Transcript of interview with Emma Ellsworth by Clark Ellsworth, March 5, 1980

UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth i An Interview with Emma Ellsworth An Oral History Conducted by Clark Ellsworth Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada, Las Vegas UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2017 UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth iii The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division. The OHRC conducts oral interviews with individuals who are selected for their ability to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. The OHRC is also home to legacy oral history interviews conducted prior to its establishment including many conducted by UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske and his students. This legacy interview transcript received minimal editing, such as 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. The interviewee/narrator was not involved in the editing process. UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth iv Abstract On March 5, 1980, Clark Ellsworth interviewed his grandmother, Emma Ellsworth (born 1902 in Payson, Utah) about her experiences in Southern Nevada. Ellsworth first talks about growing up in Utah and getting married before moving to Pioche, Nevada during the Great Depression. She also talks about bringing up a family in Las Vegas as well as her and her husband’s work in running Beneficial Life, a life insurance business, in Las Vegas. Ellsworth also talks about the Mormon churches in Las Vegas, the schools her children attended, and the number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren she had at the time. UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 1 This is an interview with Emma Gennieve Bale Ellsworth on the 5th of March, 1980 at 1:45. She lives at 224 South Sixteenth Street, Las Vegs. I’m Clark Ellsworth, and this is for History of Nevada. Mrs. Ellsworth was born September 25th, 1902. In Payson, Utah. All right, who were you born to? What’s your parents’ names? Oh, Alice Rebecca Baxter Bale, and Clifford Bale. Clifford Bale, okay. So what was your life like in Payson? Well, I was rather young while I lived there because I was the first one born there. And I just was like any other kid, walked two or three miles to get to school in the snow with. The (unintelligible) school was a big schoolhouse built kinda on a little knoll, you know, high above the city, and it was a wonderful school. And during my lunch hour, I’d run down and wait on one of my mother’s friends that was very old and had a real bad heart condition. And I’d run to the store, which was two or three blocks away and two or three blocks back, and get her food for her for the week or for the day or whatever she needed. And then I used to sweep her floor, and there was no vacuums then—just dust or sweep her floor, and after school I’d run back and dust for her and see if anything I could do, and then I’d run home. And it was quite a tiring thing for us, ‘cause we didn’t take our lunch. We didn’t have nothing at home to fix our lunch, so we had to run back, oh, maybe ten or twelve blocks to get our lunch. And in the snow time, if the snow plows had worked the place over, where you walked, the sidewalks and that, we’d sit all day long with our legs wet from the snow, and that was kinda tiring. But that was in high school. You didn’t wear pants, then, did you? No. We just had long black stockings and a dress and a sweater or something like that. Okay, so you spent most of your childhood in Payson? UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 2 Yes. Then you met Grandpa. Where did you meet Grandpa? I met Grandpa in the sixth grade. In the sixth grade? In the sixth grade in the—what was that, I can’t remember what the name was called of the school, but it was just about three blocks from my home, which was nice. And I then I met Grandpa in the sixth grade, and then the sixth, seventh, and eighth. And then we went into high school. You liked each other then? I beg your pardon? Did you like each other then? Just casually. We went to church dances, had a date or two or something like that. And then after a long courtship and everything, then you got married? Then, in our, let’s see, in our third year of high school, we went steady. And then we were married, he was nineteen and I was eighteen. Do you remember what year that was? It was the 21st of December, 1918 or ’19, ‘cause see I’d have to go in there and get my (unintelligible). That’s all right, ’18 or ’19. Okay, so you and Grandpa got married, and where’d you live after you were married? We lived in Salt Lake. We went to Salt Lake and got us an apartment, and both of us worked. And we was married for five years before your dad was born. And he was born in 1925. UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 3 And that was 1925, wasn’t it? Yes. Your dad was born in 1925. Mm-hmm. That was just before the Depression. It was the Depression. It was the Depression. Yes, it was the Depression then. We had an awfully hard time getting work in Salt Lake. It took two jobs. I worked in a photo finishing studio, and I got dad a job doing the dark room work at night. During the day, he drove a truck for (unintelligible) Electric. So, why did you decide to come to Nevada? Well, the reason we decided to stay in the states, we couldn’t make a living with both of us working. We decided that we would try another state, and Lee’s brother Joe was a miner. And Lee never worked in a mine, you know, and he told him if he come down he thought he would get him a job in the mine. So, he was scared of the mine, Lee was, and I was afraid for him, too. But he worked his way from what they call a (unintelligible) miner to a hoisting engineer in the seven years we were there. And where was that at? In Pioche. In Pioche? Uh-huh. So did he just work as a miner in Pioche, or did he do other things? He was in the (unintelligible) in the church a lotta the time. That’s all he could do was work. There was no jobs available in the mining in that town; it was a mining town. UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 4 And you lived in Pioche for seven years? Yes. The people were very nice to us, and everyone helped everyone else. And it was a wonderful time to be brotherly. The people were brotherly and sisterly and helped each other (unintelligible). I think we made seven dollars and something an hour in those days. And we built our own house, ‘cause we couldn’t stand to live in bed bug apartments, so we built our own house. What was your house like? Well, it was made out of lumber, and then we had a basement that was already dug by the mining people; it was on the side of a hill. Kinda like a dugout-type? While we lived there while Lee was in high school, Faith was—I’ve forgotten what grade she was in. But we decided, Wally was getting older and Lisa—well, we’re not gonna let Wally marry somebody out here, so we’re moving. And we flipped a coin to see whether we’d go to Provo or whether we’d go to Las Vegas. Did you have any jobs set up, or you decided to— We didn’t have no jobs set up or not. Dr. Fautz, our only friend here in Las Vegas, said, “Come down, Lee, and we’ll work it out. I’ll help you.” So, Dr. Fautz gave us a little two-burner stove, like a camp stove, because when we moved in this house, the electricity was not on. We lived in here two weeks without electricity on. So you moved all the way from Pioche down to Las Vegas without a job— Without a job. And you moved into this house—this was a new house then? This was a brand new house. UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 5 And electricity wasn’t hooked up, so— And we decided that I would do the book work and the writing of policies over the phone, like in the banks and stuff. So, how did Grandpa get involved in insurance? Well, he was in insurance when we came here for (unintelligible) in Pioche. He’d sell the miners, you know, on payroll deduction, take so much out of their— Checks each week. Each (unintelligible) or whatever it was. So, he was selling for— He was selling, he was (unintelligible) and casualty, and during the Depression it got so bad, that’s where we decided to come here to change states. And I bless the day that we come in to Nevada because it was really a Godsend to us. It just seemed like the whole earth just said, “Well, here I am, take me.” Or it was just that evident that we would succeed. So Lee worked outside soliciting for the clientele, and then I take the calls over the phone. And we didn’t have an office because it wasn’t available. We couldn’t find one; there was none available built. So we had our office in our home for seven years until we got our office down on 1737 Las Vegas Boulevard South, and we built a building there. And then we built a motel later around—we just wanted a hundred feet, but he had to have, let’s see, 300 by, oh, quite a bit, you know, going way back into the lot. So, we decided that we’d build a motel, so we did. And that would’ve been, you called that the M. Lee Motel? Yes. The M. Lee was built after we had been there quite a while, but we got tired of looking at all the weeds and stuff behind there. I said to Dad, “Why don’t we build a motel? Just go down UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 6 this side, cross over, and come up.” And so that’s what we did. We had thirty-five units—made a good living. Made a good living off of motels? Mm-hmm. Now we had people running it when we was working the insurance field. I was temporarily the manager of it because I had to go in if the managers quit, you know. Well, when did you move from Pioche to Las Vegas? Do you remember the year? Let’s see, it was 1941, May, a month away. May of 1941? I think it was right after school stopped, it was about that time. May of 1941 we came here. We came into the state in ’31, but we lived seven years there. So I had only lived in Utah ten years after I was married. And I’ve been here ever since. So, in about 1941, you moved to Las Vegas; what was it like? What was Las Vegas like? It was so small a town; it was just delightful. Everyone was so nice to you, and everybody welcomed you no matter what line of work you were in or what you had or you didn’t have—everybody was friendly. I don’t remember of any crime at all. I don’t remember anybody molesting anybody’s house or vandalism or anything like it is today. I just couldn’t believe, such a wonderful place. It (unintelligible) my heart to turn into the city it is now—vandalism and rape and killing and everything, and mostly, the un-respectability that they give the elderly. I couldn’t believe anything could happen like that in such a lovely city. I love Las Vegas, and I love the State of Nevada. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Was the area you’re living right now, around 224 South Sixteenth, now was that the area to live in at the time, was there—? UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 7 This was the only street that was built. This was Lot 13. From my front room window, I could see the Henderson Plant. So, this street wasn’t— See the titanium plant in Henderson? Yes. See where whatever those buildings are that they’re working on. So, this was the only house built, really, on this street? This was the only row. Only row of houses built. Around Carson, they were built, but Sixteenth—and the house on the corner wasn’t built, and these weren’t built at all. All these houses over here wasn’t built at all. So where was most of the building, then, up in the south? Well, most of the building was down lower back this way, and Huntridge way. Mm-hmm, right behind the Huntridge Theatre? The buildings in there—Huntridge was the tract, and Mayfair was a tract—new tracts that were going in, and we chose Mayfair. I liked it because it was centered just right or something. Right. Okay, so you moved here just before the war started. Yes, your dad enlisted from here. So, was it June 6th, 1942, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor? Yes. What was Las Vegas like? What do you remember about—? Oh, everybody was really worried. And your dad, being eighteen, he had to go. He either had to enlist or be drafted, so he didn’t have a chance to finish his college until he come back from the war. Did he finish high school? UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 8 Yes, he finished high school, and he did educational work in the Navy; the Navy let him take courses and everything, so he took three years of insurance under the Navy’s, you know. Yeah, the VA. Yes, so that way, why, they checked on him every so often on his insurance. He took Foreign Casualty the first year, and he took Life and Bonds the second year, and he passed exams and everything, and Lee, his dad, was authorized to be a trainee. Trainer? Trainee for him. So, how many insurance companies were there in Las Vegas (unintelligible)? Not very many. Harley Harmon was— Harley Harmon, let’s see, what was it—there was just one foreign casualty company here when we came. So, Beneficial Life Insurance— So, Beneficial Life—they didn’t want us to go in foreign casualty work, but we couldn’t wait to get the money from the insurance companies for life insurance, ‘cause they have to have their physicals and everything. We had to have so much a month to pay on this house, you know. So, that little house in Pioche paid for this house down here. How much did the house cost when you bought it? This house? Five thousand dollars. And the house is roughly about, what, 1400 square-foot? See, I don’t know how big it is. It was little then, you know. So, you’ve expanded it. UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 9 We put $10,000 more into this house to remodel it, besides putting the drive-in like that and garage everything. And you’ve got a garage in the back? Yes, and put all the cement in and— What people think of the early days of Las Vegas is, about the time when you moved here when gambling wasn’t that big of a thing— It wasn’t such a big deal then. What was the importance of Las Vegas when you were here? What was the what? What was the importance of Las Vegas? Why do people live here? The people that lived here just were in different businesses, you know, opened their own businesses and that. And then, later when the gaming got pretty much the chief thing in Las Vegas, that was the hotels and gaming is the chief industry of Las Vegas, and it still is today. It’s getting bigger and bigger. Like, we had some people come in from England, and they moved and brought (unintelligible) home. And they wanted to get their son home for Christmas, and they said, “What hotel is he staying at?” And he said, “Well, his mother lived here,” and they wouldn’t let him get on the plane. He said all the plane reservations were taken for that time of year, which was Christmas, and that was true. But anytime you come, that’s the case. The hotels and the gaming is first in this town. They don’t bother you if you don’t let them. If you’re a gambler, you take a chance like anything else. Was the railroad industry pretty big? Oh, yes. The railroad was going full-force then. Did you use to take the railroad, or? UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 10 You know, my daughter, Faith, you know, your aunt, she wanted to go to Salt Lake, and I usually drove up or else I took the bus if I didn’t want to drive. I usually drove up and take her, and she says, “Mother, could, once, could we ride the train?” So, we rode the train and had a really delightful time—had our lunch in the diner of the train, and we really enjoyed it. She never did forget that. So, we went up and back on the train. I’d like to ride the Amtrak, the new train. Yes, they’re really nice. All in all, I think Las Vegas is the only town for me, or city, whatever you call it—metropolis. When you moved here, so basically, up to the south and some extent to the east, or not to the east, but to the— Well, the Strip was Las Vegas Boulevard South. And there was nothing really out there when you were there? When we built our office building, we were the only one sitting out there on there—says, “What did you build there for?”—all insurance people said, “Well, Lee, what did you built there for?” And he says, “Well, that’s gonna be the main street. My wife and I, we drove down Fremont one night, and we just took pictures, and it was eight to ten or like that, and we watched the traffic, how much traffic went on Fremont,”—you know, the dam is quite a wonderful thing for Las Vegas tourists. And so, we just wanted to see how much traffic went on Fremont and how much traffic went on Las Vegas Boulevard South. And so, we decided that we better built on Las Vegas Boulevard South because that was the Strip, and that’s where all the people passed to go to the hotels and everything, and so that’s the reason we built our office building there. Okay, so how many people would you estimate lived in Las Vegas when you—? When we came? About 8,000. About 8,000 people? UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 11 Very small. Three hundred and seventy-five thousand now. Yes, it’s very large now. But you know, the tempo of the town changed; as it got better, it just kept more— Faster (unintelligible) You know, it wasn’t the same. Everybody said we liked it when it was little. I know they’d come in to our office to pay their insurance, and when they came here to pay it, we used to give them tomatoes and lettuce and cucumber, ‘cause we had the (unintelligible) garden, vegetable garden, and we’d give ‘em vegetables, we’d visit, we’d take ‘em out, and it was really nice. And what about church? Now— There was two wards. There was two wards. First and Second. Did they just have one chapel? Yes, the chapel on Ninth. Up on the Ninth and Clark Street chapel. Clark. Now, was that built before you came here? Yes. It was built before I came. And that was really quite a chapel at that time, wasn’t it? Yes, it’s a very nice chapel. All the wards came off the first ward. Now I don’t know how many there is. There’s about fifty wards now. UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 12 Yes. Now, in the church itself, there wasn’t that many Mormons living in town then. Now, was there a lot of Mormons compared to the rest of the people that lived there? There wasn’t as many Mormons as there was the rest of the people here. All the Catholics and stuff. In that time. But, see, there was only two wards. But since, a lot of church people have moved in. Were you pretty heavily involved in the church when you first moved here? I was in the presidency of the MIA, and I taught primary and Sunday school at different times. And then, let’s see, Dad was in—what was he in—seventies presidency, and then he was in the high priest, and we put those cushions on the seats in the First Ward, Dad arranged that, and then the lights, he had the lights covered with the glass, ‘cause it hurt his eye. So, he donated that; he was a heavy donator to the church. I’m going to turn this tape over. Grandpa told me about when he was a state missionary; do you remember any of those times? Oh, yes, he was the state mission president. What did he use to do? He was president of the mission here. What did he use to do at the time? Oh, he used to teach, you know. Teach people about the church? Yes. Did he use to travel a lot? UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 13 Not only in the city, because he was training men in Beneficial Life; he was an agency trainer for all the agents. We had an agency of about thirty men. And you used to go with him? Well, I worked in the office. And then I would go on conventions with him. Do you remember anything in particular about those conventions? Oh, yes. I took charge of one of them down in San Diego. You did? Down in Santa Barbara. Why? A panel of four ladies that I didn’t even know was coming in; I had to take charge of the panel and time them each ten minutes apiece and quit by the time the men—we separated women and men (unintelligible). What’d you talk about? So, that’s how we worked. What did you use to talk about? Well, I didn’t talk about insurance because they said they know more than I ever could tell them. So they asked me to speak in one of the conventions, which I did. It was Coronado, I spoke. The other time in Santa Barbara, I took charge of a panel in the Coronado Hotel, that big hotel down there. I had to speak on how we got into the insurance business and how we managed without a draw from the company, you know, you can’t get in debt to a company if you did want to do that, but we didn’t do it that way. We didn’t take a draw. This is a taped interview with Emme Gennevieve Ellsworth. We’re now going to turn the tape over to the other side. If you could turn it over and rewind it to the front, I’d UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 14 appreciate it. Her name is Emma, E-M-M-A, Gennieve, G-E-N-N-I-E-V-E, Bale, B-A-L-E, Ellsworth, E-L-L-S-W-O-R-T-H. [Interview continues, begins midsentence] And sometimes it was hard to get the life, but the only thing we had was getting in (unintelligible). Please turn the tape over. [Recording ends] Do you have any interesting stories about Las Vegas when you first came or when you lived here? I know my parents, of course (unintelligible). Yes, living by my son’s family, that was, to me, wonderful. We had lovely picnics in the backyard, and we had barbecues. Was there anything interesting about that? Watching all your children grow up was something to me, and you went over by the drugstore when you was about four-and-a-half, parked your little tricycle in the parking lot, crossed the street—crossed Fremont—over to Bell Variety and wanted to buy a little car. Now, that was the cutest thing; we just thought that was wonderful, to think, you were just a little tot, but you knew where to get the little cars. What about the twins, when they were born? Well, they were the whole show, you know. Your twins are always (unintelligible) in the family everybody knows as a twin. Was there many twins in Las Vegas at the time? There were six pair of twins in the Mayfair School at the time. And that was the only school? UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 15 Yes, they went to school. There was the Haywood twins and our twins and one other twins that I didn’t know. They were, some of them girls—the Haywoods were the girls, and they were friendly with the twins because they went to the same church and everything. They sold Mayfair School; it’s a diagnostic school now. It’s for children that don’t know how to read and they’re a little bit behind in different areas of learning that they should be at, to be scheduled to be where they are. And that used to be the school that was really the elementary school—there’s two (unintelligible)—Fifth Street School and (unintelligible). I don’t think you went to this school. I went to Mayfair. Oh, did you? For two years, yes. Two years? I went to kindergarten and first grade there. Eileen didn’t go. Eileen didn’t go? Eileen was born away, but she wasn’t— You had an interesting next door neighbor for many years—(Laughs)—Lora Darian, right? Yes, she was principal of the Mayfair School. And she lived next to you forever, huh? Well, she came in the year I came in. She came in in June. She’s never married? UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 16 She was—she’s had, was married and divorced and had a son, Lyde, during— And she was a pretty prominent schoolteacher for a long time? Yes, she was prominent for quite a while, and then they built a school and named it after her: the Darian School. But she was married and divorced and lived in the south, Virginia, and she brought her mother with her when she came; Lyde was just a small child. And they moved from Reno; they were living in Reno. They came from Virginia to Reno, and then in June of 1941, same year I came in—they’re a month difference—she moved in that house (unintelligible), so that was number twelve, and this is number thirteen. And later on she became the principal of— Yes, she worked at the grammar school off on South Fifth—you know, what was the called? Fifth Street School. And she worked there for several years, and then she moved down here, and that’s when I met her. She died several years ago. Okay. Well, your family grew up here in town—well, I know I grew up here in town, my dad and my mom grew up. Yes, Faith and Mack and you kids came. Can you talk a little bit about them, not necessarily their personal life, but about growing up with your family in Las Vegas, what it was like? It was (unintelligible). Oh, (unintelligible). Had to go out and get some new ones. What was it like with your family growing up in Las Vegas? Did you worry about ‘em? UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 17 No, there wasn’t the, what do you call it, a bad element for gangs and stuff like that. The children weren’t—I don’t know what you call it—they just weren’t mean. They weren’t vindictive and they weren’t fighting like the gangs and things, they are now. Wally went into the band, the music, Faith went into the Rhythmettes, and everybody seemed to have things that they liked to do, like football or basketball or something, the boys went into that. And I don’t remember of any crime here at that time. I don’t remember of any bad things the children were doing—no drugs or nothing like that. The kids were just interested in doing wholesome things, you know. What was the high school like? Las Vegas High was just (unintelligible). It was just a wonderful teaching staff. (Unintelligible) Brinley was in there and Walter Long was in there, and lots of the LDS people were teachers in the Las Vegas school, and the standard of the people were high. Their dress—they weren’t outrageously dressed like some girls do now. They were pretty well standardized clothing and acted like nice people. And I like it because Faith was in the Rhythmette Review they had up there. She was a dancer, you know. Rhythmettes were popular then. Yes, the Rhythmettes were real popular at that time. I think it was about the second year they’d gotten started, but Faith was in it. It still exists today. And that was good, Faith liked that. And Wally was in the band, and he liked that. He played the slide trombone, so he had a little Austin, a little tiny, windy car, they called it an Austin, and I don’t know what—in comparison to size, it was very small. But he used to pile all the kids in the neighborhood and his sister up to school every morning. He come out one morning, and we were figuring on having one of these bonfires to have, you know, I don’t know, if those, in the older UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 18 days, sometimes they did that. When he came out one day, they lifted his car right off on top of that. (Laughs) He was so excited. And so all the kids got together and they all (unintelligible) lift him down. Lifted his car up, huh? So, Las Vegas was very small. What was the big buildings—what were the buildings that—? I don’t remember. I think it was Fremont (unintelligible). Yes, what was Fremont Street like? Fremont was the main street besides if you went towards the Strip where our office building was. We could hardly afford to buy that building—Beneficial Life financed us on that. I think about two years ago, we got the $50,000 paid off; that was what it cost us. And, like on Fremont Street, do they basically have all the same hotels that were there? Or has it all changed? It’s all changed. Was it—? We used to have our rodeos and they’d just march down Fremont Street, and that was it. You know, there was nothing much beyond Fremont. Where’d you eat at when you went out to eat? We rarely did. You rarely did? If we did, why, we got a hamburger at that little stand out by the big post office. There was a little, the post office is there, and right across from it was a little hamburger stand. It’s not there anymore? We used to go get a hamburger (unintelligible)— UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 19 You mean, up by the—? Big post office. Where Salmon’s is at, across the street from there? By the Huntridge post office? No, not the Huntridge—the main post office up town. Oh, up near Fremont Street? Yes, just off Stewart. Right, on Ogden. Yes, Ogden. There used to be a hamburger stand there; was that the only one? There was a little hamburger stand; that was the only place that we ever went to—that’s the only thing we could afford. Well, later on, obviously— But this town just grew by leaps and bounds, ‘cause so many people came in from all over the country here. There’s few Nevadans in— That’s what built Las Vegas was tourists. They can’t big those big beautiful buildings for nothing, you know. Right. They’re not on the winners. No—(Laughs)—on the losers. On the losers. Well, who were some of the people that impressed when you came to Las Vegas? UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 20 Well, the mayor of the city—I’ve forgotten now what names, they just fly by—but Lee was sort of political in a way. He helped with the—what’s that place, I can’t think of names—convention center, he worked with the people. Albright? Albright, Bud Albright. The convention center, he worked a little bit. He was president of different clubs, you know. So, the mayor, Reed Whipple, you were good friends with Reed Whipple? Yes, Reed Whipple was in a lot. They went to school to Europe with him. But we had the motel, and we was wrestling between managers and maids and stuff like that. And then we had to open the—and then there were just three of us in the office, you know, I worked in the office, and then your dad and Wally, till we built it up to more volume to hire more people, you know. So, really, I was just drifting, ‘cause I was so busy trying to make a dollar for all of us, you know. Mm-hmm. Now, in the insurance company, it really served, in a way, to help your relatives in some ways, didn’t it? Oh, yes. It helped our relatives. Why don’t you talk a little bit about that? And it got (unintelligible), and it helped your dad and your family, and we helped a lot of people. And Jerry McDonald and— And Jerry and his family. And Eugene and his family. We worked awfully hard for the family, you know, we really did. Anything we could help the family, we did—and other families that we helped. It was Godsend to us, but it was hard. Lee and I worked all the time at it. I was so surprised that they asked me to talk, you know, but that year, Wally was in the million-dollar UNLV University Libraries Emma Ellsworth 21 roundtable, and that’s the highest honor you can get as an insurance man is the million-dollar roundtable. He was the head in the company of all insurance people. A million dollars then—what was, in what year, do you remember? I don’t remember. He made— In the early sixties, or probably the fifties maybe? He made the million-dollar roundtable fairly young. He made it, and Dad was so proud of him. I think that Grandpa, the year Dad died, he didn’t care to live, his son was just the— The tops (unintelligible). The tops. And you children were, too. Faith noticed the comparison between her family, your family, in Dad’s estimation. And when you moved over to the other side of town, Dad didn’t want you to do that. He wanted us to stay on next to him? He wanted you to stay next to him. He had a lotta kids, six kids. He loved you so much, all the kids. Well, Grandpa used to have some interesting habits, didn’t he? We haven’t talked much about Grandpa and his teeth, working on this teeth. Well, in Christmas, why, he’d make us hide the gifts, and then you kids would have to find, get in the drawers and everything. So, the last Christmas, the next to the last Christmas before Dad died, why, (unintelligible) we’ve stood all your nonsense we’re going to; we’re not gonna hide gifts this year, we’re not gonna tear up the drawers and the pictures hanging this way and that—we’re gonna put the Christmas presents under the tree like normal people. (Laughs) UNLV University Libra