Transcript of interview with Doris, Gerald and Marcy Welt by Barbara Tabach, November 30, 2014

AN INTERVIEW WITH DORIS WELT, GERALD WELT, AND MARCY WELT An Oral History Conducted by Barbara Tabach The Southern Nevada Jewish Community Digital Heritage Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries ?Southern Nevada Jewish Community Digital Heritage Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2014 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV - University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Project Manager: Barbara Tabach Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Interviewers: Barbara Tabach, Claytee D. White Editors and Project Assistants: Maggie Lopes, Stefani Evans ii The recorded Interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grant. 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 University of Nevada Las Vegas for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews with permission of the narrator. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Southern Nevada Jewish Community Digital Heritage Project. Claytee D. White Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas iii PREFACE Just before the start of the Great Depression, Doris Fox was born in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of fifteen, she met Eli Welt, and the two were married three years later in Alexandria, Louisiana, where Eli was stationed with the United States Army Air Corps. Eventually, Doris and Eli moved to southern California with their three children-Gerald (aka Jerry), Richard (aka Rick) and Susan (aka Sue). In 1971, after all their children were out of the house, Doris and Eli moved to Las Vegas. They followed Doris' father, Jerry "Stoney" Fox, who had moved to the city in the 1940s, and was one of the first entrants into the local pawnshop industry. Like many migrants to the city, Eli became active in the Jewish community, particularly with B'nai Brith and Jewish Family Service Agency. Doris and Eli's eldest son, Jerry, and wife, Marcy, moved to Las Vegas in 1972 with their two small children. Tiffany and Cory. Jerry and Marcy had met through a Jewish youth group as teenagers in Anaheim, California. Having just finished law school, Jerry found that legal career opportunities were plentiful in the growing city. His first job was as a law clerk with Harry Reid's law office, Beckley, DeLanoy, Jemison and Reid, later becoming an associate attorney. He assisted Reid as lieutenant governor and on his early political campaigns. Jerry left Beckley, DeLanoy, Jemison and Reid to work for Oscar Goodman's firm-Goodman, Snyder and Gang-focusing on civil litigation. In 1975, Jerry opened his own practice, continuing to specialize in civil ligation, and served as general counsel to Las Vegas Clark County Library District. Since their arrival, Marcy and Jerry have been dedicated to community service, particularly within the Jewish community. Both were active in youth programs at Temple Beth Sholom, Jerry even serving as youth commissioner and later, education director. Marcy worked with Edythe Katz at the Holocaust Resource Center and assisted with producing a film and training program for educators. Both are avid supporters of youth travel to Israel and work hard to ensure these opportunities continue to be available for those interested. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Doris Welt, Gerald Welt, and Marcy Welt on November 30, 2014 by Barbara Tabach in Las Vegas, Nevada Preface iv Doris speaks about meeting husband, Eli; family background, ethnically and religiously; marrying in Louisiana where Eli was stationed, before transferring to Nebraska; Eli getting job in California, moving family there. Talks about father's, Jerry Fox, move to Las Vegas prompted by divorcing mother; starting a jewelry store, then pawnshop. All discuss pawnshop business in Las Vegas; Doris' father's business development over the years 1-8 Mention of Jerry Fox's involvement with local Shriners, Masons, Lions; his cowboy character. Doris talks about working as travel agent; managing an office when moving to Las Vegas. Jerry and Marcy share how they met, as adolescents; moving to Las Vegas shortly after Doris and Eli with their two children; Jerry finding a job as a law clerk after interviewing with Harry Reid. All talk about involvement with Jewish community 9-15 Marcy discusses initial reluctance to move to Las Vegas; growing to love it. Conversation about family working in pawnshop; Eli developing processes, using technology to improve operations; more about pawnshop business; role of loans; reporting all items to police to check for theft. All talk about city during early 1970s; intimacy of the community during that time, particularly Jewish community; other family members' migration to city over the past 50 years 16-21 Jerry and Marcy talk more about close-knit community; knowing people all over city; role of casino industry, mob connections on town, and mob connections within Jewish community. Discuss getting zone variance to avoid sending children to sixth grade center; public school system; assisting with teacher recruitment 22-28 Jerry and Marcy talk about the growth of local Jewish community; start of additional congregations to meet needs, like Ner Tamid, Midbar Kodesh, Chabad; raising children with Jewish identity. Mention becoming active in Beth Sholom youth, education programs. Both talk about the founding of Midbar Kodesh, when Beth Sholom moved to Summerlin, establishing Jewish services in Green Valley area. Remark about reemergence of downtown area 29-35 All discuss emergence of Jewish senior care, kosher food availability in city; how community handled acquiring kosher goods until local establishments make available. Conversation about anti-Semitism, both in Las Vegas and Orange County; issues with education system, in jobs, scheduling; changes over generations. Mention of first Jewish dentist in town 36-42 Jerry and Marcy reflect on raising children in Las Vegas, closeness of community, access to decision-makers. Doris compares her experience moving to city earlier in time, more clique-ish nature of community; later retiring in California; observing the city growth over time. v Recollection of Imperial Palace's Hitler parties; the backlash; fine monies going to support Holocaust education; Edythe Katz and her work in Holocaust education 43-48 Continuing talking about importance of Holocaust education; encouraging youth to travel to Israel, Poland; United Synagogue Youth Program; Beth Sholom and Midbar collaborating to organize youth conventions. Mention Eli Welt's involvement with local Jewish community, leadership in organizations; local Jewish fundraising event culture. More comments on strength of Jewish community; establishment of various scholarships to fund youth travel to Israel...49-54 Recall former leaders of Jewish community organizations, including Leo Wilner, Isabel Goldberg, Jerry Countess, Alan Morger, Bill Feldman and many more; Jewish pediatrician Dr. Merkin. Jerry talks about legal career; working with Harry Reid in law office, on campaigns; working for Oscar Goodman; starting own practice and representing library district; involvement with Nevada Trial Lawyers and Citizens for Justice political action committee 55-62 Converse about change in business norms, from the days when making on a handshake. Share stories about Doris' father, Jerry "Stoney" Fox; his feisty nature; passion for bargaining. Mention his best friend, Doc Coblentz; involvement and leadership with Masonic Lodge....63-67 Index 68-69 vi Today is November 30, 2014. This is Barbara Tabach. I am sitting in the Welt home in Henderson, Nevada. I'm going to have you each go around the table and spell your name. We'll start with you, Jerry. Gerald Welt, G-E-R-A-L-D, known as Jerry with a J. Marcy Welt, M-A-R-C-Y, W-E-L-T. Maiden name Horowitz. Doris Welt, D-O-R-I-S. Welt, W-E-L-T. Maiden name Fox. Doris, we're going to start with you since you're the old-timer Las Vegan here. Before we get you to Las Vegas, let's talk a little bit about the family heritage. What do you know about your grandparents? Just that my mother's parents were from Russia; I don't know where. My dad's parents, I'm not sure where they came from and I didn't know them. I think I must have met them maybe once or twice as a young kid. But they passed away very young. So I have no idea what their background was at all. Where were you born and raised? Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. I was there until I married at eighteen years of age. We got married in Alexandria, Louisiana. And who did you marry? Eli Welt, E-L-I, W-E-L-T. How did you two meet? Blind date. His sister and my uncle were in a group together, and they fixed us up and we went out on a blind date. That was how I met him when I was fifteen. Did you grow up in a Jewish community in Detroit? Yes, but we weren't overly religious. We weren't very observant at that point. But it was a big 1 Jewish community in Detroit even though we didn't go to synagogue. But the community was very close. Your husband, talk a little bit about him. What was his background? His parents came from Romania. They weren't very observant, but they kept kosher in the house. That was all they really knew because they were from the old country. His mother and father and there were six brothers of his father's family. He had five sisters and they all lived in the area. So they were very closely knit family. Not overly observant, but they knew they were Jewish. They all kept kosher at that point. That's interesting to not be religious but keep kosher. What do you think that was? That was the life that they knew from the old country. We assume they all came through Ellis Island. That's the only way of life they of knew, so they just kept it as long as they were here. But you didn't grow up kosher? No. When you got married what did you do? My father-in-law and brother-in-law came to live with us because my mother-in-law passed away just about when Jerry was born. So they came to live with us. I kept kosher because of my father-in-law. They lived with us for a number of years. But the only time we decided to have any type of religion in the home was when we decided Jerry had to go to Hebrew school. It's all your fault, Jerry. J: It always is. D: So we blame it on him. Let's get you from Detroit to Alexandria, Louisiana because that's where you said you were married, in 1945. 2 Yes. How did you get to Louisiana? By train. It was terrible. You rolled your eyes. Why did you roll your eyes? Because travel was not the greatest and the trains were not the greatest. My mother, my mother-in-law, my sister, my sister-in-law and I went down on the train to get married. M: Because Dad was still in the service? D: Yes. That's where he was stationed. So we went down. In between trains, in St. Louis?we had to change trains?I bought a wedding dress. Really? Yes. Then that's when we went on to Alexandria. In a matter of I think it was three days, we made arrangements with some sort of woman down there to get married and that's where we got married. He was there for a month. He was transferred to Lincoln, Nebraska, and I went on a train to Lincoln. He met me there; we were there for a month and then he went overseas. What branch of the service was he in? Air Corps. He was a pilot. Then I went home and went to work, and he was over in England. Did you write these romantic love letters? I'm reading that a lot of people... Of course, every day. He has reread them. I haven't reread them, but I still have them. I guess from all of that, getting married, then what happened next? He came home, went to college, got his degree, then went to work in Detroit. Jerry was born. And Rick was born. And Sue was five months old. He decided he wanted to...he was working for... M: Was it Grumons, Gramons? D: No. In Detroit. I can't remember now. He decided he wanted to work in aeronautical. He 3 loved airplanes. In fact, he wanted to continue flying when he came home and I put the kibosh on it. He was not happy, but I couldn't. I tried going up in a plane with him, but that wasn't for me. So he went looking for a job out in California and got one. We took three kids, got on a plane and moved to California. J: Stopping here on the way. D: Yes. Well, we dumped you kids off. In Vegas? D: In Vegas where my dad was. Oh, my. So how did your dad get to Las Vegas? J: See which story you tell. D: He went to get a divorce from my mother. I guess it was easy in those days to get a divorce. So he came out to Vegas and started working in a jewelry store with... J: Doc Coblentz's. D: Yes. M: First he was in Reno. D: No. M: No? Didn't he own a jewelry store in Reno? D: No. J: No. That may have been where the judge brought the document. D: So he was here getting a divorce basically. At that time he had left Detroit. Both my mother and I didn't know where he was, but that's where he was. He was getting a divorce. So he got divorced, came out here and fell in love with Vegas. J: And the lady he married. 4 D: Yes. Well, he had met her before. Then he got married that lady out here. So about what year are we talking about there? J: Forty-six. So '46 is a big year for you guys, a lot of movement in the family. D: Yes. But he loved Vegas. J: Moved into the brand-new residential development known as Huntridge. Right behind the Huntridge Theater. D: Right behind the theater, yes. What did you think about him?there's a trauma, I'm sure, of your parents getting divorced. D: Oh, yes, it was not a good time. Not at all. But it eventually worked itself out. He was very content here. So we basically left the kids here when we moved to California to try and find a place to live. We came and got the kids and moved them back to California. My dad wanted us to move here in the worst way. From the day he landed here he loved it. But my husband graduated as an engineer and California was the place for him at that point. We lived in Westchester for a year, and then moved to Lakewood and lived there for two years. J: That's all? Yes. Then to Anaheim for seventeen years and that's where they were raised. Before we get you all plugged in and rooted here in Las Vegas, I want to know more about...your father came for a divorce and he loved it. What kept him here? He just loved the whole area. He loved what he was doing. He started in a jewelry store and then went into the pawnshop. He loved it. He loved the whole atmosphere. J: He was a cowboy. M: He was a cow?that's what I was just going to say, he was a cowboy at heart. He was a legend 5 to us. D: He was definitely a character that fit right into Las Vegas in those days. There was no other place for him as far as he was concerned. Was he a jeweler back in Michigan? D: He did a lot of things. He worked in a factory, but he did sell jewelry on the side. So I guess he always had that in him. When he first came out here that was the only job he could get while he was getting the divorce. So he worked in the jewelry store. What jewelry store was that? Does it still exist? J: I never heard it because he went into Stoney's so quickly after that. D: Yes. I don't know. So some unknown jeweler. J: Who knows if he even had a store? D: That's a good answer. I don't know. But then he went into the pawnshop, which was Stoney's. Stoney's Pawnshop. J: Henry Kronberg bought from my grandfather. So that's that connection. Very connected. I love the connections. M: Somewhere in the sixties there was an article in Time Magazine, which referenced your grandfather as Stoney. They used to call him Stoney. J: It was the oldest existing pawnshop in Vegas at the time. Across the street my great-uncle and uncle had a pawnshop. So we have a pawnshop foundation. J: That was two out of the seven that were in the city of Las Vegas at the time. There were seven pawnshops in '46? 6 J: Yes, just seven. M: Until SuperPawn came in. Until they changed the law. J: No, they started changing before that. Maybe until '80 they only allowed seven licenses. M: The Bachs will know exactly because they're still in business, too, right? I think Steven said they're still in business. J: I don't know. I didn't know that there was a limit. Why would there be a limit to them? J: It was a privileged license. They didn't want them spreading all...and they had to be within the red light district. D: Within a certain area. M: Red line. J: Dad was the first pawnshop to move out of the red line and we only moved like four blocks down the road. It was a big deal to do it. M: I don't know if they still have red line. Red line was? J: No, they don't. ?you had to be away from certain businesses by so many feet. Where was his location? J: Stoney's was on First and Carson. Right across the street was the Hock Shop that my great-uncle and uncle had. Then my dad bought out my great-uncle and was partners with my uncle. They opened up Bobby's, which is the one that moved out. D: It was first located on the other side of Fremont and then we moved to the Strip. J: Right. So it was like where The Mint parking lot is now on Casino Center, and then it moved to Las Vegas Boulevard and Garces. My uncle had the Hock Shop for a lot of years. I don't think it's 7 still in business, but it might be. D: Well, the Hock Shop now is on? J: It was on Las Vegas Boulevard. I don't know if it's still called the Hock Shop. So they were running two for a long time. M: Two of the seven? J: Two of the seven. I think when we had Bobby's they were finally expanding the licenses at that point. D: I think so. J: Because it was unconstitutional to limit them. It was a nice deal, but it was probably unconstitutional. That's an attorney speaking, so it sounds good to me. How long then did he maintain this business, the pawnshop? J: My grandfather? Yes. J: That's what we were trying to figure out, but it was by 1992. He sold it to Henry Kronberg sometime in the seventies we think. D: Yes. So then Kronberg took it over. Did your father just retire? D: He sort of retired, but he would come into our shop and make as much problems as he could. J: He was one of the first Jews in the Shriners and the Masons. He was very large in that. There weren't very many obviously because of why? J: It depends who you ask that question. Not being a mason or a Shriner, but it seemed to have religious overtones that were not necessarily Jewish. My grandfather would say no and he actually 8 got my uncle to join. My dad never did and I didn't. But up until that point, I don't think there were very many Jews in that organization. M: It was a very philanthropic organization for him. J: Yes. You'd really have to ask a Shriner or a Mason. But he was certainly one of the first. And my grandmother was active in the women's? M: Nile something, Ladies of Nile. J: Jewels of the Nile, Ladies of the Nile. D: Something like that. And Toni went into the girls. M: Rainbow something. D: I don't know. J: Of course, he was also a Lion and an Elk. He rode the little cars as a Shriner on the parade. D: That was the Shriners. J: But he also sold light bulbs because he was a Lion. Then I think he was an Elk. I'm not sure. When he moved here, there were fifteen thousand people here. So he sort of did everything. M: And the Helldorado Parade, which is still? J: Is back M: Oh, it's back? He used to ride in that. D: Oh, yes. J: He rode his horses the first few years. D: I think so. He really was a cowboy. D: Oh, yes. J: Yes, he took to the Wild West. 9 So he's doing this and then you all come here in... ? J: Seventy-one. This is about the time he's cutting back on the business operation. What did you do when you came here? Were you working? D: I had gone into a travel agency on Maryland Parkway. Which travel agency was that? D: It was called World Travel. M: Yes. Traveling Chairs was the other one. D: There were two people who owned that. Who was that? D: Good question. Don't ask me. M: Somebody Carlson? D: Chuck... M: Mackey. Margaret. That's okay. It'll come to you. D: Half of that team moved to.ABC Travel? No. M: Was it Linda? D: No, Linda worked for me. Airlines Travel and Tours. That was Betty and... J: Is he the one that jumped out of the plane? D: Yes. J: George? D: No. Betty and...I can't remember her husband's name. I can't remember the last name. They needed somebody to manage the agency. They weren't qualified at that time. I don't know what it 10 takes to qualify now, but they couldn't qualify. So I qualified for them and I was manager of the travel agency. How did you qualify? The travel agency business has changed dramatically. D: Yes, it's a totally different business now. Before we left Anaheim I worked in a travel agency and that's where I got my experience. I took classes. We had gone to Europe on our first trip in '64 for our twenty-fifth anniversary. M: No. We were already married. So that would be after that, no? D: Twenty-fifth anniversary we went to Europe. That's when we both decided we wanted to think about opening up a travel agency. We both took classes, my husband and I. But at the end of the class we decided that it wasn't profitable to try and make a living that way. So I just continued with some classes and then I got a job working in a travel agency in Anaheim. When we moved to Vegas, I picked this one up here. Did you have any interesting customers or clients that you can recall? D: No, just some that were obnoxious that are not worth discussing. It was a high level of service involved. M: They had the opportunity to travel all over the world during that time, right? D: Yes. Since then we had done a lot of traveling. It was fun while it lasted. It's a lot of work, too. It's a different industry altogether now. I got out of it just as computers were coming into being. When you moved here your kids were all raised? D: Yes, they were all raised and gone. Sue came back for maybe a year. She worked at Caesars. J: She was here just in time for the flood that shut down Caesars overnight. Wow. What was she doing at Caesars? 11 D: She was front desk. They wanted her to stay, but she didn't like living here, so she moved back to California. But they were all out of the house by then. And Rick, did he ever live here? D: No, Rick never lived here. We'll segue away from you for a little bit. I'm going to ask Jerry and Marcy to tell me how you both met, then? J: She was the other Jew in my high school. There were actually probably a couple more, but I couldn't name them. M: We met at high school J: We actually met before that. M: In 1963. J: Whenever you were in eighth grade. M: We had just moved to Buena Park, Anaheim, the Orange County area, and my mother had met some women and they wanted me to join the USY group. They had given my name to Jerry and he called? J: The obnoxious president. M: Right. He was in the eighth grade and I was in the seventh grade. Probably? J: No, I was in the ninth and you were in the eighth, I think. M: Something like that. He kept calling and I kept hanging up and, "I'm not going to go to this; why would I want to go to this?" I did go to a few different functions and I did see him from afar working in the room and I thought, ooh, what an obnoxious guy that is. After all, he's not going to talk to me. Time went by and we ended up in the same high school. One of my friends said, "You need to go out with him because he's Jewish and then your mom will stop complaining." So our 12 paths actually crossed independently of that and we ended up going out together. That's it. J: I was trapped. Is that how you remember that, Jerry? J: Oh, yes. Actually, I kicked dirt in her face. I was very smooth. M: I belonged to one of the service organizations at school and I was there before school started, weeding and planting, and he came by to register and with his shiny shoes kind of moved the dirt out of his way because I was so lowly that he couldn't be bothered with me. And the rest is history, as they say, right? M: Yes. So you two came shortly after Doris moved here. J: Yes. So how did that decision occur? J: I had graduated from law school. We were in San Diego. I was looking for work. I had just printed my hundred and first resume. M: We had two small children. J: The war was winding down in Vietnam so San Diego's industry was cutting back. We were in a recession. Lawyers weren't being hired and I couldn't find a job. So I called Dad and said, "Do you know anybody in Las Vegas?" Dad said, "Really the only lawyer I've met I think is lieutenant governor and I can see if he's hiring." I said, "Okay, fine." She said, "I'm not moving to Las Vegas." I said, "I don't have a job." M: We were living with my parents. J: He said, "When can you be here?" I said, "As soon as anybody wants me." He said, "Okay, I'll set up the appointment, but you're on your own; I've given him your resume. He's a nice guy, but 13 other than that I can't tell you anything." So I said, "Okay, fine. Can you tell me his name?" He said, "Harry Reid." I said, "Okay, fine." He says, "He's young." I showed up. Had a thirty-second interview. He hired me as a law clerk. We moved here. M: It was for Beckley's. J: Beckley, Delanoy, Jemison and Reid. So I went to work as a law clerk. I was offered five hundred dollars a month to work as a lawyer once I passed the bar in California, in California, and he offered me eight hundred dollars a month to work as a law clerk. Wow, that's a big difference. J: Yes, I wasn't stupid. M: In 1972. J: We came and I went to work as a law clerk, and took the bar and worked for them for a while as a lawyer. Why do you think there was such a rate difference? J: There was just a glut of lawyers in California. So they didn't have to pay anything because they'd go to work for anything. It just happened to be the timing. It was actually a great move. In retrospect, I would have been miserable practicing law in Southern California the way they do it compared to...I knew all the judges here. I knew all the lawyers. I never practiced with or against anyone I didn't know or know how they operated. It was much more pleasant, at least for the first twenty or thirty years. Wow. We'll have to come back to Harry Reid. That does make it a small town when you hear that kind of name. Marcy, you had small kids. M: I had two small children and I stayed home. The first adult outing I had was to an ORT 14 function, and Mom came and babysat the kids so I could go out. Just before that we had met Barbara and Bernie at services or at synagogue, and we had invited them back to our home for dessert and they came. Because we became friends with them and they were active in B'nai B'rith, they invited us to some of their functions and we met people there and those are the people that we still know. And you talk about Barbara and Bernie Kaufman. Were you, Doris, involved in the Jewish community when you moved here? Not as much. I had been very involved in the community in Anaheim and by the time I got here I was kind of burned out. I went to a number of meetings and did a few things, but I backed off. J: But Dad was. D: Yes, Eli was very active. M: In B'nai B'rith. D: B'nai B'rith, Jewish Family Services, the synagogue, everything. But I wasn't. What were the synagogue options at that time in '71-72? J: One. D: Yes, Beth Sholom. M: On Oakey. J: Nothing else was here until we fired one of the rabbis and it caused a split, and that's when Ner Tamid opened up. M: But Shaarei Tefilla opened up somewhere before that. J: Oh, yeah. Which one? J: Shaarei Tefilla, the orthodox one on Maryland Parkway. But that was always very small. 15 D: But that was nothing. M: It was very small. It catered a few people that kept it open. D: Is it still in existence? M: I think it is. J: I don't know. The main driving force no longer belongs, so I don't know if it stayed in business or not. I don't have my list, but there's twenty something synagogues now. So Marcy, you grew up in california. What did you think of coming to Las Vegas just in general? Other than your husband was going to have a good job. I didn't want to come here. I left my mom and I was, at that moment, with two small children living in her house. I don't think I was open for an adventure at that moment in my life and I always thought we were going home, home wherever that would be, probably San Diego; that's where Jerry went to law school and that's where we really liked to live. At one point after he was an attorney, he came home and said, "I have an opportunity to apply for a job in Los Angeles and we can go home." I said, "Eh, I don't want to go." We had by then established our friendships. J: Her parents had moved here. M: And my parents had moved here and our relationships. We have loved living here. It has been a very special place for us to raise our children and we've been involved in all parts of the community. It's been nice. Now our grandchildren are here. So we'll wait and see what happens. The next generation. I love that. That's one of the things that we're discovering with all this. M: One might end up here. I don't think they both?of grandchildren. Our other children are Back East. J: We're really four generations living here. 16 M: Our daughter went away to school and she wanted to come back. This is where she wanted to come. That's wonderful. M: Cory has no objection to living here, but his work is there and he's very happy where he is in Washington. The job opportunities make the whole difference for that generation. M: Oh, yes. He can't do what he does anywhere else. Doris, did you work in the pawnshop? Yes. Tell me about working in a pawnshop. D: It was interesting. The different people that would come into the pawnshop were really very interesting. I enjoyed it. I didn't make loans. Jerry worked in the pawnshop for a while. But I worked in the office basically. I did the books and I would sell. It was an interesting business. J: Dad was the first person to put computers into the pawnshops. He was probably the most educated pawnbroker in Nevada because of his engineering degree. He came at it sort of strangely. He kept developing all these processes to make the job easier and more efficient. That's fascinating. M: Tell about how the police list used to be generated. Whatever you can tell me about the pawnshop business. I don't want to open one up, but... J: First of all, it's mainly a loan business. Eighty-five percent of the people that made loans would redeem their merchandise and pay the interest and do it again next week. Because then, not so much now, if you needed to borrow a hundred dollars, where would you borrow a hundred dollars? You can't go to a bank and borrow a hundred dollars just to make it to the next payday. Your 17 friends aren't going to give you loans anymore. So the pawnshops served that purpose. So we had regular customers that came in once a month, would make a loan because they're just ahead of their paycheck. They'd get their paycheck. They'd come in, redeem their merchandise. M: They were working. J: People would store their merchandise. Hunters were known for leaving their rifles when hunting season was over because it was cheaper to leave it at the pawnshop than to go to a storage facility. D: We had generations of families that would come in and use the pawnshop for paying their electric bills or whatever. We would have generations of families using our pawnshop. J: And everybody would buy?all the law enforcement people would come in because the prices were so much better at that point than the regular jewelry stores. Our customer base was pretty good. It wasn't the stereotypical downtrodden, out of