—and served as that group’s president. She also was active in Junior League of Las Vegas and was president 1983?84. In her early forties Priscilla became a travel agent, a career that kindled a passion for travel that still burns brightly. She also is interested in genealogy. Although she has traveled the world she yearns to take her daughters, sons in law, and grandchildren to Ireland, the land of her ancestors.

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OH_02091_book

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OH-02091
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Scalley, Priscilla Interview, 2014 July 24. OH-02091. [Transcript.] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH PRISCILLA SCALLEY An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White West Charleston Neighborhoods: An Oral History Project of Ward 1 Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ii ©The West Charleston Neighborhoods: An Oral History Project of Ward 1 University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2014 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV – University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Project Manager: Barbara Tabach Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Editors: Stefani Evans, Maggie Lopes, Melissa Robinson, Barbara Tabach Interviewers: Claytee D. White, Barbara Tabach, Shirley Emerson, Lois Goodall, Judy Harrell, Anna Huddleston, Wendy Starkweather iii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of Dr. Harold Boyer. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank the university for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Claytee D. White, Project Director Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University Nevada, Las Vegas iv PREFACE Priscilla and Joe Scalley arrived in Las Vegas in 1972 with their two young daughters. Joe had just completed his residency in radiology and came to Las Vegas to practice at Sunrise Hospital, where he eventually became Southern Nevada’s first neuroradiologist. The couple took out two mortgages to buy their house at 2900 Justice Lane, in the Rancho Nevada Estates section of Ward 1. They were the second owners of the house, which had been built in 1967. In 1993, after their daughters had graduated from high school, the Scalleys sold the house and moved to Summerlin. Joe Scalley died in October 1994. After Joe died Priscilla became reacquainted with and married the father of one of her daughters’ childhood friends, Joel Jobst, who was also widowed. Joel was a nuclear physicist retired from the Nevada Test Site. Priscilla v and Joel bought a vacation home in Montana, where they spent every summer. They celebrated 13 years of marriage before Joel passed in 2013. As a young mother Priscilla joined the West Charleston Elementary School Parent Teacher Association and eventually became president. She helped found the Friends of the Libraries when the Clark County Library District had only two libraries—Flamingo Library and West Charleston Library—and served as that group’s president. She also was active in Junior League of Las Vegas and was president 1983?84. In her early forties Priscilla became a travel agent, a career that kindled a passion for travel that still burns brightly. She also is interested in genealogy. Although she has traveled the world she yearns to take her daughters, sons in law, and grandchildren to Ireland, the land of her ancestors. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Priscilla Scalley June 24th, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada Conducted by Claytee D. White Preface…………………………………………………………………………………………..iv Recalls childhood in Boston, meeting husband Joe Scalley, and coming to Las Vegas in 1972 via Galveston, Texas, and Los Angeles, California. Describes small-town Las Vegas and the family’s large house in Rancho Nevada Estates………………………………………………1 – 4 Discusses leadership role in PTA at West Charleston Elementary School and first volunteer effort in organizing the Friends of the Library. Talks about husband’s neuroradiology medical practice, the hospitals in Las Vegas, and seeing Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra perform…...5 – 8 Remembers early process of joining Junior League of Las Vegas and talks about various Junior League projects in Clark County, like establishing CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), moving the Beckley house to the Southern Nevada Museum, and moving and restoring the Morelli house………………………………………………………………………………...9 – 12 Describes husband’s practice and medical care in Southern Nevada. Recalls shopping in Las Vegas. Talks about pressing Junior League to make the admission process more streamlined and inclusive and describes how Junior League trains volunteers…………………………… 13 – 18 Talks about meeting second husband, retired nuclear physicist Joel Jobst. Recalls move to Summerlin with her first husband and subsequent move to a different Summerlin location with Jobst. Describes her two daughters with Joe Scalley and describes the Rancho Nevada Estates development………………………………………………………………………………...19 – 22 Recalls vacation home in Montana she bought with husband-to-be Joel Jobst. Discusses career as a travel agent begun in her early forties, past travels, and plans to take daughters, sons in law, and grandchildren to Ireland. Talks about her interest in genealogy……………………….23 – 25 Remembers Junior League events and people as she peruses Junior League scrapbook from her presidential year (1983-84)…………………………………………………………………26 – 28 Index………………………………………………………………………………………..29 – 30 Appendix (photographs of Scalley house on Justice Lane, pages from Junior League scrapbook, Beckley house ephemera)…………………………………………………………………..31 – 45 vii viii 1 This is Claytee White. It is June 24th, 2014. I am with Priscilla Scalley in her home here in Las Vegas. So how are you this morning? I'm good. And you? And would you please pronounce and spell your full name for me? Priscilla Scalley; P-R-I-S-C-I-L-L-A; Scalley, S-C-A-L-L-E-Y. Thank you so much. So we're going to start—I just want to learn a little about your early life, how you grew up, where you grew up and your family life. So any way you want to cover that is fine. I grew up in Boston. I was born in Boston [Massachusetts]. Actually, we lived right near Fenway Park. So I was used to during my early days seeing the crowd. They used to park next to our house and then walk to the stadium. So we were real fans of the Boston Red Sox. I still am. Fantastic. And you never lose that Boston accent, did you? Oh, I guess not. And I've been away, well, since 1964, so that's a long time. How many kids in the family? In my family? Yes. Three. It was two girls and then my brother who is eight years younger. And what did your parents do for a living? They were both teachers. My father taught at Boston Latin School, which is well known in Boston. It was one of the earliest public schools in the United States. He had been in the seminary, but he didn't finish. So he taught Latin and English. And what did your mom teach? 2 She was an elementary schoolteacher. Then I was in seventh through twelfth, I went to Girls' Latin School. Now it's co-ed, but at the time it was just girls. We took Latin from seventh through the twelfth grade. Public school, but college prep. It was very good. Yes, it's supposed to be excellent. So how did you get to Las Vegas? Well, my husband went to medical school at McGill [University], which is up in Montreal. Then he did an internship at Dartmouth and it was the time of the Vietnam War. Then you were either drafted as a young doctor or they gave you some other service to perform. He happened to get the public health service, which I thought was lucky for us, and he was assigned to Galveston, Texas. I remember I had to look at the map to see where that was. I had never heard of Galveston. Boston people tend to be very isolated. In fact, there's an old joke about the woman who lived in Beacon Hill, kind of an old part of Boston. Someone said, “Well, why don't you travel?” She said, “Well, I'm already here.” I love it. [Laughing] So that was kind of the—we really didn't travel. In fact, when I went to graduate school in Rochester, I thought I was going west and people laughed at me because it was silly. But that's how we were. So Galveston, what part of Texas is that? South. It's an island. They've had bad hurricanes down there, none while I lived there. It was two years. Then my husband applied for a residency and he went to UCLA [University of California Los Angeles]. So then we lived in L.A. [Los Angeles, California] for four years. Then someone from Las Vegas who had been at UCLA recruited him to come here. And I liked it right away. And what did your relatives think, your parents? 3 Well, I remember when my daughter was married. Her in-laws were kind of upset about Las Vegas. The church they were married in was called Our Lady of Las Vegas, which didn't reassure them at all. But I always loved it here. Wonderful. So I find that sometimes really interesting how people come from a place like Boston with the kind of attitude and then love Las Vegas, the Wild West. Well, I grew up in a big city. L.A. was a big city. I found it very frustrating trying to shop and park. I liked it, but it was so crowded, even then. So when I got here it was like a small town. So I was very pleased. So which year did you come here? 1972. So in 1972, other than it being smaller than Boston and L.A., what else impressed you about Las Vegas? It was like a small town. When I brought my children they were babies. But when they went to school, by third grade they were riding their bicycles to school, and that was wonderful. The church was at the corner. So where did you live in the beginning? Well, right in the West Charleston area, up from Our Lady of Las Vegas. They call that area Rancho Nevada [Estates]. Tell me about that house, that first house. It was amazing. It was the biggest house I had ever lived in because I had always lived in small houses. I remember we had to take out two mortgages to afford it. My husband was able to get the mortgages because he was starting a medical career, and so they figured he was good for it. We were kind of strapped the first couple of years, but not complaining. It was a wonderful 4 house and I loved it. So describe it to me. Well, it was about twenty-four hundred square feet. It was all on one floor. It was a ranch house. We were the second people who lived there. It had a really big yard and a big swimming pool, another thing that amazed me. We always enjoyed that. It's just a lovely home and it was a lovely neighborhood. Did you do kinds of things in the neighborhood that cause you to be very comfortable with your neighbors, any neighborhood activities? Not really, no, no. But everyone was really friendly. I remember across the street we had a vacant lot at the time and the kids used to love that, to go over there for fireworks on July Fourth and those kinds of things. Then the Tarkanians built their house across the street, so that was the end of that. So I know your neighborhood because I can picture Lois's house in my head. So beautiful big houses in that neighborhood. What did your parents say then? Did they ever come out to visit you in Las Vegas? My mother did, but not for years and years, not until my father died. My father wouldn't travel by plane. He was very nervous about it. He was another generation. So I went back at least once a year, maybe more, brought the kids when they were old enough. Oh, that's great. Did your children go to school at Our Lady? No. They went to Howard Wasden it was called then. Now it's called West Charleston. [Ed note: The school originally known as West Charleston Elementary School was renamed Howard Wasden Elementary School] Very happy with that school. It was wonderful. And I think parents are still happy with it today. 5 Oh, I think so. Yes. So when you first got here and your husband is going into medicine, did you work outside the home? No. It gave you time to do what kind of community activities? Well, in the beginning I didn't do much, but then I got involved in the PTA[Parent Teacher Association] at my children's school. I became president of that, which I really enjoyed. What kind of activities? Well, running the—you mean at the school? Yes, as president of the PTA. Well, we had a talent show and a big “Halloween Howl,” they called it. That was fun. A lot of activities. It was the first time I had really been in charge of something and I found I enjoyed it a lot. Good. What did you find the main purpose of the PTA was? Parent participation. Raising money was important and we raised a lot of money that year, which is very good. I like doing that. And so that was very good for you when you went to the Junior League. Right. But before that I was involved in the Friends of the Library. I'm one of the founders of that organization. Oh, tell me about the organization. Well, I think it still exists, matter of fact. When it started—again, the libraries hadn't expanded at all like they have now. In fact, one of our first big projects was to build a sign. It was kind of a sign where you could post things on out at the corner where the library was. At the time that 6 was pretty innovative. That was fun. Then we ran big used book sales and had speakers once a month that we advertised to the public. I used to write the articles for the newspaper, just small articles saying what we were doing. It was very interesting. I enjoyed it. So which library? Well, it was all the libraries. But in the beginning it was really just the West Charleston Library and the main library [Flamingo Library] on Flamingo [Road]; the others didn't exist. So you've seen them grow from those two locations? Right. So were you sort of the visionary, one of the visionaries? Well, I didn't really know that that would happen. I didn't really know. I didn't move here until 1992 and one of the things that impressed me most, the libraries. Well, yes, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. Well, our population started to grow so much. When I came here it was very small. I can't remember the number, but within the city it was—and now to think of—I remember that there were really very few places to eat if you were a cook or you liked good food. There were buffets, of course. So that's when I think a lot of people at that time started gourmet groups and we'd cook for each other. It was kind of popular at the time. I think it was popular everywhere, but particularly it was really popular here. So then I read, oh, many years ago, sometime in the nineties, that Las Vegas had become the culinary capital of the U.S. I mean, it was just stunning to me. It was amazing, amazing. When Wolfgang Puck opened his first restaurant, it was amazing. That was '92 or '93, I think. Exactly, when that started. So tell me more about the library system and what Friends of the Library did. Well, we just supported libraries, obviously. But I think one of our main things was raising 7 money through the Friends of the Library, so the book sale. Then we would ask the director, Charles Hunsberger his name was, at the time, what they wanted us to do with the money. And the sign was one thing. I don't remember any other big projects. That was probably big enough at the time. Do you remember some of the people who worked with you as Friends of the Library in those days? Well, I would have had to think about that before you came. Oh, my heavens. Okay. Mostly women? No. No, actually, no. Several men. One of them, I think, was a professor at UNLV and I just cannot come up with his name. Okay. But that's good to know. So you have a diverse group. Oh, yes. So PTA, Friends of the Library. So you're getting to meet lots and lots of people in the community. Well, that was a way to do it for sure, yes. Tell me about your social life as you expand this friendship base. So cooking for each other. What are some of the other things that you would do? Well, we certainly made a lot of our contacts through the medical community. I mean that was just—so a lot of my first friends were other doctors' wives. Then certainly when I joined Junior League. I mean I have friends now that I've known for 35 years, which is how long I've been involved in that organization. That's wonderful. Some of them are my really best friends now. Did your husband ever talk about the medical practice and how it evolved? Oh, yes. 8 What kind of things would he tell you about especially coming from Los Angeles? Well, he was the first neuroradiologist in the state. What does that mean? What did he do? Well, at that time—they don't have to do it anymore because they have tests to do that—they would inject people's arteries to see what was going on in the body. It was that system, the brain. Yeah, he really enjoyed it. He was at Sunrise Hospital, which was the biggest hospital at the time. Again, it was Sunrise, Valley [Hospital], [Clark] County Hospital I think we called it; that was about it. And now there's so many. And at the time Las Vegas was building these hospitals other big cities were closing their hospitals, because my daughter who became a doctor was always amazed at how many hospitals were being built in some cities. People were moving to the suburbs or they were just leaving cities, in the East particularly. We were just expanding and expanding. That's right; we had St. Rose de Lima [Hospital], too, at that time. How did your children find Las Vegas? Oh, I think they enjoyed it. Were they in areas that could ride horses? They never liked riding horses. We went to a dude ranch a couple of times. That wasn't one of their favorite things. Not mine, either. I really did not like riding horses, but I tried when they were young. I tried skiing, too, which I didn't really enjoy, but I did it for them. Good. When we were talking about entertainment for young couples like you and your husband at that time, did you do any kind of Strip entertainment at all? Very little. We just didn't go much. We weren't gamblers at all. So any entertainment, any entertainers that you would like to see? Oh, Elvis [Presley], I got to see Elvis, yes. That was good, and Frank Sinatra. 9 And which places did you see them? I think Elvis was at the Hilton at those times. And Frank, I think, entertained at the end of a basketball season for people—or UNLV—who had season tickets. But I don't remember what hotel that was. Wow, that was interesting. It was, yeah. Tell me about the Junior League and what kind of events you participated in there. I think it was—I'm trying to think of the date when I—I think about 1976 I became a member. At that time you had to be sponsored by three people. They had a committee that would sometimes refuse people. That's the one thing I didn't like from the very beginning. In fact, when I was president that was one of the things that I really tried to change, and we did change it. So now we're just eager to get people. We just kind of advertise for them. But other Leagues evolved, too. Some of the Southern Leagues were the ones that hung on to that kind of thing. So how did three people—so three friends would get together? How would it work? Well, one person would nominate you and then they'd ask two other people that knew you. I think that's the way it worked. That's interesting. So what were some of the projects that the Junior League would take on at that time? I know you did things for Children's Museum and things like that. And HELP of Southern Nevada. That still exists. What was HELP of Southern Nevada? They did things at Christmas and they did food programs and employment. In fact, one of my friends was the head of that for several years, which involved a lot of fundraising. The other thing we started to do was the advocacy program for children. What do you call that now? 10 CASA [Court Appointed Special Advocates]. Children who are caught in the court system? Yes. But we got it all organized starting in 1980 and we handed the project over to the community. But I think there are agencies that still handle that. Oh, yes. It was a good program. It still is. Oh, yes. So now, is that something that Junior League does; you get a project started and then you hand it off to other people? All the time. That's kind of one of the points of it. They give a lot of grants, too. They've always done that. I think we did many more big projects when I was involved in the early years. The reason was that a lot of women didn't work outside the home. Now they do and I don't know how they even join the organization with children. It just is amazing to me. So they do fundraising and they do grants and they do other projects, but I'm just saying I don't think as big of projects as we used to do. One of the things that you did recently—well, probably six, seven years ago now—was to move the Morelli house. Tell me about that. Well, first we moved the Beckley house to the Southern Nevada Museum [Ed Note: Now Clark County Museum] in Henderson. It was their [the Beckley’s] childhood home. That was eighties, oh, 1983. Well, it was a big deal because we had to get a big trailer to move the house. It was not only expensive, but it was kind of a challenge to hire somebody to do that. Once it got out there and got on its foundation, the League—it was a committee—they refurbished it and made it like it was in that time period. So you moved it to? 11 To the Southern Nevada Museum. I haven't thought of that in a long time. But it had nothing to do with the county museum out there on Boulder Highway? Yes, it does. So you were probably one of the first people to think about moving those historic buildings like that. I don't think I thought of it, but the League did. Then the Morelli house, it's turned out to be a wonderful place, but it was a little controversial at the time because it was so new, at least [to] those of us who came from New England. I mean, my family back there laughed when I told them we were moving a house that was built in the fifties. It seemed so silly to them. But did they realize that Las Vegas didn't start until 1905? Oh, yes. [Laughing] I love it. But my brother lives in a house—I think he finally did get a historical plaque, but it was built in the nineteenth century. So were most of the houses in his neighborhood. So nobody's too impressed by that and certainly not something built in the 1950s. But it turned out to be a really wonderful project. They open it now for public events. Yes, it's been great. Yes. I was down for your last event. This is your Copa Girls year. And you had someone who gave a presentation and then you had Dean Martin singing in the backyard. It was just amazing. That's a nice house. It really is. All that cabinetry. Yeah, I think that was a great project. Dee Dee Nave is really in charge of that. I think she found the house or suggested it first. She has done a great job. 12 Oh, yes. So I want to go back to that first house that you lived in. Oh, the first house I lived in. I thought you were going to talk about the house we moved. Oh, no. In West Charleston. The reason we're doing this project is to talk about that area of the city. When you lived there did you ever think about it as being downtown? No. In fact, when we bought that house, my husband was going to be at Sunrise Hospital and people thought we had moved far away because he was going to be on call some nights. Can you imagine that? I mean far away? Why wouldn't we buy over near the hospital? That seems so silly now, but that was what people felt at the time. Yes, because people have told me that the airport was so far away. Oh, yes. Right. So when your husband was called for an emergency, did it become a problem? No. In the middle of the night there was no traffic, in those days particularly. You just get on the road and be there in ten minutes or so. What were the challenges for his field of work, for his medical field, car accidents? What kind of problems did he encounter? Well, there was a neurosurgeon who I don't think ever slept, and he tended to be there at night for any reason and he'd call. He'd want some test done. I suppose it was car accidents, too. But I know he always complained about this particular doctor—who was a good neurosurgeon, very good, but he just tended to be a night owl and would call at two in the morning just like it was eight in the morning and want something that was really rather routine, but you still went in and did it. Then eventually what happened in the medical field is they had what they called 13 teleradiology. You had like a TV [television] at home. This was a combination of a computer. It had a big screen. They could send the test to you for interpretation. You could do it at home. Of course, now they have that. Some of the doctors in the U.S. have the tests sent to India because then it's the daytime when they're reading these things or nighttime here. Just amazing. Yes, because we hear about it now, but I had no idea it was here back in the seventies. Oh, no, it wasn't. It wasn't until the late eighties, early nineties. I'm just saying that was a real advance. Okay, good. So when people say something about medical care in Las Vegas not being what it should be, how do you respond to that today? Oh, today I think it's silly. I think there always were good doctors here. Maybe there were some really special—even now for certain cancers and whatnot there's certain centers because that makes sense to have a central hospital that really specializes in a certain thing. We never went out of town for medical help, no. But I remember once we were at a show actually—I forget who the star was. One of his lines was, “I don't think it should be called Sunrise; I think it should be called Sunset.” I remember that really annoyed my husband. [Laughing] And I love it because today we have things like the Lou Ruvo Center. Your husband would have probably been so impressed with that. Oh, I think he'd be amazed. He died in '94 and we didn't really have home computers. We were just starting to think about cell phones. My daughters now say to me, “What did you do without a cell phone? When we went to Disneyland, what did you do? You didn't have a cell phone.” I said, “Well, you stayed with us or we'd arrange to meet somewhere as you got older.” I understand exactly what you mean. When I left the office this morning and got into the 14 elevator, I realized I had forgotten my cell phone. It was on my desk. And I said, “I'll do what I used to do when I didn't have a cell phone.” I said, “If I get to the gate and I can't find her number or whatever, I'll have the guard call.” It's no big deal. So yes, so I'm without a cell phone today. It's very liberating. [Laughing] It's very liberating. Well, I went out to dinner last night with some friends. I went to their house and I forgot my phone and I had to go back. I don't like to be out at night without it. No, no. No, I don't, either. So, yes, I'm very careful about that. Tell me about shopping. You had daughters. When you got here in 1972, what was that like to shop for clothes? Well, the shopping was difficult. They were babies, so it wasn't as much of a problem. We had Joseph Magnin I think was the name of it and we had Dillards. We used to call it Diamonds. And it was before the Meadows [Mall] opened because we were near the Meadows. Once that opened it was like amazing to us. It was so wonderful. I think the Boulevard [Mall] was open by then, but that was kind of a ride, particularly with kids. The shopping was not very good. When we bought some furniture for our new house, we did buy it in Las Vegas, but a lot of people went to L.A. to buy furniture and had it shipped out. And had it shipped from L.A.? Yes, at the time. Wow. So today, compare shopping today. Today, again, it's like world-class shopping. There's everything that you could possibly want. Here in Summerlin they're opening a new shopping area and a mall. Why would you go 15 anywhere else? So we've talked about food, shopping, medical care. When this town was integrated back in the 1960s, the person who was president of the NAACP at that time said, “If you want a cosmopolitan city, these are some of the things you're going to have to do.” So do you feel that now Las Vegas is a cosmopolitan city? Well, much more so than it was. Oh, yes, for sure. I think by the time I got here the city was pretty—it wasn't like in the old days where the [African American] entertainers had to stay over in the Moulin Rouge. They couldn't stay at the big hotels. I mean all that was gone by '72. Well, that's what I thought. I mean I didn't know. One of the things that people said about Las Vegas was that it was run by—and we call it the Mafia. Did your husband ever say anything about the history of Sunrise Hospital? Oh, yeah. We talked about that, sure, yeah. What kind of things were said in the medical community? Well, the founder was— Moe Dalitz. Moe Dalitz. Yes. But I had an acquaintance, kind of a friend, and her husband was involved in the Stardust thing and was jailed for several years. It really was a mob city when I moved here. It didn't really affect me one way or the other, but I knew about it. How did other people, friends, families coming here to visit you, how did they see Las Vegas at that point? Well, I think they were surprised when they visited us and saw that we lived in a nice community 16 and it was a big yard and there were a lot of trees around. I remember going to a convention in Junior League and someone asking me did I live in a hotel. It was so silly, but that's what people used to think. And I'm not sure that some people still don't think that. They may indeed. They may indeed. I don't know. But now we're a city of how many? It's well over a million. Tell me a little more about the Junior League. You just said something about going to a conference or a convention someplace. So is that an annual? There used to be more meetings. But they do have annual conference still and I remember going to annual conference. It was very enjoyable. I went to two of them. One was in Vancouver and one was in Dallas. I had never been to either of those cities. So it was very interesting. Did we ever host the Junior League here in Las Vegas? No. Wow. Why not, with all the hotels? Well, maybe because it's Las Vegas. Probably. What kinds of things happens at a Junior League conference? Most of us see the Junior League—and when you said conference it never occurred to me that you would have conferences. Most of us see the Junior League as a very elite organization with some of the leaders of the community doing all kinds of community projects. What happens at your conferences? Well, for instance, that was when they passed the motion—and I was there; I spoke in favor of it—that they would cut out this secret meeting kind of stuff, this membership kind of stuff, and open it up to anyone who had the desire to volunteer. It still is—that helped. But it's a lot of 17 time and a certain amount of money with dues and whatnot, so you're still attracting people that probably are professionals rather than anyone else. And your projects kind of lend themselves to that. Right, right. But I don't think it's exclusive as it used to be. I mean it isn't, at least here. Now, I don't have much knowledge about the Southern Leagues, still. I know in The Help, that book, they kidded about the Junior League, and that was funny. Some people were offended. I thought it was very funny. Do people in the Junior League here and in the Mesquite Club work together on any projects? Not that I know of, but they may have. And do you have people long belonging to both organizations? Yes, to both. In fact, a lot of the gals who are members and came in when I did were members of Junior Mesquite and then joined Junior League or were invited, at that time invited to join. What is that—I know it's not initiation, but what is that initial process— Well, we call it provisional year. Okay. So what is that like? You do kind of training. They give you training in time management and a lot of the things that if you went into a business world you'd be taking. You go on—not outings exactly. But, for instance, Helen [J.] Stewart School; that used to be one of the things you'd visit. So it's learning about the community and becoming trained. The idea is trained volunteers. Then as they get more mature—in fact, you used to have to become a sustainer, they call it, at for