Hildred Meidell interview, February 27, 1979: transcript

UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 1 An Interview with Hildred Meidell An Oral History Conducted by Greg Abbott 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 Hildred Meidell 2 © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2020 UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 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 Hildred Meidell 4 Abstract On February 27, 1979, collector Greg Abbott interviewed Hildred Meidell (b. March 17, 1900 in Webb City, Missouri) about her time living in Las Vegas, Nevada. Meidell covers a range of topics, from her and her husband’s time as tourists in the city and their subsequent retirement to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, California. Meidell describes the Las Vegas Strip, the interstate and highway conditions between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, as well as their numerous visits to Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam). Moreover, she speaks about the changing layout of the city, the increase in shopping centers and department stores, and the clothing stores inside of hotels. Lastly, Meidell talks about the prominence of churches in local communities, the atomic testing program and the structural damages these tests caused in her neighborhood, and the influence of the railroad and passenger train on the town. UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 5 The informant is Miss Hildred Meidell. The date is February 27th, 1979. The place is her apartment, 1055 Flamingo Road, Apartment 711. Collector is Greg Abbott. My address, 4357 South Spencer, Las Vegas, Nevada. Project is a Local History Oral Project interview. Miss Meidell, why did you move to Nevada? Well, many people from our area in Los Angeles came to Las Vegas on the weekends for a sort of a vacation. We came one time and, looking through the newspaper, we found a piece of property that we liked. And because we did like Nevada, we decided to buy this property. And it was located on South Seventh Street, just off of Oakey. You mentioned earlier the Lieutenant Governor lived in the house before you did move in? Yes, we were told that. I'm—often I’ve meant to go to a library or try to get a hold of some kind of Congressional Record of the state and find for sure. But a neighbor who’d lived in the neighborhood for quite some time told us that it was true. And that many of the people who had lived in this tract of homes, which was—they were built as a tract—had moved to the area that was near or surrounded the (unintelligible) it was the Stardust Country Club (unintelligible) on Paradise and Sahara. It may have been Mark Twain, but anyway it was one of those streets. Now is all that (unintelligible) (laughs) [Located between Desert Inn Road and Viking Road; the Stardust Country Club opened in 1961. After going through numerous owners and name changes, it became the Las Vegas National Golf Course in 1998] (Laughs) Have to do something about all back then. Can I go back and do it all over again? (Laughs) (Laughs) When you came out and stayed in Las Vegas, what hotels did you stay at? Oh, we would just stopped at the Stardust. We had stayed at the Flamingo. And we'd nearly always attended a show or two. And we thought at that time that the Tropicana was the best UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 6 show in the town and the casino was the newest one, too. And we always tried to see the show at the Tropicana. What were some of the big hotels here then? (Unintelligible) Well, most of the big hotels as we know ‘em today were here but we didn't have any high risers. So, like, the most popular today would probably be MGM or Caesars Palace. Well, MGM wasn't here and neither was Caesars Palace. We had, commencing at the end of the Strip as you'd come in from LA we had the Hacienda, the Tropicana, the Flamingo, Sands, Desert Inn, the Riviera, the Thunderbird and the Sahara. And then on the other side was the Frontier, which had replaced an earlier casino that had burned out in that area. And, of course, the Silver Slipper. The rest of the hotels that we see today, the big ones, are later vintage (unintelligible) when I first came to Las Vegas. How were the roads between here and California coming out? Was it all paved interstate like it is today? No. We didn't—when we first bought this property we had to come up, oh, about every other week through that summer because we were having some painting, redecorating and landscaping, and what have you, done. And we hadn't sold our property so we weren't quite ready to move into the property on South Seventh. And as we would leave our area down in Los Angeles, we would come into Victorville where they had started the highway, freeway from Victorville through Barstow and just a little beyond Barstow. And from that point on, it was a two lane highway. It was difficult because you had to pass vehicles and there was lots of trucks and lots and lots of traffic, especially at nighttime through that summer. And it was really kind of a dangerous trip to make into Baker and on up to the state high—boundary of Nevada. There Nevada had commenced the freeway that was gonna go down west of the Strip to Las Vegas. UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 7 Was the house on Seventh Street, was that the only address you’ve ever lived down here or? Mm-hmm. Were—you said you were married here in Nevada? Yes, that was back in 1948. In September, September the 11th, 1948. And Las Vegas at that time was really just like a little country town. It was delightful, really. The, the tracts of homes had just started being built out across Charleston, into what we think of now the Westside of Las Vegas. And the Downtown part, of course, was at showtime when the shows would be emptying their customers to go to another hotel. Here everybody walked in those days, but lots of towns people would take a trip down on about midnight down the Las Vegas Strip just to see the crowd. And there was very few street crossings, you had to watch carefully and not hit anybody when you go across the street. And as I said the hotels were not high risers, they were all probably not higher than three, three stories in those days. And didn’t spread out, didn't cover the acreage. But there was always parking, you didn't have any problem finding parking space. And most people when they came to town, they stopped in one particular hotel and then they'd walk to wherever they wanted to go. It was just a nice walk when the weather was favorable. What was the big reason you really moved out here? Because you lived in California earlier and it seems like a nice place to live as far as climate or any concerns. Well, this of course was a family history, we both, my husband and I, had both retired and we'd always liked Las Vegas. Not that we were big spenders, big gaming people, but we were just like the average person who comes to Las Vegas. And we decided that there might be a possibility that we could find us a home up here. We liked the climate too. And Bill did, he liked the climate very much. And we just, it was just kind of a lark. And getting a home was really a surprise. We UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 8 had no idea of buying it, they only—the weekend we came up. We found it through a real estate office that weekend. And the following Monday morning when we got back into LA, we had a telegram saying that we had bought a home in Las Vegas. You bought the home right about 1960 or so? Yes, must have been about 1960. I was trying to trace it down to who might be the lieutenant governor so I can look it up. Mm-hmm. You remember anything about the Boulder (Hoover) Dam or anything when you come out? Yes. Boulder Dam was really a sightseeing event for most people who came to Las Vegas. And everybody who visited us, that was always on the agenda. We took them to the, to the dam. There weren't near the crowds of people in those days to see the dam and the little concessions, the restaurants and what have you that are kind of off to the left as you go down to the dam from Boulder were built later after we went to the dam first. And we made the tour though, the tour was about like as is given today, showing us the equipment, the machinery and what have you down below. And the movie we'd always see in Boulder [City], the town of Boulder [City]. We always thought that the town of Boulder [City] look kind of like a picture town. Not in the United States, possibly, but more like a European town. You remember anything about Henderson or Boulder City when you moved out there at all? (Unintelligible) those towns? Well, Henderson was a much smaller place than, of course, it is today. And it was really just a wide place in the road. And the, the laborers who worked, the engineers who worked on the dam at the time it was being built used to come into one place in Henderson where they get their UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 9 dinner in the evening and they had the gaming equipment and they could spend an evening and away from the workplace there at the dam. But Boulder Highway was only a two-lane highway. It was kept in good shape though, and brought you into, you almost had to come to Charleston before you can turn toward the Strip, as I remember, because the streets that have since been built from the Strip to the Boulder Highway, such as Tropicana and the Sahara and so on—well Eastern was not even a highway or avenue in those days. It was more or less, sort of a little country road that ran through there, but wasn’t used a lot because there wasn't too many homes out in that area. (Unintelligible) like Maryland Parkway and we used to go to our doctor, Doctor Simons, on the corner of St. Louis and Maryland Parkway, which was about a block and a half south on Maryland Parkway. Doctor Simons who had come from the, the very fine hospital Mayo Brothers out to Nevada for his health and he set up a little clinic and, in this spot, just on Maryland Parkway. And from there on two, one or two, buildings had been built for the university. Was about all that you saw in the way of dwellings at all on Maryland Parkway. And as you went just a little farther toward what is now Hacienda, there was—I don't believe you could even get through. Maybe you could but usually we went to, we came, we came from Oakey there on Maryland Parkway to, on Paradise and passed the airport to a street that must have been, would be, was out near the railroad track where the railroad went across the Strip. And we’d park our car there in the evening about the time the sun went down and watched the sun go down and watched the planes come in. And always thought Las Vegas had so many planes in those days and there’d probably be one about every fifteen minutes. It's quite a lot different than what it is now (unintelligible) (Unintelligible) UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 10 Just in and out all the time. You mentioned earlier you was married here. Where were you married at? (Unintelligible) Yes, there was all kinds of nice little wedding chapels in town. And we, because we so hastily decided to get married, we drove up and we were married at the (unintelligible) Chapel, which was down toward Fremont on the Strip. Was there a lot of chapels back then? Yes, there was a lot of chapels and, and they provided all services necessary. They had people who would act as your bridal party. You could have as many bridesmaids as you wanted, and you could always find somebody who would stand up with you, as they said. And in those days, too, the Strip was, there were hours when the traffic could be a little heavy but it wasn't a continuous thing. Of course, the freeway wasn't even thought of as being where it's located today. And the Strip caught all the traffic as it came from the west coast, going in, on up into the mountainous country, Utah and what have you. But it still wasn't, the traffic was not too heavy. And I can remember so well that on the corner of Fremont and Las Vegas Boulevard was the family store, Sears and Roebuck, and you would always find parking down there to shop. Across from that corner, on another corner close by was Penny's. Diamonds had their store down on Fremont. Switzer’s had their store down on Fremont. And it was quite a nice little shopping area down there. In fact, we didn't have the plazas like we have today. We had to do our shopping down in that area mainly, or in the hotels for clothing, because there weren't any other stores to shop. Hm. Do you remember anything about the mafia or anything being involved in hotels here? Well— What was talked about then? UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 11 We weren't too, you know, we were just the average layman in Las Vegas. And the story of the mafia that had—and they’re still talking of—Bugsy Siegel's adventures here. And his murder and what have you as it was done later in California. All that happened at the Flamingo earlier. Well we stopped at the Flamingo one time when it was in a new condition and it was all done in red, a very lovely place. So it always seemed kind of sad to think that the story of the mafia being as open-handed as it was, was connected with that nice casino. But we had, we didn't have any contact with anybody and I didn't know anybody who knew anybody that was even, you know, informed about the underworld here in this town. But I think we all felt like there was an underworld. Seemed to me like that we had in the, in the time we were here, a winter pretty well like the one we've had this year. We didn't have a heavy, as heavy, a snow. But we had a week of cold weather where pipes in the homes froze. And in the house next to ours, when the pipe started to thaw they burst and ruined all the furniture in that home. I remember that. And our swimming pool was frozen over for about a week with an inch of ice and it was an eight foot pool down on the end and had a continuous action by the filter yet it froze. It was cold. We had one terrific windstorm. All of the power lines and the marquees were damaged on the Strip and towns people wanted to go down to see what had happened down there after it was all over with. And, of course, we were all warned to be very careful and not to go in certain parts of the, off the Strip and around the Strip because the power lines were down. I remember that very well, it was a bad, bad windstorm. Do you remember anything about the like popular entertainers who used to come here? Yes. Who was—? UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 12 We had— Like Elvis Presley and Wayne Newton? No, we didn't have either one of those boys because they were—Wayne Newton had just started being known to some extent. I'm not sure that it was while we lived here or not, though, that Wayne was, was becoming popular. But he was thought of as a middle west boy and wasn't he an (unintelligible) boy? Yes. He was Indian (unintelligible) I don’t know. Yes, and he was interested in horses and he used a Chevy (laughs) (unintelligible) kinda like a little old boy that, everybody loved his voice (laughs) but never would grow up. (Laughs) And we always, we saw, we saw all of the stars as of today like Frank Sinatra and the—some of the others. Was there any big variety shows? Like (unintelligible) is very popular now. Yes, but the Riviera was the show in those days that put on such shows as you find at MGM today. And the Folies, of course, at Tropicana was the big show for several years. And then the Dunes, of course, and Stardust. The Stardust always had, I think Stardust was the first show that admitted the nudies in their performance. (Unintelligible) (Unintelligible) Was it still (unintelligible) way back then? Yes, it was. Uh-huh. It was and their show was a beautiful show. What were the prices of the shows back then? Not much more than seven dollars. UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 13 Mm-hmm. If you got dinner, you'd run into about twelve, fifteen dollars. Not much more than that. Depend on your menu and your tipping, and what have you. You had tipping then like you do today? You’d come in and— Yes, yes. You had your tipping then. You had to give the maître d’ a (unintelligible) Yes, it was a customary thing. You notice any economic changes over the years? Like did the town have any bad years or extremely good years or anything like that? Well, the years we were here they were good years. Mm-hmm. And good years on up for quite a little while later too. They’re bad years if—it (unintelligible) Las Vegas bad years coming in slow about the early 70s when, when we all were feeling the recession. Mm-hmm. See at that time, because I don't remember hearing anything being said about hard times in Las Vegas, we always assumed that people would gamble regardless of what the times were like and that Las Vegas would always be a town where people would try to visit even though they might not be able to afford it actually. Well price is still cheap. Now you can eat breakfast for ninety-nine cents or something. Yes, yes. We always—in fact, you know, we always tried to get a dinner for under five or about five dollars and that is a nice dinner it would be. I mean by that, you know, served nicely and in one of the better places. UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 14 Was there any especially good place to eat here? Yes, all the hotels had good restaurants and the food was good. Well, you know, like we go down to the El Cortez and we eat down there for $4.95. Yes, uh-huh. (Unintelligible) prime rib (unintelligible) anything like that then at all or? No, I don't remember any particular place because I think that, if I remember correctly, that most everything was pretty well patterned. And the hotels pretty well kept their accommodations for the public under the same, you know, standard. That is they, you wouldn't expect to pay much more at one of the hotels than you would the other, unless you went to one of their choice restaurants, outstanding restaurants. I remember the Stardust had the Polynesian restaurant, that may have been more expensive than their regular restaurant or their—they had a big coffee shop in those days. And it may have been more expensive then. Did you visit any other cities at all besides Las Vegas in the state? Not in the state (unintelligible) Ever go to Reno or Lake Tahoe? No, uh-uh. I never did. But I hope to get there this summer. Hm. (Unintelligible) You know, there's, there has been an impression, generally speaking, that Las Vegas is the place where we come for fun, enjoyment and gaming. And people who never get off of the Strip are interested in the usually, wonder if the whole town is like they find the atmosphere on the Strip. And after we went back to California, I had on several occasions to speak up and tell people that I found Las Vegas, off of the Strip, as being a town that was—and I think they still are—interested in the finer arts, education and very kindly toward the less fortunate of their town. And UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 15 was when I lived here, a very strong church-going town. The clubs all were philanthropic in their purposes and did a lot of good, good things for the town wherever there was an opportunity they could do something for a project or a problem that arose. And the clubs are always ready to do their part. Is that it? (Tape one ends) Did you ever go to any of the local churches or were involved in social groups at all around town? Yes. You see, Bill, my husband, was a Mormon. And this was a Mormon town and is—the Mormon influence is still felt there. But at that time, it was, the Mormon influence was quite felt. And we attended the Mormon church. And then I attended the Women's Club, on several occasions, and I went to—people were so friendly in those days, our neighbors. The afternoon we moved in, several came by to tell us how they hoped that we would like the neighborhood and then how glad they were that we were moving into this home. And they remain friendly. I just stopped writing to one of the gals over on South Sixth Street a year or two at Christmas time. She always wrote to me at Christmas time. Her husband died at that time while we lived here. What church did you used to go to? Or where were the Women's Club located at? We attended the Mormon Church down on, I can't remember. It was down in our neighborhood. I can’t remember the street it was on. I also attended the Methodist church which was up there in, in town. Now, then it's a very small little church on a corner, pretty well crowded up by the buildings that have been building there, the new buildings. It's—but it still stays in the same vicinity. I attended that. This was really a church going town. Hm. UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 16 The people who lived off of the Strip. The people who worked on the Strip were friendly. We—some of our neighbors were pit men in some of the casinos and— Were the dealers and stuff unfriendly like they are today? They were friendly too, yes. Cause I know I— What they always seemed to tell us was don't spend any more money than you can afford. Mm-hmm. And I know this fella across the street, he was, he was always sending word to me, “Don’t spend any more than you can afford.” You used to gamble very much when he was here at all? Not too much. Not too much. I got interested first in, in dice. Mm-hmm. I don't know the game like I should. I didn't know a thing and I forgotten all I ever knew about it now. And of course, you know, Bill liked the horses. Mm-hmm. And we used to go to the book game—let me see, race books they called ‘em. And the one— Did he go to any particular one at all? Yes, he went to the one across the street from the little church there on Las Vegas Boulevard. But say they moved that. The Little Church of the West? Yes, Church of the West. They've since moved it, but I've sat there many an afternoon in that race book with Bill and watched the gals and the fellows come out of there with the finery on, their wedding finery, throwing rice (unintelligible). I bet I've seen a thousand weddings in that little church. UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 17 Do you remember any famous people that were married in there at all or? No, I don't remember. (Unintelligible) I might if I search back a little bit in my mind. I know one of my secretaries surprised us one time, one week in getting word to us to find a nice place for her to be married. She was bringing her wedding party up and they'd be here on a certain Sunday. And Bill and I got in the car and we went around all the little—that's how I know about the wedding places. We went around to all of them and checked them all out. Finally found her what we thought was the best one, which was down not too far from where we were married. And made the arrangements for her and then I brought ‘em over to the house and had a little reception for ‘em that afternoon. Do you know anything about politics at all here? That was something that I never did get really into when I was here. ‘Cause I know last election (unintelligible) a lot of folks that were here for a long time. Yes. Was there any scandals or anything like payoffs? No. Bill wasn't interested in the politics, you see. And I was busy. I—we had lots of company every night, everybody we ever knew and a lot of folks that we didn't know too well came to see us. Every week I was cooking up and scrubbing and washing, getting things ready for the next week. (Laughs) Using your place like a motel? Yes, uh-huh. And finally, we got to the point where, you know, we saw the show The Folies Bergere at the Tropicana seven times because we took people there, you know. (Unintelligible) see those shows weren't expensive. Mm-hmm. UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 18 They weren't over twelve dollars in those days. And when you think of it now, what you put into a good show and dinner, you’d really pay. Did they have two shows a night like they do today? Mm-hmm. And they had their morning show, their two o’clock show. (Unintelligible) You see they had a dinner show and then they had a midnight show and then they had a late on the weekend. Oh. Had the third show on the weekend in the better places. Did you ever think about any environmental changes at all around town or around the state? Well, they had just started developing the governmental project of the AEC, the Atomic Energy Commission. Mm-hmm. And I had a friend who was one of the secretaries for one the, the, shall we say, VIPs of the commission. And it was through her I learned how, how everything was screened and how, how secretive and how very carefully it was all handled. And she had been an employee of Aramco. And when she applied for this position, they screened her like they would an FBI employee and they were, oh, several weeks before they finally gave her a final word. She'd been screened for her other job and she didn't feel worried about it at all, but they did all of that. And she's, so far as I know, still with them. But since we were here, they've done a lot by taking their explosives when they have a blast to make, they take it underground now. But they weren't, they didn't do that when we were here because this home that we had bought, we had a sparkling ceiling put on UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 19 the living quarters of the home and before we even moved in, there was a big blast. And it cracked the ceiling across one of the rooms, all the way across the room. And the crack was at least a half an inch wide. Jeez. We were so vexed about it. But often we'd feel a blast from those. It would be an earth trembling thing, you know. Do you know anyone or any of your neighbors ever have damage from those above ground tests? Well, they had—yes, there was neighbors, the neighbors in the neighborhood had—it would crack swimming pools. And they'd have, they’d have cracked ceilings. Mm-hmm. Like we did. I fixed that ceiling and I've always, had almost caused us (unintelligible). And— How much have you noticed that the town has grown? Well, the town has just, I’d like to say it has doubled. And I'm quite sure it has. Oh, I know it has in population because I think we used to think of it in that day as being about sixty thousand. And you know what it is today. And they— How big was the Strip (unintelligible)? Well the Strip’s always been just like it is now, just like it is now. With—they've put in crosswalks and lights, but the Strip is still the Strip as it was in the early days. But what has happened to the town is that the desert that used to be nothing, the tumbleweed, has become great, great areas of tracts of homes and apartment houses and so on. I remember on St. Louis Street where, in our neighborhood, that was about as far south as the building had been done when we were here. A convention center had been finished, up to a point. There were still some UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 20 parts of it that had to be finished. And there was a racetrack, a small racetrack about where the Hilton is now. And Paradise was the road, the street that got the traffic because it led out to the airport. In the beginning, therefore, it was just a small place, country-like place. But we were here, during the time we were here, they built, at that time, what was the new airport. That sort of the main structure as it stands today. But it seemed so far out of town. The Hacienda seemed far out. And the Hacienda, when they built that one out there and we didn't think would ever, ever have any people. “How could it?” we’d say. Because there was just a few motels over on the right side of the Strip, out in that area. And the Aladdin Hotel, they had started building it and before we left Las Vegas they had pretty well finished it. And it, at that time, looked like an English gabled lodge. It didn't look like it does today at all. And it was quiet. There was very little trafficking in that hotel, it just didn't seem to catch on in those days. And then coming on down there, the Strip was just—if it hadn't been for the hotels, the Strip wouldn't have been anything more than just a country downtown street. (Unintelligible) Did you ever take any drives out in the desert or sightsee or anything? Yes. What were some of the sites? We went out to the Red Rock Gardens, out toward, on the north side here. And— Where was that? I don’t—Red Rock Gardens? Well, we haven’t been out there but they are always thought of them as being between here and the first mountain that you would meet or go around as you go to Salt Lake on the, on the highway, going into Salt Lake, they were to the right. Did you ever go to the Valley of Fire? UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 21 That's what it is. Oh that’s (unintelligible) That's what I call it. Okay. Did you ever go to the Painted Desert or there’s Old Nevada, that town? The Old Nevada Town? Yes, I'm quite sure we, we were in the Old Nevada Town quite a lot and that was different too to what it is today. In fact, I could hardly find it again, it's all built up. What has made the town so different though, Greg, is the building of the new casinos and the building of the plazas. There’s a plaza every three or four blocks now. Some of them are not as prominent as the one here on Maryland Parkway but—and the, you see, when we were here, there wasn't anything from the corner of St. Louis as I told you. It was Doctor Simon's clinic, medical clinic. They had commenced to—and I'm not sure but it seems to me there was some building being done on Sunrise Hospital. I know that it was finished after we left though. And I'm positive of that. And from there on out to the university there was no building and there was wide open spaces between Maryland Parkway and Paradise Road. And then going from Maryland Parkway over to Boulder [Highway], it was just country, you know. And when you look out and see that sea of house tops, from Charleston or Fremont—no, you'd have to see it from Charleston or I think Sahara goes through now, through west there. See all that, they had just started. It was closer though, closer to the, to the town. They had just started building through there and on St. Louis they had started to build a little. And Sears, I mean Broadway, hadn't even come into this plaza. Neither had, they hadn’t started the plaza down here, Sears or Broadway Plaza, at all. That was all done after we left. UNLV University Libraries Hildred Meidell 22 Were there any secrets or anything to keep cool? Or how did you keep cool? There wasn't too much air conditioning, was there? Yes, we had the, what do you call them? The desert—you know, the things that went on top of the house. Swamp coolers? Huh? Swamp coolers. Swamp coolers. And, oh, our motor burned out, we had to have a new motor put in. The painters and what have you, we let them, Bill would get this one, that one, this one, that one contracts to do thus and so. This house had to be re—had to be completely revamped. It had been sold first to a fella that had just let it go down, something terrible. That's the reason we got it at the price we could buy. When you travel out here in the summertime, you usually go at night or during the day? Yes, at night. We’d leave Los Angeles about nine and we’d leave here as soon as it got cool enough to make Las Vegas hill. (Unintelligible) over here or something? Uh-huh. It'd be along about nine o’clock with the daylight saving time. Were the casinos air condition