Transcript of interview with Lestor Burgwardt by Connie Carr, February 9, 1980

UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 1 An Interview with Lestor Burgwardt An Oral History Conducted by Connie Carr 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 Lestor Burgwardt 2 © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2018 UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 3 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 Lestor Burgwardt 4 Abstract On February 9, 1980 collector Connie Carr interviewed teacher, Lestor Burgwardt (born May 24, 1926 in Hamburg, New York) in his home in Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview covers local entertainment, Lake Mead, school districts, and gaming’s effect on the educational system. Lestor also recalls his move to Nevada and offers a general overview of Henderson in 1954. UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 5 This project is History of Nevada 117, Oral Interview, Life of a Las Vegas Old-Timer. The informant is Lestor Burgwardt. The place is 1416 Houssels Street, Las Vegas, Nevada. The collector is Connie Carr, 4995 Maryland Parkway in Las Vegas. The date is February 9th, 1980 at 11:30 A.M. Okay. Okay. We ready? Mr. Burgwardt where were you born? I was born in Hamburg, New York. Mm. About 1926, May 24th. And how long did you live there? Seventeen years. ‘Cause then I went into the Navy. What did your family do when they were in New York? We had a dairy farm and all of the things associated with dairy farm: taking care of the cows, cleaning the barns and feeding the animals, (unintelligible). Did the whole family help with it? It was a family operation, very technically. Everybody was in on it. Mother, and brother, and sister, my dad. We’d have as many as, oh, six to eight, ten people during (unintelligible) season and harvest corn in the (unintelligible). And you lived there for seventeen years and then you said you left to join the Navy? Right. Saw what the other side of the hill looked like. Oh, it was—it was a different experience getting out of the area. Frankly, I’d never been more than thirty miles from my home until I did go into the Navy and then I went down to New York City and enlisted in April of ’46. And found UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 6 that there are a lot of exciting places. Not that Hamburg wasn’t a good place but gee there are lots of other places to take a look at. Mm-hmm. And then, I was recalled for, or called up to active duty in October of ’46 and started my tour of duty at Swarthmore College, just out of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And, that wasn’t enjoyable. I integrated—I started out in the Naval Aviation Program and got a little, kind of a town kid going into a big college such as Swarthmore, it just flabbergasted me there. I wasn’t prepared for it. And I left Swarthmore then, oh, about January of ’47, did my boot camp at Cambridge, Maryland, and then went on into aviation (unintelligible) school and into a (unintelligible) environment squadron, which I never did see action. By the time we got to Hawaii, there were no more Japanese submarines left. So, I wound up in a pilot air crew pool, and spent about twelve months in Hawaii doing other things, going to school and minding my business and I had a good enjoyable time sightseeing the island of Oahu. Good. So when you went into the Navy, you got to see a lot of different places? You bet. And you didn’t want to go back to New York? Didn’t want to go back. I’d seen all of western New York, I wanted to see. And— So where did you go when you got out of the Navy? Well, a group of us found, realized that we were gonna be discharged eventually and with the G.I Bill coming up we figured that would be a real nice experience so we—four or five of us decided we’d go to Colorado A&M. That seemed like a real neat spot. And, none of us had ever seen it before. But from the descriptions from former A&M students we decided that yes, that was the UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 7 spot for us. So we planned to meet there in August of ’46. Of the four or five who had made the agreement, three of us wound up there and started our collegiate efforts. What did you study? I had picked up horticulture. It seemed like a little more refined phase of farming than of dairy farming. And I did three years of that and then found out about our greenhouse and nursery that was for sale in Northern Idaho. And purchased that by January of ‘4—yes, January of ’49. And figured I’d finish my last year of college by dropping by for fall or springs terms when I’d break away from the greenhouse. Anyway, went up to put in my first year in the greenhouse fall of ’49, I went back to pick up another quarter toward my degree, oh, let’s see, that had to be—that had to be the fall of ‘50. And when I got back there, the registrar, Stella Morris said, “Lest, stop by my desk when you finish your registration. I have a letter for you.” I finished my registration and stopped by to see Ms. Morris and she handed me a, an official looking envelope, with the Navy Departments return address on it. She knew perfectly well what it was, and it was my recall to active duty for the Korean Conflict. She asked if I wanted a deferment, which I asked her to follow through on. Received the deferment and it was good until June of ’51. That’s when you finished school? Yes. I stayed right on then and finished school and when June rolled around, the recall orders hadn’t shown up, so no, I didn’t know what the heck to do. Whether to sell the business or I go back and play innocent like the recall orders hadn’t ever arrived. But the pressure got to be a little bit too great and so finally I just sent a nice little letter to the Navy, asking, “Hey, look, give me the word or forget about it.” Something definite. They didn’t forget about it, and I was to report to 391 Seattle, Washington, July 5th or 6th. And so that ended my greenhouse career in a hurry. And— UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 8 Did you go over to Korea or? No. I—was to go to it one time and learn how the Navy operates and I called in again, and you just would follow the orders blindly. It’s your own fault, I guess. But I saw a real fine opportunity at Naval Air Space in Seattle. It’s probably one of the most beautiful bases in the Navy. Nothing had been done to it, as far as the landscaping and so forth is concerned. I did drive by while I was waiting for further assignment from Air 91. The air station was a disaster, as far as the landscape was concerned. So I went down and talked with the Public Works officer and said, “Hey look. I think I can do you some good.” And it so happen Commander Padbury had graduated from Boulder, Colorado, and Colorado A&M, of course, was a rival athletic wise with Boulder. And so we had a good common interest right there. He said, “Tell you what Lest, you, I’ll call the skipper and see if he can have you transferred to the Naval Air Station. We just fired our grounds superintendent and we need someone to fill that, fastly.” So, anyway, Padbury called Captain Graper. I went up and talked with Captain Graper. He called a friend of his from Bureau of Personnel in Washington. And the essence of the conversation was, “Lest, get lost for a few days, before you report back into Pier 91. And I’ll think you’ll—well, we’ll see what happens.” That saved you from going overseas. So, anyway, yes, I wound up in the Naval Air Station. The orders that did come in for me where actually terrific. As we’re flying in, backseat, at one of the new jets as the fire control person, it would have been a terrific experience, too, but anyway, being married and taking responsibilities, I guess worked out real well. And— You stayed in the Navy then till the end of the war or? UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 9 My—I had to make up for the remainder of my Reserve enlistment. I had been in the Naval Reserve Unit at Buckley Field in Denver. But, let’s see, I had to make up the time that I was on deferment. So I got out somewhere along October of ’53. Where did you go from there? October of ’52. Yes. Go ahead. Okay. Where did you go from there? I tried to work for a person in Grand Junction, Colorado. Nursery, and so forth, and that poor man was having to borrow money to pay the interest on the loans that he had in the bank. And (Laughs) didn’t look as if he was gonna make out too well, so, financially, so, I elected to go ahead and use my remaining G.I. Bill, and went back to school at (Unintelligible) Colorado, to pick up a teaching certificate. So you did graduate with a teaching degree? Right. Got a masters in biological science and a teaching credential. That, let’s see, I picked that up in August of ’54. And then, let’s see, during the summer of ’54, one of my colleagues came into the lab one day and tossed a notice of a job on the lab table and said, “Here, this is up for grabs. I’m going on to do graduate work.” No one else picked up the slip, I looked at it and fast forward a biology teacher for Henderson, Nevada. And that’s how you came to Nevada to begin with? Yes. Tell you what, well, I might as well try, one year at teaching, you know, just for the record. And I really wanted to go back into horticulture, particularly the marketing aspects of it, produce, in particular, and but getting back to that announcement, during lunch I looked at my roadmap in the car and found state of Nevada—I couldn’t find the city of Henderson on the damn map. (Laughs) UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 10 (Laughs) So, that afternoon I asked some of the other people, “Where in the hell is Henderson, Nevada?” One of my profs said, “Oh yes. I—yes. You can’t miss it. You go across Hoover Dam heading toward Las Vegas and you see a huge plume of smoke floating across the highway, you are in Henderson, Nevada.” So. They had a reputation even then. Oh. It was—it was something else, then. Pioche Manganese was operating at the north end, northeast end of the industrial complex out there. They were processing manganese dioxide. They used an oil flotation process to separate the ore from the tailings and then when they concentrate the ore they’d have to burn off the oil. And so, the oil from that, those furnaces are (unintelligible) just went across Boulder Highway. I mean it was huge, (unintelligible) out there, about three miles toward Sunrise Mountain. (Laughs) So this is in 1954 that you decided to move here? Right. Into Nevada? I bought a—they had another plant in Henderson, east of town called Manganese Incorporated. They were mining their manganese dioxide at the Three Kids Mines. If you go out to Lakeshore Road heading toward Lake Mead, you’ll see the remains of a manganese dioxide, or manganese incorporated plant, and they too used the oil floatation process. And of course they had their own plume of smoke going up from there, heading toward Lake Mead. So, actually there were two smog spots going. Manganese Incorporated built about an eighty-five unit-housing tract on the northeast side of Henderson on Lake Mead, what’s now known as Lake Mead Drive, called Manganese Park. And they’re selling two bedroom cinderblock houses for something like UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 11 seventy-eight hundred dollars. And three bedroom cinderblock houses for eighty-five. Well, I bought one of the two bedroom houses and paid a few dollars down. House payments including taxes and interests were something like eighty-five dollars a month. And anyway, I called home and had a job with the Henderson School District. At that time the school districts in Nevada were on an individual basis. There were many, many school districts. Usually each town had a school district. And Spring of ’55, there was a big push to consolidate all of the school districts in Nevada. This dumbfounded me. I just thought any school in Colorado where they said that consolidation should be based upon interests, natural groupings of communities, depending upon economics and socioeconomic factors. And definitely not along county subdivisions. So it rather dumbfounded me to get out here and find that there’s a huge push in the state of Nevada to consolidate. They were going to have state school dis—? No. County school districts. Oh. County school districts. Consolidate on county basis. Mm-hmm. Ah. It never came about. Oh, yes. It did come about. Oh. It did. ‘Cause now we have a county school district for each county in the state of Nevada. This meant that Overton, Logandale, Glendale, Moapa, which are built around agricultural area, were now thrown in with the urban school district, Las Vegas school district. Henderson was an industrial UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 12 center and Boulder City is still a federal city, operated by the Bureau of Land Management. But it threw all of us together into one school district, which, well, it was a little bit confusing and did ‘cause a few problems. The outlining districts were always concerned that Las Vegas would grab off the lion’s share of the monies and so forth. Actually, it’s worked out fairly well, though. So when did this consolidation take place? Oh. It was passed in the spring of—elections in the spring of ’55. And so from that time on, we operated then as a Clark County School District. Even prior to Henderson School District there was—during the war, ah, when Henderson was put up as a war town, just you know to operate for the duration of the war, the original school district was known as the Railroad Pass School District. And in the location south of Henderson, where you go to the Pass into Boulder City, there was a—had been a community there for years. It was a—just a little service station, restaurant, bar, type operation, a few scattered houses. And that has, Railroad has a school district there. Yes. How many schools were there in Henderson? Oh. We had two senior high schools. All of the schools had been located what’s the downtown area of Henderson. Some of the buildings still remain. It’s now called the Henderson Civic Center. There are no more classes, public schools classes offered there, or, however, the community college holds some classes there. The Southern Nevada Museum utilizes a section of the old school in the gymnasium. So there was only one old school. One school. It had all the grades? UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 13 All the grades. But in, let’s see, December of ’53, Basic High School was established over that Christmas vacation. The eighth, ninth, and tenth graders, were moved to eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. Erase that. (Laughs) Negative. (Laughs) (Laughs) Okay. The ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders were moved up to what is now known as Burkholder Junior High School. That was a big beautiful brick building and it was called Basic High School. Leaving the other grades on the original campus. An elementary school was put up about that same time. It’s now known as McCaw Elementary School. It had been known as Basic Elementary School. There was also a school up, operating in the Carver Park area of Henderson. There were two low cost housing tracks on the northeast side of Henderson. One was called Victory Village and on the north side of Lake Mead Road there’s a place called Carver Park. And the Carver Park School was an elementary school. Three or four classrooms. So, to summarize the school situation at that time, there was Carver Park Elementary School, Basic Elementary School and the Town Site School and Basic High School. This was in the sixties? This was in ’54. Fifty-four. Okay. And. So when you first came here there were five schools? In Henderson. In Henderson? UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 14 Yes. Carver Park, Town Site, Basic Elementary and Basic High School. Okay? Okay. And, let’s see. Which one did you teach at? I started teaching biology at Basic High School. Sophomores and let’s see, we had about four, we had five hundred students at that time. And a faculty of about eighteen people, John Duly was principal and Ester Smith Daniel was Vice-Principal. Ester Smith Daniel had taught at the Town Site School when all of the schools were combined during the war or at the beginning of the war. And then, he had been called to the Navy. When he returned, he began to, took up with the public school system as vice-principal. Just, in all these schools, this was in ’54, when the consolidation took over, were there a great many changes? Ah, no, not—not really. We eased into the consolidation rather smoothly. Lyle Burkholder was the superintendent of the Henderson School District, and with consolidation, he became known as the area administrator. And as such, he was the—acted as superintendent for the outlying school districts. That would have included Boulder City, and the valleys, Moapa Valley, and the school at Mesquite, Overton, Logandale. (Unintelligible) Ready to go again? Yes. Okay. When you first came into Henderson from Idaho, you were or Colorado? Colorado. Colorado. Okay. What was your first impression of Henderson? UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 15 What a place. That summer they had had, oh, let’s see, you know, I told you I couldn’t find Henderson on the map and then I heard about Henderson, Nevada, on the radio. Somewhere along in July they had a flash flood, and it had hit the national wires, and I heard about Henderson, Nevada, on the radio then, back in Colorado. People said, “Hey, where’s that place you’re going to? I hear it was just about wiped off the map.” So anyway, then, that must have been the latter part of July, first part of August. And again, just a week or two before I rolled into Henderson, they’d had another outlandish rain out there. Now at that time, Henderson had black top streets but no sidewalks, no curbs, and ah no gutters. It was just black top roads through Henderson. This is in ’54? Yes. In that August of ’54 the stucco houses were still wet. You could see the sides of the building, the stucco was wet, there were rocks just all over the roads. The, along the edge of the road in Water Street in Henderson, you could see where the water had just washed away the road sides. There were no sewers then? No. The water just came down that hill. People told me that they were coming in the first rain that they had several weeks earlier. The rocks were just rolling right down Boulder Highway. It damn near wiped it off the map. In Victory Village and Carver Park water had piled up against the uphill side of the houses, seeping indoors and so forth and flooding apartments, and they’d just know holes in the back wall, let the water run out the back of the house then. It was, well, one of those desert flash floods. But let’s see, ah. You came into town? You drove into town? Yes. UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 16 With your wife? Yes. And let’s see, we stayed over in Boulder City, you know, I thought, hey, there’d be something out on the edge of town but there was no edge of town to Las Vegas at that time. And pretty soon you hit Henderson and there was no motels in Henderson except in the Pittman area and those were rather shabby to say the most for them. And— There were no big casinos or big hotels? Nothing out there on the Boulder Highway, oh, yes, in town there was the Desert Inn, and the Flamingo Hotel, the El Rancho Vegas was occupied the southwest corner of Sahara and Las Vegas Boulevard South. The Sahara Hotel was there and let’s see, yes, that was about it. The Showboat Hotel opened I believe in, yes, in the fall of ’54. But once you hit the Showboat Hotel on the Boulder Highway going south, there was nothing. Oh, there is Roxie’s, little spa, that was a house of ill repute, it was called Four Mile at that time. And then, there was nothing until you got to Henderson and I thought gee there’d be a motel in Henderson. But there wasn’t so, wound up staying at a place in Boulder City. And it was just hotter than heck the next day when, woke up and looked out over the valley, south of Boulder City and just wondered what kind of a place we really had gotten in to. Went back to Henderson and there’s that old plume of smoke going up, just like the prophet Greely had told me. Now I hired on for the job at Henderson from a pay station in, or payphone in Greely. And then, that was the interview. The guy said, “Hey, look, I need a biology teacher and fine I’ll see you by such and such a date.” And that was it. So, I met with the principal, Mr. Greely, and he showed me the school and that was the start of that. That was your interview and everything? That was my interview and everything. And I think I signed the contract by mail. He sent a contract to Greely and that was it. The reason I came here was the— UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 17 (Tape one ends) Are we on? Yes. Yes. We’re on, okay. Let’s see, yes. The reason I came here was because of the big pay. I’d been negotiating junior college at Ellensburg, Washington, and I’m there in (unintelligible) school district and this school district, Henderson School District offered all of thirty-four hundred dollars. A year? Yes. For one teaching year. And that was actually a fantastic salary for west of the Mississippi. That was with your master’s degree? Oh yes. That’s with a master’s degree. See, back in Colorado, I’ve been offered a job of being the science teacher. That would have meant biology, general science, chemistry and physics. And then, I would be a shop instructor, as well. The superintendent thought it would be a real good opportunity because we wanted to go, we could live in in-laws house and then pick up a little extra money, I could drive the school bus, as well. (Laughs) So, no, I wouldn’t have to teach all of those subjects at the same time, you know, chemistry and physics, and biology would be offered on alternate years. So any way when thirty-four hundred was offered out here, I thought, gee actually I was really hitting a goldmine. And for one year I could put up with most anything with a poster or that terrific wage. So anyway, come to find out when they evaluated all my credentials and they gave me credit for military experience, somehow or other, my salary wound up to be thirty-nine fifty, which was just super, super at that time. Another reason came out, was, find out just what the country was like. But after having UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 18 looked across the dry lake bed south of Boulder City that first morning, I thought, my God! Coming from Colorado, what could be beautiful out here, you know, had to be the pits for sure. (Laughs) So we went down and took a look at Lake Mead and that was quite neat but it wasn’t like the trout fishing streams in Colorado. I figured about all you could do on Lake Mead was to boat. So the spring of ’55, yes, around about the 1st of May, I took a popular science book and expanded the, or built the plans for a little cabin, sixteen, seven foot, sixteen to seventeen foot cabin and a boat. And I stuck a plywood boat together during the month of May and finished up that first school year all at the same time. My neighbors really loved me. I could be out there, midnight, one, two o’clock in the morning. I usually hell, called it quits by two. Got some sleep ‘cause I would be out there snoring and gluing and screwing those boards and surprisingly enough, the boat did float. It was washed down at Hemmingway Bay, that’s where the big marina was located at that time. We had the christening ceremonies at the government dock that was located there. I had just about shot all my money on the plywood and so forth for the boat. I believe I, I had a twenty-two horse Johnson, which was a direct drive engine. There was no clutch on it whatsoever. You fired the darn thing up and away you went. Well, I had the boat against the government doc, and first experience with a powerboat, fired it up and the engine took off real great like and I couldn’t steer the backend over. I (unintelligible) getting the bowel of the boat away from the dock and the government dock had an offset in it and the gas, fortunately when I killed the engine, killed it in time, so I didn’t smash the boat against the dock. But anyway, that was the experience out in launching the thing. I damn near wrecked it in the first few minutes. But at that time you could go out on Lake Mead and anywhere on the lower basin and now and then you might hear a boat. This would be on a Saturday or Sunday. Maybe they had fifty, sixty UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 19 boats tied up at that commercial dockage at Hemmingway Bay. Until my neighbor said, “Hey, Lest, why don’t you try some fishing?” Ah, did I realize that fishing on Lake Mead could be any kind of sport. You don’t have to have any fish for the trout in the stream to come right on. All of the glamour with that, broadcasting and so forth, I couldn’t quite bring myself to, fishing with bait. But anyway, old Ben went out with me a time or two and good gracious, you could go ahead and land a string of largemouth bass with little of any trouble. With little ones, three and four pounders, you’d kind of throwback, and let them grow up. Six, seven pounders, eight pounders were actually no trouble whatsoever. It’s just terrific. And as I say, you could get lost out there without seeing another boater, even hearing another boat on the lake. Not many people could afford the hobby or there just weren’t a lot of fishermen? There just weren’t a lot of people around here. Believe it was in the summer of ’55, they had a special census in Las Vegas. And the population was, turned out to be something like fifty-five thousand people. Now I believe that was for Clark County, fifty-five thousand people. For the entire county? I believe that’s correct. The only confusion would be, was, whether that fifty-five thousand would be for Las Vegas proper, or the entire county. And I think the county is, the figure is the correct item. No. At that time there was no speed limit on the highways in Nevada. Only where speed limits where posted and they were only posted in the incorporated areas. It was a ten minute ride from Henderson to Las Vegas and it was cheaper to take that ten minute ride from Henderson to Las Vegas to do grocery shopping. I think we shopped at the Safeway store on Maryland Parkway and Charleston. It’s where Fantastic Furniture Store is located now by the Huntridge Theatre. And we did have a couple of stores, grocery stores in Henderson but gee, they always had their prices up just a little bit more. And yes. You could go seventy, eighty, UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 20 ninety miles an hour, whatever your nerve would allow you to drive from Henderson to Las Vegas. Kinda slowed up in the area that’s now called East Las Vegas that was known as Whitney at that time. But there was nothing from Henderson to I’ll say, the location of Showboat Hotel now. And Sears and Roebuck store was in the building south of the El Cortez Hotel. The building is now occupied by Sentel Telephone Company. But that was the—the big place to do any of the other shopping and it was kind of on the outskirts of Downtown Las Vegas at that time. Fremont Street was, well, a typical old west. See the Four Queens was not there. The Spring Mountain Street Downtown? That was the center? Oh. Fremont Street was the Downtown and at the west end of Fremont Street was the old Union Pacific Railroad Station. Trains stopped there and discharged and forgot passengers. Now that’s where the Union Plaza Hotel is located. They tore down the old railroad station to make way for the Union Pacific. The Golden Nugget Hotel was—or casino, was there. Since that time little small casinos that were next to the Golden Nugget have been all incorporated into the Golden Nugget Hotel. And there was a big item when the Fremont Hotel and the Mint went in. Oh, by the way, I remember having seen Wayne Newton. He played at the—in the lounge at The Fremont Hotel as a teenager. I believe he was something like thirteen, fourteen years. And he would his thing there at the Fremont. He was quite a hit at that time. So when you lived in Henderson, most of the entertainment was in the City of Las Vegas? Oh yes. There was nothing in Henderson except maybe Friday and Saturday night they’d run a movie at the theatre and other than the Victory Club and Magnesium Club, in the Pittman area, that was it. Now the Victory Club and Magnesium Club, they were just beer joints. There was nothing fancy there. The Victory Club is now known as the Scotch and Soda Bar in the Pittman area. It was—you’re way up in the country at that time. UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 21 There wasn’t a lot connecting to—? Nothing but desert, wide open. And let’s see, the four lane road was there but it’s nothing like we’ve got today. Ah, let’s see. When you first came here in 1954 you said that you had a one year contract, what made you decide to stay? Oh, I decided that one year on the contract, on the record wouldn’t look good, so we also got a big increase of salary. Maybe it went, went up two hundred and fifty, three hundred dollars. I think maybe I went to forty-four hundred dollars that second year. And that was big money. Pretty soon just got hooked on it and really couldn’t, I guess afford to leave here. So you settled here? You had your family here? Right. Craig, Kent, and Connie. And they, all three of them went through the schools in Henderson. It’s really a pretty nice town. I think we enjoyed (unintelligible), having you know settled here, it was quite by accident, not by choice. But the people, all the people were good. You knew virtually everyone walking up and down the street and it was fun. I went to summer school every summer, I guess from ’55 through about ’68, while I was working on my doctorate. I think I possibly took off a summer or two. One was early sixties, maybe the summer of ’60 I remodeled my house in Henderson. But going away to summer school was sort of a vacation away from this area. But I gotta get back to the lake and the surroundings. Okay. I found out that deer hunting was real good in the area and went deer hunting every fall, oh usually in the Pioche area. That was at the time when you could get one or two beer. They would have special tags, (unintelligible) tags and you could take a doe or a young one without antlers, in addition to a buck or, you know, what you consider legal game, today. But the deer were UNLV University Libraries Lestor Burgwardt 22 plentiful and it was just, just absolutely wonderful. See, I got to poke around in the hills, really this place is—holds an awful lot of beauty and since you get away from the valley floor and start poking up in the foothills, it’s a whole different world there. And I found out that there are a lot of beauties here. It’s fascinating place and I don’t know of any other place I’d really rather live in than here. So you got hooked on the area? Really got hooked on it. Then as time went by, oh the Strip became, you know, more like it is today. And gee, at that time, you could go in, you could watch the lounge shows. You might have to—you might buy a drink if you dared, otherwise you just watch the entertainment. The dinner shows, which were just as great as they are today, could cost—well maybe you’d have to go four and a half, five dollars for a super duper dinner, filet mignon, possibly five dollars. And it seemed as if the ente