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Transcript of interview with Catherine Hunt by Dennis Hunt, March 2, 1980

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1980-03-02

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On March 2, 1980, Dennis Hunt interviewed his mother, Catherine Hunt (born August 25, 1932 in Palmyra, Missouri) about her life in Southern Nevada. The two discuss Catherine Hunt’s work as a secretary before becoming a housewife. The interview concludes with Catherine Hunt’s thoughts on population growth, women’s rights, and the Equal Rights Amendment.

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OH_00910_transcript

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OH-00910
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    Hunt, Catherine Interview, 1980 March 2. OH-00910. [Transcript.] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

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    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

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

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    English

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    36.17497, -115.13722

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    UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt i An Interview with Catherine Hunt An Oral History Conducted by Dennis Hunt 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 Catherine Hunt ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 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 Catherine Hunt iv Abstract On March 2, 1980, Dennis Hunt interviewed his mother, Catherine Hunt (born August 25, 1932 in Palmyra, Missouri) about her life in Southern Nevada. The two discuss Catherine Hunt’s work as a secretary before becoming a housewife. The interview concludes with Catherine Hunt’s thoughts on population growth, women’s rights, and the Equal Rights Amendment. UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 1 I’m sitting here at 144 Elm Street in Henderson, Nevada. I’m gonna interview my mom, her name is Catherine Hunt and we’re sitting at her house. Alright. How old are you? Forty-seven. Forty-seven—and when did you come to Nevada? In June of 1948. Ah. What was it like here? What were you doing there, I mean, how old were you? When I came to Nevada, I came because it was the end of World War II and my father had just finished college and he was going to work for what was then a brand new accounting firm in Las Vegas known as Conway Loans, in Downtown Las Vegas which was Fourth and Fremont. We came in the early part of the summer was extremely hot. Very few places had air conditioning, in those days, if you were lucky, you had a swamp cooler. And being new to town, it was a very boring place because they really did not have much entertainment. What were you, were you in school at that time? Yes, I started my sophomore year of high school, that September. Where at? Las Vegas High School, which was the only high school in Las Vegas at that time? And did you finish high school out there? No, I went to high school there and then in January of 1950, I went to Henderson and I went to Basic High School there. I finished high school in June of 1951. What was Henderson like back then? Very tiny. All the businesses was confined to one block. All the houses and apartment complexes were owned by the government and you rented from them. We lived on a little house on Basic UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 2 Road that we rented from the government for twenty-eight dollar day. I rented it when I went to school on Basic. All of the grade school, junior high, and high school was housed in one building, which is now a Civic Center in the museum of the city. Wow, that’s pretty small. Yes, it was tiny. (Laughs) Oh. What did they mostly stress in school at that time? Academic (unintelligible), English, Math, Science—they had very few what you’d consider general education classes. Everything was trying to gear you for college. This was at a time when parents were just barely realizing the importance of the college education. No one heard of such classes as shop or gym cutting, basket weaving, all of the sandbox type of classes that are available now to fill up the credits. Boy. Classes were really tough then, too. I came from Arkansas where my dad had gone to college and classes were really hard then. And I had talked to people that had gone to school in California where they were just getting into progressive education and they were a good two years behind in California, and in Arkansas and then in Las Vegas, I found the classes in Las Vegas High School very challenging academically. It was very stimulating, I thought it was a really good school system within that time. Wow. Do you think that, given today, with all the trouble of having student study enough, do you that if they progressed back to more academic classes and less of these basket weaving type courses that we’d be able to produce some better students? No, I think the school system now, considering the number of students and community and parental pressures that they’re under that they do a very good job. What I personally would like UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 3 to see is two years of general type classes in high school where you have a heavy concentration of English, Math, Science, that type, then if you are not planning on college education, you transfer to a school similar to (Unintelligible) Tech, where you come out prepared to get a job rather than spend three or four years in a general high school and are not equipped for an education. I think the thing is “poor high schools,” as we know them, to train or better prepare you for college and that was their primary goal. And then schools such as (Unintelligible) Tech but some sort of a trade school for the ones who cannot financially, or lack of desire, do not go on to college, then they come out and make a contribution to society. I think we would have less young unemployed people and (unintelligible) as we have now. Ah, that sounds interesting. Getting back to high school, what were the fashions of the day when you were in high school? Well, if you could watch for the next year or two, you’re gonna see what we looked like in 1948, ’49, and ’50. Girls were, girls and boys and the boys when I was in high school, had Tony-permanents, and they dyed one half of their hair green and one half of their hair red. The girls wore angora sweaters and saddle oxfords with body socks, and you wore skirts that were almost down to your ankles. You wore blouses that had leg of mutton sleeves, in the spring time, your skirts were real full and you had about an inch of lace showing—sown around the bottom. Very, very comparable to what you see on Happy Days, really. The guys wore corduroy pants and sweaters with reindeers on the front, and their shirts underneath. Girls were not permitted to wear pants to school at all. Ah. UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 4 Boys were expected to be dressed in a fairly respectable manner. And if a girl was going with a guy, he’d gave her his letter sweater to wear. She’d have his class ring on a chain around his neck. That’s about all I can remember of what it was like here in those years. That’s somewhat basically what high school is like today. It’s not too different, you know, there are all kinds of things. You go to the football game and slumber parties and you yawned and groaned about homework, and tests, and it’s really not too different than what it is now. Yes. Well, what was the music like back then? Slow. Slow? Romantic. Ah. Really ballroom type of dancing. You had a lot of close dancing in those days. Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, real big—Frances Langford. (Unintelligible) Tony Martin, you had a lot of like, Nature Boy that Nat King Cole sang. Some Enchanted Evening. Everything was very romantic. Ah. Didn’t you, I remember you wanted to tell me that you had something called “boogie” back then? Ah yes, we had jitterbug and boogie-woogie and it was probably the very beginning of what we know now as rock. It was fast, it was really the first fast dance that I ever saw and it was nothing compared to—I guess it was comparable to rock. It was the first really non-touching type of dancing I would say. (Unintelligible) it was really a chance to show off your fancy petticoats and your full circle skirts! (Laughs) UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 5 Dancing was a big thing when I was young. Well, it still is now with discos and that. Oh yes, but that’s not the same as touch dancing. (Laughs) I agree. I like slow dancing myself. Hmm. Alright, what you’d do after high school? You graduated from Basic High School. I got married and had a family. Ah, that sums that up. All of which went to Basic High School and graduated from there, all five of my children. Some of my children even had the same teachers that I had in high school. Oh yes? I took a geometry class my junior year in high school, which was taught by a—Mrs. Boyce at that time, Dorothy Boyce, and the class was so small. There were five of us in the geometry class and there were four in the trig class and she had ‘em together and she became the college gear counselor for Basic and retired after all of my children finished. The last one graduate in 1976. Well, you’ve got some teachers who’ve been around for a long time. (Unintelligible) (Laughs) What do you think helped Las Vegas grow to a population of four-hundred thousand people? I think the real turning point was the development of the Test Site. Las Vegas had been very small, had not experienced the rapid growth as we see it now, until 1951 when they started up the Test Site. And we had this tremendous influx of military people who came to the site, all the employees who transferred here, construction employees for the development of the site. Some UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 6 people stayed, and they were a really great big turning point and then it just boomeranged from there. Was there a war going on at that time? At what time? Just, when you saw this massive growth at the Test Site in Las Vegas? Yes, the Korean War started then, the fall of 1950, which was my last year in high school. I had saw a lot of (unintelligible) when I was going to school and I decided that the patriotic thing to do was to quit school and go out and maybe rest, and finish school after that. But that was the war that really, was for my teenage era, ‘cause World War II was over just as I entered my teens. Oh. Nowadays don’t want to go to war now, the situations never end. You did not see that anti-war sentiment when I was young. I can remember during World War II when we had to stand in lines to get coupons to get shoes and sugar, things like that, and there were no young men around because everyone had gone off to war, all the fathers and uncles and cousins. A lot of us had grandparents who were still young enough to serve, and of course, they did not draft older men during the Korean War but the young men, there was still a draft on them. You never saw this demonstration and lack of—this anti-war, lack of patriotic element in this country. Hmm. ‘Course then, they never had Vietnam then either which was just policing action. Korea was policing action. You could only go to the (Unintelligible) you could not cross. Stand and watch the enemy retreat— When, just when I came to Nevada, what kind of economic impact did it have on Las Vegas? UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 7 (Unintelligible) tremendous economic impact, there was a housing shortage which stimulated construction. We saw all of the different products that would require and increase very rapidly—from what I can remember, food went up. Everything just went straight up. Hmm. Fact, it became very difficult to find a place to live for the young people coming in because we had never had a real building boom here as we have experienced in the last twenty years. I know Las Vegas itself at one time was considered to be one of the fastest growing state in the United States. Mm-hmm it was very attractive because (unintelligible) I can see why people come. Yes. I was going to ask you something about—what about (unintelligible) in Nevada? Is it—how would you consider it to other states? I think it’s very favorable. We’ve been exploring the tax structures as well as the other aspects of relocating for retirement and I have really not found that many places that had a tax structure as attractive as ours. Hmm. I think Las Vegas is a tremendous place to grow up. I was not quite sixteen when I came to Las Vegas, just over the age when I was interested in boys. It was a nice, small town where you could go anywhere you’d like. You were never afraid. As a girl, I would go to the movies, and although we lived in North Las Vegas which was way out in the boonies, I would walk out night and I was never afraid, I never had any reason to be concerned for my safety. And my friends were never—(unintelligible) It was rather limited as far as entertainment, but anything you wanted to do was cheap and I was just beginning to date, and you could go out to any one of the three Strip hotels and buy a couple of cokes and watch a floor show for what now costs you UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 8 twenty, twenty-five, thirty dollars. You were just as welcome as any of the big rollers because they thought that you were going to be of age, you were gonna be out there gambling and spending your money. You could go Downtown, which was all of five blocks long, and if you tried to do go into the clubs, there was always a very friendly security guard there who diverted your attention elsewhere, because they were adamant about anyone under twenty-one being permitted in the clubs. It was a pretty well-known fact that the mafia was part of the element in Las Vegas, especially since my father at that time was working at the El Rancho hotel as their accountant, and they had a shootout at three o’clock one morning, round the tables. But they did help to keep things nice and quiet in this town. One of the big thrills that I had as a teenager is my boyfriend, and another couple and I would go out on a date and we would cruise up and down what is now the Strip and it was wide open country in those days. We would pick up some poor unsuspecting hitch hiker who was going to Los Angeles, tell him that we were gonna take him somewhere that we’d put ‘em up in a motel for free—we took them down Four Mile, which is now Sahara and Boulder High Way, at that time, it was known as a house of ill repute. And we would drop ‘em off at the front gate and they’d be greeted by a security guard who may or may not have made him too welcome. But we really thought that was the height of fun in those days. (Laughs) When I would get out of school, we went to a place that was known as the Wild Cat Lair which sat down by the post office on Stewart and Las Vegas Boulevard South. And it was a club, it was just a little house and it had a little caretaker, and it was a place that sat aside for and run by teenagers. It was a place that was strictly off limits to adults. Parents were not permitted inside and I would go down there after school because it was quite a ways home and my father would pick me up, and in the mean time you could go, you could play ping pong, you could study, you UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 9 could play the juke box with your friends on the set of Friday or Saturday nights, they always had dances. The entertainers from the Strip would come out and perform free of charge. You’d get to see all of this great entertainment. I remember seeing Louis Armstrong there, I can remember seeing Tony Martin—it really gave people in this town a place to go. And you know, in a roundabout way, it was supported by gambling money and tax money, but it really, it was kind of neat to have a place like that because it got you off the streets and you were safe. We had a place that was known as the Round-Up Drive In, which is shades of Arnolds from Happy Days. (Laughs) It was on the corner of what is now Main and Las Vegas Boulevard South. We would go there and have hamburgers and cooks after the drive-ins or after the dance. Everybody’d show up and dress and (unintelligible) guys would revved up their engine, they’d show off their super (unintelligible) car which they really thought was hot stuff. But it’s almost identical to what you see on Happy Days. I think the writer of Happy Days must’ve been someone from that era. Ah, I think so, it sounds like it. Happy Days is like a carbon copy of it. Let’s see here, let me come up with a question of some kind. Can you tell me kinda like what cars were back in those, back when you were in high school? Not too much, we had Hudsons, which are a thing of the past. We had Ramblers, they had low back seats, you see a lot of ‘em riding around now as antiques, but they were pretty nifty little cars, they really got you there. Most kids had coups of some time, but not too many of the guys that I knew had cars. And when you did, you always double dated and triple dated because if you had a boyfriend that owned a car, you were really up there. I mean, you were really living in high society. Wow. UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 10 Cars were not a status symbol in those days. In fact, when I got married, in 1951, my husband and I did not own a car until 1955, simply because we couldn’t afford one. We walked or took a bus everywhere we went, because the public transportation in Las Vegas was very good in those days. And even though I lived out in North Las Vegas, I would walk to Las Vegas High School every day, or else take the city bus which gave us a cut-rate because we needed a mode of transportation. Boy, people worry about inflation nowadays and everybody can afford a car. Yes, two or three of ‘em. When I first moved to Las Vegas, it was such a small town that the elite of places to live was Huntridge. And they had all these beautiful old trees and nice big-old houses out there. They were just beginning to develop the Bonanza out beyond Main Street, out where Vinny Binion has his house. His was one of the first ones to go up out there, and those were houses that were like ten, twelve thousand dollars and people really thought that that was a lot of money, but they were moving out in the country, so it was worth it. And I can remember my dad’s boss in 1949 built a house in what is now Charleston and Eastern and he was way out in the country. We couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to build a house that far out, you know, I mean you were so far out that you were moving to Searchlight that you could have houses out there, that’s why he moved. And when I came to Las Vegas in 1948, all of the businesses was encompassed in the first four blocks of Las Vegas. Penney’s had a real small store that had two stories to it down at Seventh and Fremont Street. And when they built their Downtown store on Sixth and Fremont, it was really innovative for someone to move that far away. Anything beyond the El Cortez hotel, which was open at that time, was really considered just the boondocks. You were way out in the sagebrush in those days. (Laughs) UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 11 There were a few (unintelligible) houses out there, but then you know, they had real big lawns and they just had a lot of room for it because there was just no development at all. You had the train station, what is now the Union Plaza, and the (Unintelligible) City Hotel, and then you have your Overland Hotel right across the street from it. Fifth and Fremont Street was the end of it. Uh-huh. If you wanted to go and buy a nice dress, there were only two places that you could shop at in all of Las Vegas. Two places? Two places. Sounds like Henderson (Laughs) At Fourth and Fremont Street you had Ronzoni’s and you had a little dress shop, it was called Johnson’s. And those were the only two places where you could go and buy a nice dress. They had three theatres, they had the Fremont Theatre, which was down by what is now the Fremont Hotel. They had the El Portal Theatre at Fourth and Fremont Street which is where everybody and anyone who was anyone was there and that way you could see a movie on a Saturday night. And that is now where the (Unintelligible) Theatre is now. And we had the Palace at Second and Carson. And it was nice to go to the Palace because the Courthouse was right across the street. And it was a lovely old brick building, it had this huge green lawn and big trees and they had park benches there. You’d see a lot of transits and drunks and they’d go out there and sleep at night. But it was cool— (Laughs) Nobody cared, they didn’t (unintelligible) it was just a real small hometown. UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 12 Ah, do you think it’s still like a small town atmosphere in Las Vegas, even though it is now quite a major city nowadays? No. No? I think that they have lost all of the small town-ness. I think they’ve lost their sense of hospitality. I think the people out on the Strip are so concerned with the tip that’s going to be left; they really are having a difficult time maintaining what had been our trademark, for so long. And I think the “I Love Las Vegas” campaign was one of the best things that they could come up with. I think Henderson now personifies the small town-ness, that Las Vegas (unintelligible). They still have the sense of a community and togetherness and concern for their fellow man just isn’t Las Vegas. So you think Las Vegas is kind of radical and it’s a fast moving city? Yes, I think Las Vegas has become so cosmopolitan that they’re not really concerned with other people. I think that you know, (unintelligible) is their total atmosphere towards other people has become comparable to San Francisco and the (Unintelligible). Don’t get involved. Hmm. You go into a store in Las Vegas and no one knows who you are. Even though you might trade your weekend or week out for ten years then—very few people take the time to smile and ask how you are, where in Henderson you do have that. And unfortunately, Las Vegas has become such that—a woman alone is not really safe, and I never thought I’d see a time around here when I would not feel alone safe. Do you feel safe in Henderson? I do. UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 13 You do? Mm-hmm. Do you go out walking out at night? I do walk at night. Oh. Okay. I walk early in the morning and even though it’s dark, I look here for my safety out here but I would not work at night or remain in the morning in Las Vegas, I’d be afraid I’d get mugged. Hmm. If I were lucky after I’d got mugged I’d still be alive. (Laughs) Oh boy. Okay, let’s talk a little bit about politics. Did you serve any political party that was in the Valley? By that I mean— What time? What time frame are you talking of? Oh gee, I don’t know. It’d start about as early as you can. I was not politically motivated when I was in high school. I was more boy-oriented in high school. Hm. But I became politically active when John Kennedy came into office and as the years have gone by and my children grown up, I have become much more active. I was very, very involved in Mike O’Callaghan’s campaign. I was one of the dozen people in Henderson that was in on the ground floor of getting his campaign started. And it was a real grass roots campaign where we felt like each worker and each voter was very important to his election. I have worked actively on several campaigns since. I worked for David Candor, when he first ran for the school board. People like that who shared the same political philosophies that I have. UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 14 Which are? Well, you don’t have to answer. I believe in a strong military, I believe in a strong economy, I think that right now we should put on some wage and price control. I think that—I don’t want to sound like I’m going to hell in a handbasket, but I think that, you know, that some of our political officials, you know, reach back find their backbone, we’re gonna be in very, very serious trouble in this country this next year, economically as well as politically. We’re no longer a national—we’re no longer respected and feared as a national entity. Russia and the Middle East are just walking all over us because they know that we’re not going to come back with any kind of repercussions. I feel with this Iranian thing, with the day after the hostages were taken, they should have come out with a draft, with a blockade of Iran. I think they should’ve really shown that the people in this country do not let Americans be taken hostage and sit there for what is turning out to be almost six months. I think that we’re going to see a turn around, but I think it’s going to be a while, and hopefully, I, or we will see a change in the White House in order to accomplish it. Ah. Sounds pretty interesting. We’re getting pretty close to the end here so we’ll stop here and just, we’ll tape over and get on with the second part of the interview. Okay? Hm. (Tape one ends) Alright, we’re back here for the second part of the interview. Alright. Let’s see—what do you—what kind of national monuments have you seen in Nevada? Oh, I’ve been to the dam. (Laughs) Hm. Anytime relatives come, we always have to take ‘em to the dam, which I realize is not a national monument. UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 15 Well, it is in a way. We take all of our relatives to the Valley of Fire which I find immensely interesting. The colors and rock formations are really beautiful anytime of the year that you go. We always go up to the lost city museum and go over to Overton and all through the Valley and show people that we have something more than sagebrush and sand around here. (Laughs) We have been up to Mount Charleston quite frequently, and when I was in high school, that was a place we used to go all the time in the wintertime. We’d go up there and go ice skating and sit around the lodge and drink hot chocolate and dread having to come back to Vegas and face our parents who screamed at us for taking off without telling. (Laughs) I can remember a few things like that. We used to go up there, especially at the end of school and we’d break for Christmas vacation and we’d go up there, we’d go ice skating. It was the only place you could go in those days to escape. I never knew you could go ice skating up there. All I thought everyone went up there for was skiing. Back in the old—well, you couldn’t ski it then. There were no ski lifts. But back in the olden days, why you could go down and go ice skating. They had an ice skating rink adjoining a lodge, which was the only thing they had on the mountain at that time besides a camp that we used to go to on retreats from the church. We’d go up on weekends and go in this little camp. I don’t even remember where it is now, but I think it’s somewhere up in Lee’s Canyon. We really had a good time. UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 16 Sounds nice. Have you been anywhere else? Like, well, you’ve been to the lake haven’t you? Oh sure, I don’t consider the lake a national monument. Well it’s— It’s just a nice place to go swim. (Laughs) We used to go down there and watch the boat races. And take our children into the lake swimming when they were little. That was our favorite place to go. That was your favorite then? That was my next question, it was, “What was your favorite monument?” I do love the lake. What do you like mostly about Nevada? I like the climate in the wintertime. I like the friendliness of the people. I like the twenty-four hour atmosphere that they have; being able to shop anytime you want you really see a lot of things that you don’t see anywhere else, as far as lights and entertainment. But I think shopping facilities are as good as any place as you can go in this country. You see, a lot of people go off down to California to shop and head to the doctor and all this kind of stuff. And I really think that they are misjudging Las Vegas. I think that Las Vegas can give them anything they want if they just lived here. Oh, okay. Well, I asked what you like most so—what don’t you like most in—? I don’t like the summers. (Laughs) (Laughs) UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 17 I don’t like the traffic. I think we have grown so rapidly that the planning commission and the highway departments have not been able to keep up with the tremendous influx and I think that’s probably my biggest dislike, is the traffic flowing into Las Vegas, especially around Maryland Parkway between three and six o’clock—other than that, there’s really not too much in Vegas that I don’t like. Except not being able to raise a garden like I’d like. Because the soil is being so alkaline? No, between that and the high temperature, for an old farm girl, I’d like to be able to garden a little bit more. I like having a close proximity to the university. I had—when I first graduated from high school, I had a girlfriend who started college in Las Vegas when it was Nevada Southern University, and they were meeting in the basement of Las Vegas High School and only had part-time teachers and part-time students, and I started in 1967 when they had three maybe four buildings out on campus. And I really felt privileged that I had a university close enough where I could work it in with my family. I continued to be a part-time professional student ever since. One of these days I’ll really get with it and get down to serious business. When you first came to the university, and you started going to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, what was it like back then? Well, it was Nevada Southern University and they had an enrollment of about six thousand students. If you wanted a degree, why, you could go here, but you had to spend one semester on campus in Reno for that degree. All your classes were either all in the social science building, which is now the John Wright building, or in the Archie Grant building. There really was just nowhere else to have a class. I met some really interesting instructors—I’ve had some really, really neat classes. ‘Course they did not have the basketball, football program that we’re aware of now. It was just beginning to develop. But there was a lot of pride in the school because of it UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 18 being here and it’s—I think it’s really a great asset for the city. I think now, with its—with real development, I think it’s become a real educational as well as social asset to the community. When you started coming there, what was probably the main, major that you could possibly take for the best part of going to college there? Education. It was primarily an education geared curriculum and then they have developed their hotel administration and engineering department and those types of thing since then. Ah. Tuition was a hundred and fifty dollars for twelve or more credits. If you really tried hard you could maybe spend two hundred fifty dollars between your books and everything else. Oh boy, those days are gone forever. How true. One of my favorite classes was an anthropology class that I took from Mister—I forgot what his name was. I don’t think his name was White, I think his name was Warren. But I really, just really enjoyed it. And like four hundred people in there but he just kept everyone’s interest at a peak all the time. Ah, he’s very skilled. I’ll change the subject here a bit. What do you think of the MX missile system? What do I think of the MX missile system? I do not think it will hurt Las Vegas the way everyone keeps whooping and hollering that it will. I don’t think the MX missiles are going to develop. I think that it’s something being developed our legislatures as an attempt to get the B-1 Bomber approved. (Laughs) How do you think that way? I mean I don’t see the transition— I think the B-1 Bomber would be a real shot in the arm for titanium. They use a lot of titanium, we’re all aware that Senator Cannon sits on the Arm Forces Committee at a time when titanium UNLV University Libraries Catherine Hunt 19 was in very bad financial trouble. It was closed, men were out of work, he really went to bat and got it going. There was a lot of sentiment in congress to pass the B-1 Bomber and it was rejected by President Carter and I think it’ll come out as a compromise that they’ll go ahead and develop the B-1 Bomber and not MX Missiles. Oh, okay, that’s fresh, I wouldn’t have thought of that. Not at al