Skip to main content

Search the Special Collections and Archives Portal

Transcript of interview with Marie McMillan by Kelli Luchs, September 15, September 23, October 1, & November 24, 2009

Document

Document
Download OH_01272_book_o.pdf (application/pdf; 315.83 MB)

Information

Date

2009-09-15
2009-09-23
2009-10-01
2009-11-24

Description

From an early age, Marie McMillan displayed an adventurous sensibility, a characteristic that is revealed in how life unfolded for her. In this multi-part interview, Marie begins with her birth in 1926 California, and continues with stories of her childhood recollections of the Depression era, her longstanding closeness with Nanny, her maternal grandmother, and memories of Old Bent, her paternal grandfather. She enjoys a flirtatious vitality and attends college for a year. However, as World War II begins to infest the U.S., Marie finds herself falling for a young merchant marine named Duke Daly. They marry, have two children, and live a transient life moving about California and Hawaii as he goes to school, then seeks and finds employment in a postwar economy. By the late 1950s, the Daly household is stressed and begin to split time between California and Las Vegas. Marie holds positions that require security clearance and administrative talents. In 1961, Duke passes away a

Digital ID

OH_01272_book

Physical Identifier

OH-01272
Details

Citation

McMillan, Marie Interview, 2009 September 15 & 23, October 1, & November 24. OH-01272. [Transcript.] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

Rights

This material is made available to facilitate private study, scholarship, or research. It may be protected by copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity rights, or other interests not owned by UNLV. Users are responsible for determining whether permissions are necessary from rights owners for any intended use and for obtaining all required permissions. Acknowledgement of the UNLV University Libraries is requested. For more information, please see the UNLV Special Collections policies on reproduction and use (https://www.library.unlv.edu/speccol/research_and_services/reproductions) or contact us at special.collections@unlv.edu

Standardized Rights Statement

Digital Provenance

Digitized materials: physical originals can be viewed in Special Collections and Archives reading room

Language

English

Geographic Coordinate

36.17497, -115.13722

Format

image/tiff

An Interview with Marie McMillan An Oral History Conducted by Kelli Luchs $ The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ©The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2007 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV - University Libraries Director and Editor: Claytee D. White Assistant Editors: Gloria Homol and Delores Brownlee Transcribers: Kristin Hicks and Laurie Boetcher Interviewers and Project Assistants: Suzanne Becker, Nancy Hardy, Joyce Moore, Andres Moses, Laura Plowman, Emily Powers, Dr. Dave Schwartz' The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of Dr. Harold Boyer and the Library Advisory Committee. 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 (housed separately) accompany the collection as slides or black and white photographs. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Additional transcripts may be found under that series title. Claytee D. White, Project Director Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University Nevada, Las Vegas • • • 111 Table of Contents List of Illustrations Preface Interview Index iv Marie pilot photo List of Illustrations Frontispiece Following Page: Young Marie, her life and family photos 20 Marie in the 1960s, marrying Dr. James McMillan 60 Family photos, husband Mac's retirement JQQ Aviation passion and adventures 11 A Preface From an early age, Marie McMillan displayed an adventurous sensibility, a characteristic that is revealed in how life unfolded for her. In this multi-part interview, Marie begins with her birth in 1926 California, and continues with stories of her childhood recollections of the Depression era, her longstanding closeness with Nanny, her maternal grandmother, and memories of Old Bent, her paternal grandfather. She enjoys a flirtatious vitality and attends college for a year. However, as World War II begins to infest the U.S., Marie finds herself falling for a young merchant marine named Duke Daly. They marry, have two children, and live a transient life moving about California and Hawaii as he goes to school, then seeks and finds employment in a post­war economy. By the late 1950s, the Daly household is stressed and begin to split time between California and Las Vegas. Marie holds positions that require security clearance and administrative talents. In 1961, Duke passes away and the young mother settles into Las Vegas and her career with Holmes & Narver, a contractor with the Nevada Test Site. With her children in European boarding schools, Marie remembers working as much overtime as possible. Nevertheless, she also found time to continue persuing her desire to fly by taking ground flight school in the evenings. During the class she met James McMillan, who she learned not only shared her passion for flying, but also for nice cars-die drove a Jaguar and he a Corvette. Though a relationship seemed to be blossoming Marie was uncertain she was even interested in the idea of marrying again. By 1963 Dr. James (Mac) McMillan and Marie were married and she never looked back. It is important to note that they were an interracial couple in the 1960s: he was a divorced dentist and father of two and she a widow with two kids; he was a leader in the civil rights movement of the era and she became his steadfast partner. This narrative includes stories of Dr. McMillan's leadership role within both the greater Las Vegas community and the African-American population: NAACP president, black newspaper publisher, property investor, friend to those needing a helping hand, and much more. Marie's stories reveal a loving relationship and passion for life. She includes lively anecdotes from their busy life of family, friends, civic involvement, property ownership, careers, and a joy for flying planes. Dr. McMillan died in 1999 and Marie McMillan continued to embrace her passion for aviation. Many of her flying records many remain unbroken of this publication date. ORAL HISTORY RESEARCH CENTER AT UNLV Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project Name of Narrator: Name of Interviewer: Use Agreement m a r i e la. LA C \*\ S e, the above named, give to the Oral History Research Center of UNLV, die recorded uitemew(s) initiated on 2^^200^ as an unrestricted gift, to be used for such sc 10 ar y and educational purposes as shall be determined, and transfer to the University o Nevada Las Vegas, legal title and all literary property rights including copyright. This gift does not preclude the right of die interviewer, as a representative of UNLV to use the* recordings and related materials for scholarly pursuits. There will be no compensation for any interviews. t / l f f / O T )ate Signature oflnterviewemrl^if'il1 ^n q1 Library Special Collections 4505 Maryland Parkway, Box 457010, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-7070 (702) 895-2222 Today is September 15th, 2009. My name is Kelli Luchs. I'm inte rviewing Marie McMillan at her home in Las Vegas, Nevada. Marie, would you please spell your name? Yes. My name is, as you said, Marie McMillan. And it's M-A-R-I-E, capital M with a little C, capital M-I-L-L-A-N. Marie, would you like to start by telling me when and where you were born? Yes. I was born in a small town in the center of California. The name was Exeter, California. And I understand now that there's an Exeter actually somewhere in thd east on the northeast coast and also an Exeter in England somewhere. But anyway, we didn't knc|w that at the time. And so was born in Exeter, California. And as I said it was a small town, but it was a very, very rich little town because it was the center of orange groves. And there was a little town next to it called Orange Cove. But I was born in Exeter, California, in the center of the orange belt. I was born in a little hospital that was a beautiful little hospital Not long ago I visited there and it's still there. It was a beautiful little, small hospital. I think part of it was made out of stone and it had growth, you know, ivy and things growing all over it, [just beautiful. I wish I had a picture to show you. Next time I'm there I'm going to take a picture. Can you tell me a little about your family, about your mother or your father? I was the firstborn to my mother and father. I was born on August 1st, 1926, at this little hospital that I told you about. And I was born in the middle of the afternoon. Of course, in August it was very, very hot there. And there's a little story that my mother used to laugh at because my father had been working. And I think I was born on a Sunday. And I don't know why he was working. But in August they were very busy. My father was a refrigeration engineer. At that time he was in charge and he ran the ice plant. Ice plants were in fashion at that time because in Exeter that wis the center of the of where they grow fruit in California and next to a town called Reedley, the fruit belt of the nation. Other than oranges they grow nectarines ar well, all kinds of fruit. And, of course, they put those - the fruit in railroad cars. At that time it was before refrigeration. So they put ice in these cars to keep it cool while they shipped this fruit to the east coast. And actually then when the refrigeration came into mode and they had California, which is called d plums and apricots — 1 big engines, motors to make the ice — it became refrigeration later. But at that time when I was born they used ice to ship it. Then when refrigeration came into effect, my father became a refrigeration engineer. So seven years after I was born I had a brother who was born. And his name was James, James Martin Stever. And then two years later I had another brother. His name was Robert Benton Stever. So that was our whole family — my mother and father and myself and two brothers. What were your parents' names? My parents names were ~ my mother was Eva Marie. Cash was her maiden name. And then, of course, she later became Eva Marie Stever. My father's name was James Martin Stever. Can you spell Stever? Stever is S as in Sam, T as in Tom, E-V as in Victor, E-R, Stever. My father was one of a twin. And his brother's name was George. But I never ever met George. I met my father's father one time. His name was—I believe was James Benton Stever. But I know later on he came to visit us and people called him Old Bent. I can remember that; Old Bent. And I do want to tell you a story. When he came to see us, it was actually the middle of the Depression. And we lived near railroad tracks. And actually men dressed in suits and ties and came on the railroad. They were coming from the East Coast to California because they were looking for jobs. And they were all dressed up and they rode the railroad. It wasn't the railroad where you had seats. It was the railroad that carried fruit back and forth to the east. And they would stop there to ~ actually, it would stop in Exeter. Well, it was outside of Exeter. They would stop there to pick up the fruit and get the ice so they could take it to the east. And so I was close to an ice plant. And I can remember when I was small riding on my dad's shoulders to go to the ice plant, which it's a whole other story about the ice plant. However, when Old Bent came to see us, I was sitting on the back steps waiting for my father to bring him from the bus stop. At that time people traveled by bus a lot. And he came from Missouri. He came I believe from Springfield, Missouri. And I know quite a bit about him. But Old Bent came to see us. And I was sitting on the back steps waiting for him to come. 2 The reason I told you about the men coming on the railroad dressed in suits is because they w ould come — and, of course, they had no money during the Depression. They would come to our house, which was near the railroad and near the ice plant. They would come to our house and ask for food. My mother always cooked for them and gave them food. But she would always ask them to do some kind of work. She didn't just give them food. They would stack wood or mow the lawn or do something while she was cooking for them. And then they would sit on the back steps and eat that home-cooked meal and talk to me, which was really nice. And I guess that's why I like to talk to people now because I did it from the time I was really small. So as I was sitting on the back steps waiting for my dad and Old Bent, here they came up the road in a car. Of course, we had a car at that time. My dad always had a job. And so I guess we were very fortunate because I hear people tell all these horrible stories about the Depression. But it never affected us actually. So my dad and Old Bent came up the driveway and came to me. And Old Bent picked me up and he said, Give me a kiss, girl. And I gave him a kiss. And then I ran into the house and told my mother, Momma, Momma, Old Bent has hair on his lips. And, of course, he had a beard, a little, small beard. They always told that story. They thought that was really funny. I guess I had never seen anyone with a beard before. And so, oh, momma, momma, he has hair on his lips. So I thought that was really funny. That was before my brothers were born and I was the only one. So I guess I was about four or five years old. I hadn't gone to school yet. So that was my family — my mother and father and Jimmy and Bobby and me. And that was our family. What do you remember about the ice plant? The ice plant - oh, I can tell you - you know, I haven't seen an ice plant since. It was very, very large. And the ice plant made big blocks of ice. They were sat down like ~ you walked into an ice plant. I really don't know how to describe it. You'd walk on the floor and lift up these tops of these big blocks of ice. If you've never seen them, the blocks are about five or six feet high and about a foot and a half wide on the side and about two and a half feet on each side. Anyway, then they had big machines that ran across the ceiling. And the machines ran up and down the whole ice plant. And they had big forks that you could raise up and down. And they picked up the blocks of ice out of where the ice was made, like on the floor. And they would take it to a big room that was ~ it was a cold room, a holding room to wait until the trains came. And then the big machines, the big forks would pick up that ice from the cold room and take it to this belt that went up to the top of the train, a motorized belt. It was like an escalator without the stairs on it. And there was a man up there, then, who would take a big thing like large ice picks in case it didn t fit down in the train. And they would put all this ice in the train to keep the fruit cold as it went to the east. I remember going there with my dad. There were lots of thermometers there, of course. And he taught me how to read thermometers. Of course, they did a lot of chemistry also to make the ice. So the ice was pure. And he would take me into the room where they would test the water to make sure that the water was pure and clear. It was a lot of fun for me. I loved riding on his shoulders and getting to go to the ice plant with him. I would imagine he'd take me there about twice a month or when I was really good he would take me there to read the thermometers and show me about the chemistry. It was great fun. What other kinds of activities did you do? Tell me about some of your friends. Well, we had this huge yard. It was very, very big. And at that time there was lots of water available. We didn't sprinkle the lawn because it was too large. It was probably about a half acre — our front yard was about a half acre of lawn. And all around the perimeter there were these big cement things that reached down in and turned the water off and on. And so it actually flooded the lawn. We didn't sprinkle the lawn, we flooded the lawn. And when it was very, very hot I would go in my bathing suit and I would sit on these big cement things. And that was firn. There was no one actually to play with because I was the only person there. There weren't lots of houses around like now. And my mother and father went out a lot. So I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, whom I loved very, very much. My mother was the oldest child. And so when she got married there were other children. She had - let's see - one, two, three -- she had four other - she had one brother and three other sisters. And, of course, they were still at home. And they liked to play with me. And I loved them. They were just really great. And so I liked to stay with my grandmother. And, actually, my grandmother I would say almost raised me. What was your grandma's name? My grandma's name was -- her maiden name was -- well, her name was Alma. Her name was 4 Alma Elizabeth Waldrip, W-A-L-D-R-I-P. Alma Elizabeth Waldrip. And, of course, because I was little I called her Nanny. And the reason I called her Nanny was because my father liked to tease her. And he wanted me to call her Granny. And, of course, when I was learning to talk, I couldn t say Granny. I said Nanny. And so after I was bom everyone in the family always called her Nanny. And so that s how I still call her. Well, she's gone now. But she was great fun. I could remember sitting on her lap and she'd tell me stories and rock me in the rocking chair. And she would stroke my hair and stroke my forehead and tell me stories, which was really, really nice. My grandma was wonderful. Oh, and what I do remember ~ she scraped apples for me. She would cut an apple in two and take the spoon and scrape it and feed it to me. And then when the apple was all gone, she'd turn it upside down and cut doors and windows in it and she'd make me an apple house. So I still — I haven't done that to my grandchildren. That gives me an idea. I m going to have to make them apple houses. So that was my grandma. When did you start school? I started school, kindergarten, when I was five. And I went to a school in Exeter. It was Exeter Grammar School. And I can remember my aunt, my aunt Loraine. Actually her name was Noel Loraine. Her name was Noel Loraine because she was bom on Christmas. And so her name was Noel. But we called her Babe because she was the baby in the family. And she was only about - oh, I'd have to think. Maybe she was about eight or nine years older than me. And so she took me to school, to grammar school. Actually I guess I was staying with my grandmother because Babe, Noel Loraine, Babe would take me from her house. We'd walk to school. And then we would walk home. And that was my grandmother's house in Exeter. She lived in town. Tell me about school a little bit. What were some of your favorite subjects? Oh, my. I just loved school. I liked everything. I guess I never did like numbers too well, but I liked to draw and read and write. I can remember something about one time my grandmother moved from town out into the suburbs. She moved to a big house that had a large -- very large -- what do you call it underneath the house? Basement? I guess a large basement. The basement was almost the same size as the house. And she did things at that time like she made olives. And we would go down there - I would go down and help her do what she had to do to the olives. And also she made root beer. 5 She made the most wonderful root beer. And that was down in the basement. My grandma did all these fun things. Actually, she would take the root beer when it was ready and, of course, we always sipped it. And you could tell when it was ready. And she would take the root beer upstairs. And she had an ice cream machine that you put ice in and you turned the handle to make it. Made a great, great big — about four or five quarts of ice cream. And then we had root beer floats. Oh, how good. I still love root beer floats. And then my uncle, he would play ball with me. So no wonder I liked my grandma's house. Baseball? Nanny s house. Yes, uh-huh. Oh, and the main thing I liked to do was when I got a bicycle I would ride my bicycle fast. And I would ride it so fast you couldn't believe it. I would ride it so fast my hair would fall back from my face and I would go as fast as I could. And, you know, I think that s why I like to fly an airplane and make all those records because most of them ~ most of my 656 aviation records, most of them were initially speed over a recognized course. And I'm sure that was because of my riding that bicycle as fast as I could. That's wonderful. Did your family farm? No. Not at that time. They did later on when we were all out of school. They bought — I've forgotten how many acres. I believe it was 40 acres. I believe they bought 20 acres and then they were able to buy 20 acres next to it. So I believe they had 40 acres in all. And, of course, they planted — it was vacant land. And they planted an orange grove. They planted orange trees. And they did that later on. I was not home at that time. I was married and away. I believe on 20 acres they planted an orange grove. The other 20 they planted hay. And I can remember my brothers complaining that they had to water that hay and they had to go out and change the water. They didn't like it very much because they had to work pretty hard out there. But I was not part of that. That was after I left home and was married. Did your brothers go with you to your grandmother's? Not when they were small because then my grandmother was divorced. She divorced and she married a man. And they moved to the West Coast. And they lived near Santa Barbara. Then when they actually retired they bought a house in Huntington Beach. And after they did that my brothers were school age and we all went to Nanny's, my grandma. We always went to 6 Huntington Beach to visit her and go swim in the ocean and collect shells and go fishing with her. And she always did fun things. She didn t drive a car, but she had — she was I think the second one in Huntington Beach to have — it was like a golf cart. I guess that's what it was, a golf cart. And she rode around town in her golf cart. And we d love to go with her. She bought groceries every day and she would take us in her golf cart to get groceries. My grandma was fun. And she wouldn't let us get sunburned. And then she learned to catch fish. And we would go down to the pier with her and catch fish and take it home. Well, we'd clean it there and take it home. And she'd cook fish for us. She was so much fun. How old were you when your grandma moved to the coast? Oh, I was a teenager. I guess I was 11 or 12, something like that. And actually when she remarried — my father as I said was from Missouri. And he knew a lot about cattle. And he knew a lot about horses. And my grandpa that I told you about, Old Bent, he actually, aside from raising horses, he worked for the United States government. And he would go out for the government and buy horses and deliver them, then, to St. Louis, Missouri for the army. And that's how the army got its good horses. At that time they had Calvary. The army had a Calvary instead of airplanes. You know, later on it became airplanes. And I know my godson, he flew helicopters. But he was in ~ when he went into the army they called it the Calvary. He flew helicopters and airplanes. At that time it was really a Calvary and they had horses. And so Old Bent as I said worked for the government, went all around different states, bought the horses for the government, delivered them to St. Louis. So actually he had cattle also. And so we're talking about my father and why we moved to Carmel. He knew a lot about cattle. He knew a lot about meat. So we went to Carmel a lot, and he decided to put in a meat market. So he put in a meat market in Carmel. And he had a friend of his who knew a lot about meat. And he hired him to run the meat market. And after about a year we decided -- my mother loved Carmel. And so we moved to Carmel. How old were you? I believe I was in fifth grade. That would make me how old? Ten, 11 ? Yes. 7 How did you feel about moving? Oh, I loved it because I joined the Girl Scouts. And we had meetings in the library. That's why I like libraries. So I love the library. And sometimes we'd go from the library -- it was only a couple of blocks down to the beach. And, of course, Carmel has big white sand dunes. And we would sit in the sand dunes and have our meeting. The meat market did very, very well in Carmel. So my mother and father hired an architect who was quite — let's see. The word's not notorious. Famous. Famous I guess at that time. His name was Carl Bensburg. And he built houses. And he designed two houses made of logs. And so the one house was a single story house. And my mother and father had him build a two story house for us. And I loved that two story house. What a beautiful house that was. And if you've heard of Carmel Rock, it had Carmel Rock for the fireplace. And it went up two stories. There was a large Carmel Rock fireplace in the living room, which went on upstairs. And there was a very small fireplace built of Carmel Rock in the bedroom above the living room, which was my brother Jim's and my bedroom. We shared a bedroom up there. And Jim - well, this house was really different. It had windows that instead of being square, they were very tall. They were about five or six feet tall and about two feet wide. And my brother Jim, oh, my goodness, he would open the window and climb on that Carmel rock fireplace and climb down and get out. My mother would say you go stay in your room and he would go to the room, immediately open the window and climb down the fireplace. Oh, my goodness. Well, we loved that house. When my Aunt Babe graduated from high school, she came to stay with us. My mother was a bookkeeper. She taught Babe how to do books also. That was Noel Loraine. We called her Babe. So Babe learned how to keep books. My father's meat market was so flourishing that he put in a meat market in Salinas. So Babe, my Auntie Babe would go ride with him to go to work and she'd keep the books in Salinas. However, this meat market in Salinas was one of the first drive-in markets that they ever had anywhere I think in California. Actually, you see all these markets were hooked together. There was a grocery store. And next to it was the bakery. And next to it was an ice cream shop. 8 Next to it was a meat market. Next to it was a vegetable market. Next to it was a fruit market. And they were all in connection. And they called it Salinas Drive-in Market. So people would drive in there and could do all of their shopping in one place, which was innovative. It was very good. So we lived in Carmel. And my father had a meat market in Carmel and Salinas at the drive-in market. Did your father raise his own cattle? No. Did he start keeping cattle? No. He bought the cattle. He just knew about them because he was from Missouri and he'd been around cattle all his life because his father was - Old Bent knew all about it. That Old Bent, I'll remind you again, had hair on his lips. Now, you said your mother was a bookkeeper. Where did she work? Later on after World War II, they moved back to Exeter. As I say they bought this ranch outside. And she worked for - I can remember two fruit packing companies, packing houses. I can't remember the names of them. That's fine. Yes. That's what she did. Where did you go to high school? Well, because of World War II, we moved from Carmel up to San Leandro, California. My father, since he was a refrigeration engineer, he worked for the Navy. And San Leandro, California was near the bay. Let's see. He first worked there when we were in Carmel. He first worked at the Monterey Bay. And he worked as I say for the [U.S.] Navy. And they wanted him to go up to Oakland, California. And that's why we moved to San Leandro, which is near Oakland. And he would go there. He did refrigeration on the navy ships. That's what he did for the war effort. My mother, instead of doing books, she worked at the Caterpillar Tractor Company. They were building tractors for the war for I guess the Army. I think they built, yeah, tractors for the [U.S.] Army. So there was no high school in San Leandro. I went to high school in Hayward, California That's where I graduated from was Hayward, California, but I lived in San Leandro. 9 How far away were the two towns? San Leandro from Hayward where we lived was about — I'd have to guess maybe five or six miles, something like that. I would get on the bus to go to Hayward to go to school. One of my friends actually that I knew in Carmel, they moved up to Oakland near San Leandro. Well, they were near San Leandro. Since there was no high school in San Leandro, she stayed with me lots of times and we went to school together. We both graduated from Hayward High School because there was no high school in San Leandro. What was her name? Her name was Eva Allison. We called her Eve, Eve Allison. We were great friends. And she's still alive and she lives down near San Diego. I speak to her about twice a year over the telephone. And when they come through here, they stop by to see me. Was your dad in the navy or did he just work for them? No. My dad worked for the Navy. He was not in the Navy, no. Why did your dad start working for them? The Navy? Well, because we lived in Carmel and everybody wanted to do something for the war effort. And my father had been in World War I. He actually was too old to sign up to go into the service again. So he looked around for a refrigeration job that would help the war effort. He found one in Monterey because navy ships - or ships came into Monterey. I don't know if they were Navy or what. But because he was there he found that in Oakland, California is where the navy ships came in and they needed a refrigeration engineer. And that's why we moved up there was to help the war effort. And what kind of work did your mom do for the Caterpillar Tractor Company? I really don't know. But they were doing some kind of work. I can remember she was doing some kind of parts because she said her hands never looked more beautiful because whatever part that she was working with she evidently put her hands in oil all the time. And her hands and arms were beautiful because they were submerged in oil doing something with the parts in oil. And she said that was wonderful. Tell me about your high school experience. What kinds of classes did you take? Were you involved in any activities? 10 Oh, yes. We actually did activities that I just see they're just now doing. We did archery. And girls — at that time don t forgot that was 70 years ago. And girls weren't too much in sports. But I loved sports. So I went to after school sports, to archery and also kickball. And they didn't let us play baseball, but I knew a lot about baseball because I had two younger brothers. And, you know, I think that's why my youngest son Jeff, he was a baseball player here in Las Vegas, Nevada. And actually there's a story that I won't tell now about how he was the first batboy. Oh, a batboy would get the balls and get the bats to the players. When Las Vegas had first brought baseball to Las Vegas, he became a batboy. He was the first batboy here. I think the other batboy was a coach's son. You can go ahead and tell that story if you'd like. Oh, all right. The Las Vegas Sun, you know the newspaper at that time, had a little contest going. It said we want you to write ~ all the little boys that want to -- well, I guess they weren't little boys, I think they had to be 12 I believe. And he had them — Hank Greenspun was here at that time. And he had them write a letter called, "Why I want to be a batboy." So Jeff wanted to be a batboy. So they had about a month to get ready to write the letter. Every day I said, Jeff, when are you going to write your letter? He says, oh, tomorrow, tomorrow. It came down to the very last day. And I said to him, Jeff, if you want to be a batboy, you better write a letter. This is the last day. And actually if you put it in the mail, it will be late. Now, if you write a letter, I will help you. I will take it down to the Sun's office and give them the letter, but you have to do it right now. Jeff laid down on the floor and wrote the letter, "Why I want to be a batboy." I believe I made a copy of it. But after all that do you know what? They picked him as the best letter of writing, "why I want to be a batboy." I did take the letter down. I think it had to be by six o'clock. And I was there at probably ten minutes before six with his letter, "Why I want to be a batboy." And he was chosen. So I believe he was 12 at the time. I believe they had to be 12. So he was one of the first batboys in Las Vegas. Was it just for a game or was it for the whole season? Oh, no. It was for the whole season. But the problem was at that time they played night games. And they weren't over until ten o'clock - ten or 11 o'clock at night. Then he had to get up early in 11 the morning to go to school. He didn't like that very much. But he got a little check and he loved that. So that kept him motivated. And he played baseball in college. Then he became a baseball player. Before we get that far, let's go back to your high school. What were some of your favorite classes? I liked the after school archery and kickball. My favorite class was French. Actually, I took four > ears of French in college — I mean in high school. And then in college I took one year. Yes, that was my favorite subject in college. Now, tell me a little bit about your friends. My friends? Well, Eve and I were friends because she stayed with me. But s