Transcript of interview with Ray Christian by Russell L. Ellis, March 19, 1978

UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian i An Interview with Ray Christian An Oral History Conducted by Russell L. Ellis 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 Ray Christian ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian iii The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division. The OHRC conducts oral interviews with individuals who are selected for their ability to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. The OHRC is also home to legacy oral history interviews conducted prior to its establishment including many conducted by UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske and his students. This legacy interview transcript received minimal editing, such as the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. The interviewee/narrator was not involved in the editing process. UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian iv Abstract On March 19, 1978, Russell L. Ellis interviewed former postal worker, Ray Christian (born 1927 in Las Vegas, Nevada). The two discuss Ray’s family history and his experiences as a Black man in early Las Vegas. Ray Christian compares the experiences of his childhood with that of his children in Las Vegas. The interview concludes with Christian expressing how Las Vegas has grown and that there are more opportunities available for his children to pursue. UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 1 My name is Russell Ellis. I’m interviewing Ray Christian on Nevada History. I’m trying to find out the personal feelings about Ray’s household, and some of the history of Nevada that he’s been a part of. Okay, Ray. I’m going to ask you a few things about (unintelligible) how well—what elementary school did you go to out here in Las Vegas? Well, I started at—in the Westside of D Street. At the time, that was the only elementary school that was in West Las Vegas, and had white kids and blacks these days. Third grade. (Unintelligible) and then I graduated and passed from there and went to another building to the eighth grade. The first one you went to was (Unintelligible)? Right. Then you had graduated from (Unintelligible) sorry, what’s the name of that school? The Fifth Street School, they called it Fifth Street School, from fourth to the eighth grade, which is on Las Vegas Boulevard. (Unintelligible) Must’ve been around sixty-eight, sixty-nine, right around there, (unintelligible) Why do you think there may have been (unintelligible)? Well, Las Vegas grew, so the Downtown area can support the school, you know, so that all families got more businesses, more suburban type schools that have now, neighborhood type things. When I was a kid, it was right around Fremont Street, and that used to be from Las Vegas Boulevard. On what section of Las Vegas did you stay in when you worked (unintelligible)? UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 2 I lived on the Westside, predominantly on the Westside, at Snow Manor. I was born down on Second and Stewart, which is right Downtown. And my grandmother lived down there, and I stayed down there a lot with her. But then I went to Westside schools. I lived there with fifteen other Black families. Do you feel that they have educated you pretty well in those schools? Oh, education in Nevada at that time was—you only had fifteen, twenty kids in the classroom, anybody that didn’t get it, just didn’t want to because you had the teacher’s—you had individual attention. And if you concentrated on everything, there really shouldn’t have to be—they educated me pretty well. Most of the guys who are in school with me are lawyers here in Las Vegas. Are they? Doing pretty well, because of the education that the education that they got, it was very excellent. Do you feel that your parents had a lot to do with when you learned—with your educational background? No, not as such, because it was the only way you could go. There wasn’t any privacy in the situations. It was just the way it was. We had good teachers and small classes. When you have that combination, you get a good education. So your parents—so you came home from school, you had homework, and your parents had nothing to do with it? No, my mother believed that if you didn’t want to go to school, you didn’t have to. (Laughs) If you didn’t want to go, you didn’t care. UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 3 So you went to school because you wanted an education? Somehow I think that’s the best way. You really got a burning desire for education. (Unintelligible) Right, that’s true. When you was in elementary school, were you very religious? No, my family—my mother (unintelligible) we even went to Sunday school. We were aware of religions. But it was never a mandatory thing. When we were young we had (unintelligible) and then after we got to be around ten to twelve, (unintelligible) Okay, so like, when you was in elementary school, was there any tune of achievements, achievements that you made? No. Not the commendable or anything. We just participated in sports and everything like that. But in elementary school, it was just more or less, teams on everything. Everyone had about the same ability. And when you were in elementary school, did your family do very much of travelling? No. We hardly traveled at all. We made one trip with my father’s brother; traveled by trains, ‘cause my father worked at the railroad. He traveled right there with other (unintelligible) If you can remember, did you have any goals when you was a kid? Like, what you wanted to be? Well (unintelligible) I never could say what I wanted to be. I told my guys, I wanted to be a fireman, doctor, lawyer, but I never knew what I wanted to be. I couldn’t make up my mind. It was kind of like—the road was long. You know, the kids set out to be something only to achieve it, but I never thought about it that way. I always thought that whatever was going to happen to me would happen. Hmm. How did you have those—what did you do (unintelligible)? UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 4 I used to like to hunt. Used to hunt rabbits all over, there was some on the house on our lawn in Vegas. I used to hunt rabbits. As a matter of fact, where I live—where you’re sitting at right here now, is an (unintelligible) we’d hunt rabbits and foxes. There used to be a lot of foxes around here. Kit foxes is what we called ‘em. And we did all those kinds of things for hobbies. But there wasn’t anything else to do like there is now. How were the conditions back in those days? Well, you mean conditions as far as? Living conditions. Living conditions? Well, we lived way out in the country. Well, it was the country then, its not country now. But we had kerosene lamps and out toilets, we didn’t have indoor plumbing at all. And it didn’t bother us, because we were like, living on a farm, to speak. And when they got electricity out, and the plumbing out and everything, we got everything. It just wasn’t feasible because we couldn’t pay for it. It was only a couple families living in our area. So we learned how to do without. And it was a good life. We made a lot of things for ourselves. Were you in any types of clubs or organizations at that time? No, I belonged to the Boy Scouts when I was a kid. And we (unintelligible)— And the broad mines were something—(unintelligible) I feel like organizations like the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts and all of those things for the young people—because they do a certain amount of teaching you unity and teamwork, that type of thing. And I feel like they’re doing that respect. That you anticipate—a lot of people are very selfish people. They never participate in those—the team effort. (Unintelligible) and they never had the opportunity to participate as a member of society as more than one team member for this neighborhood—national, local, whatever it is. Did you have—did you ever mention, did you have a job or something? UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 5 Yes, I have a job. When I was in elementary school I had a job. I worked down at the El Portal theatre. It’s still there. My uncle, my dad’s brother he had a contract with everything on Fremont Street. Across the drug store and the El Portal theatres and there was a (unintelligible) and I used to go by it every morning before I go to school and I clean up the whole theatre and sweep underneath the seats with a brush and a pan, and vacuum the aisles, and I got twelve bucks a week for that. I would buy some cigars from the corner store because there was more—and I had more money than everyone else at the school. And I’m sure that helped you, and now—? Yes, it did because my uncle was very strict. He would get (unintelligible) up if I didn’t come to work. I had to go work every day. If I didn’t clean that theatre up, I would get in trouble with the guy and he was (unintelligible) so I went there every morning about seven o’clock. It would take me an hour and a half, and I had to be at school at eight thirty. And it’s the same theatre as it is right now. I don’t know what the pay it is for right now, but it’s like six, seven hundred dollars a month. I did it for twelve bucks. (Unintelligible) (Unintelligible) (Unintelligible) and if he told you to go out, you go out and do it? Or? No, I didn’t have to. I wanted that money. ‘Cause I didn’t have any money, man, for real. My dad was a fireman on the railroad. (Unintelligible) and he wasn’t making a whole lot of money, so that was the only money I had. So I went, ‘cause I wanted the money. How well did you get along with the rest of the kids at school? Good, got along with them good. There was only about twelve black kids and we were all stuck together. We went to school together, and we left together. We were all—oh well, not all of us. UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 6 About half of us that lived on the Westside and the other half lived Downtown at that time. So we stuck pretty close together as a group. We were very much a minority. You guys had a lot of room too—? We were people that were with each other through the week, weekends, and all of ‘em. We were like a bunch of brothers, you know, our family. (Unintelligible) And I participated in a lot of things and after school programs, auto shop. We were more, we stuck to ourselves (unintelligible) (Unintelligible) It was, yes. Now we’re going to move on into your teenage years. Well they didn’t have junior high schools in Vegas. When you left eighth grade, (unintelligible) that was in the ninth grade, our highest grade. So you didn’t have any junior high years. You just went to high school. (Unintelligible) High school was from ninth grade until—? How well do you feel that you got a good education back then for high school? Much better than what the kids get today. I see. My basic education is much better than all of my sons receive. (Unintelligible) Back in 1943, ’44, ’45. We got a lot of homework and if you didn’t pass, if you didn’t go from one grade to another, you could stay for three years in the same grade and you wouldn’t pass it if you don’t UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 7 meet the requirement. And that was just the way it was. And that was on your mind—if you didn’t pass, you weren’t going nowhere. (Laughs) So what you’re saying, is that kids nowadays probably don’t get that individual attention. About how many teachers in the class for— There was never more than twenty-five kids in those classes, ever. I doubt there was ever that many. I would say it was closer to twenty kids in a class. And then the teacher—each child had to get up and recite last night’s homework and if you didn’t want to be made a fool of, you’d do your homework because you were going to be asked to explain it the next day. So you had to come up with an answer. I mean, you didn’t want to get up there and be made a fool. And then being black, I certainly didn’t want—I was probably the only black kid in my class. And I remember, I went through about eight years of being the only black in my class. Did you have any type of achievements in high school that you’d like to talk about? No. My achievements in high school were pretty mediocre, I guess. I was on the track team, I played basketball, played football. I broke my leg this year that I went up for football. And couldn’t come back and didn’t (unintelligible) and I lettered in sports, but I was never outstanding, I don’t think. You know, I was about the average athlete. I haven’t started the work—(unintelligible) and making money—basketball, making a lot of money. I was making a hundred dollars a week. And my father was working the railroad probably making fifty. But I was up there in the gaming industry and I was making about a hundred dollars a week. It’s pretty hard to stay in the industry and in school? It’s all about that signs, you know. But I was interested in athletics, but I wasn’t outstanding. In high school, did you travel there? Winter travel? UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 8 No. We, we never went anywhere—like I said, my mother was in Salt Lake City and my dad’s (unintelligible) so we flew up there and that’s country. We flew up there or down to L.A. We never went any further east than Salt Lake. I guess you can say that’s east. But I guess that was about it. What about any goals in high school? Did you have any goals? (Unintelligible) Well, when I got to high school, what I wanted to do mostly was to get an education and I wanted to go to college. My father couldn’t send me to college, if I had wanted to go, he couldn’t support me to get a college education. And I got talked into going into the service by recruiters, and that was my first semester of my senior year. And I got my diploma from the service. And then I became disenchanted with that. The only thing that I can really say about, about my high school years, is that the basic education I got from high school prepared me for anything than an average college student faced. I felt like my education, as a high school student at that time, could do anything that a junior college student could do, probably up until sophomore or junior can cope with. I felt like I had that education in high school. And I’ve taken courses at the university—not a university—a community college, and I’ve had courses from the university of California, and I never had a problem with any of the courses. I know some of the kids have had a year or two of college and are having real problem with those courses because they don’t have the background the basic background and fundamentals that I have. So, in the teenage days, did the condition get better, do you think? Yes, it got better—we got—‘cause then we got air conditioning, we got carpets on the color, indoor toilets (Laughs) my dad started making more money, and my mother went to work. My mother worked as a maid out at the Desert Inn hotel. And my dad got a job as an engineer. We UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 9 did real good. By the time I was a senior, by the time I went into the service, my family was doing real good. We had dishes on our house, and just, the living conditions got real nice. And what about the hobbies? Were the hobbies the same as when you were little, in elementary school? Well, I got interested in cars. And that’s an expensive hobby, you know? I just liked anything that had to do with a car and fix it up in my dad’s. I took Auto-Body in high school. And I thought that maybe once I’d run a garage or something, but you know, I got disenchanted with that when I got out into the real world. I didn’t know what that was all about. But I would say, if I had a copy, it was (unintelligible) old cars, I still do. Now in my late years, I’ve begun to play golf. (Unintelligible) How good are you in golf? Well, I’m doing real good. I’ve been playing about four years. And I figured, by next year, I might win some little local tournaments and stuff. What makes you get---with golf, it doesn’t matter how old you are. Last week, there was this guy about sixty-four years and I mean it’s something that doesn’t depend on how high you can jump. It’s concentration, it’s a brain game. Once you learn how to get the ball, the rest of it is how smart you are. And it’s kind of a site, you’d be surprised if the old guy (unintelligible) played big-big golf. It’s something for everyone athletic. Did you (unintelligible)? No, this is one of the things you have—when I was a teenager, there must’ve been maybe—maybe only fifty black teenagers in Las Vegas. We were—(unintelligible) too much. I remember one time, they had baseball team and by this time, you have to realize that most of the people had moved over to the Westside were black families because the land was cheap. And then where the UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 10 city library is now, used to be a baseball park and rodeo grounds. Baseball diamond and—I remember once—my grandma lived Downtown on Second Street and when we went over there to play baseball, as black guys, (Laughs) when the game was over, these black guys would start to fight. If we won we had to fight to get out. So if—like me, I was at first base and I could look out there, there would be nobody out in the field, the guys would sneak off into the dark, you know. I’d be the only one out there, me and the pitcher and the catcher. (Laughs) (Laughs) And then soon as the last ball was pitched, and I hear these guys come, and you know, they came ready for a fight, so you had to run like hell to get out of there. And the other (unintelligible) were just being built on Bonanza. And then we would run under the underpass and that’s where the rest of the guys were, waiting to throw rocks. And so it was a neighborhood thing, we had to fight the guys from the other side of town. Every time we played baseball, we had to fight after the game was over. If you won, you would have to fight to get out. If you lost, they’d fight you anyway. But they got to be the neighborhood thing. And like, when I was in high school, one day, we were all in Vegas High. I went to Vegas High, and one day we were sitting in a car, we all had cars. (Unintelligible) So all the white kids would run over to the church (unintelligible) they’d open the door and nicked the side of the cars. And we could see that that was quelled by the teachers, and so the next day, we decided that we’d sit across the street. If not, (unintelligible) As a plan—? Yes, we had a plan. And this was back in 1944. So we went to school and sat across (unintelligible) and we didn’t get up—we would’ve of, if they hadn’t done what they did before. But they ran the flag up and we sat there. Here comes three hundred students across the street UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 11 after and when they got over there, we went out to meet ‘em. There was about fifteen of us. Some of the guys are still here in Vegas; (unintelligible) and some of ‘em had a problem with the black guy, and so we all stood up and made (unintelligible) and we ran out the meeting. They didn’t strike a blow, and never a blow struck, and we didn’t give them any grounds. I think that must’ve been the first racial conflict that there ever was in Las Vegas. But there were these flags that we didn’t give up. (Unintelligible) Just milling around, and they really just want to fight us. This was probably the first racial incident in the school system as I can ever remember there was nothing before that. ‘Course, since that time, we’ve had a lot of ‘em. (Unintelligible) Oh must’ve been, (unintelligible). Las Vegas High. And what was ballots? Racial ballots? Oh, it must’ve been five, six hundred—maybe a thousand black people. Maybe seven or eight thousand white people. But you were just getting into your black and white situation because of the more blacks coming in all at once. No (unintelligible) here with the shite guys? Have you ever had any kinds of conflicts at the schools? Well no, we used to have fights every day, but those were for no reason though. It wasn’t quite a black thing, it was more one-on-one. Sometimes there were two blacks, sometimes it was two whites, sometimes it was white and black. But we didn’t think about it as white and black until this incident happened. Then we realized that we were a separate part. After that, we always realized it. Before that, we never thought about it before. UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 12 (Unintelligible) Well, now we’re going to move on into your manhood. First of all, I want to start off with transitioning from teenage-hood to manhood. Did you—how well did you make the transition? Well, it was fairly easy for me because I went into the service come high school. And when you go into the service, you become independent. You’re able to do anything without my parents, and I wanted to get out of Vegas, and I felt like I got trapped here— (Tape one ends) So what you wanted to do, what was happening to most teenagers here was they wanted to get out of Vegas because there was no future here at that time. So I went into the service, and I went overseas, and I spent about three years in the Navy. And then went to a couple of Navy Schools and everything and when I got (unintelligible) pretty independent. Turned out to be—I got married in about—I thought— (Unintelligible) No, not at that point, no. Alright. I went into the Navy but after that—as a matter of fact I got my diploma, my high school diploma from the Navy. They recruited me right out of high school. (Unintelligible) Right, I used to say my prayers every night while I was here. You know, you do that. Because I was waiting for my family, and everything that I had— Do you believe in God? Yes I do, I believe that he gave me the strength to carry on and become a man and become independent of my family. And when I got out of the service I felt like I didn’t need my family UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 13 other than as a support because I love them. I wanted to be around them morally, for that moral support, but I didn’t feel like I could go out on my own, so that’s why I got married so young. I felt like I was a man already, Did you meet your wife out here? Yes, I met her while I was going to high school. What type of goals did you have that you got? Well, I don’t know, I was kind of lost because in 1940—it must’ve been 1947, I was becoming a Christian man. I had no job and it was just nothing that you could get into to make any money. You were making fifty-five sixty dollars a week, you were doing pretty good. And I wanted to get out into something lucrative, and I came back home and you couldn’t get into the gaming industry and had to become a waiter, those make a lot of money here in Vegas. So I left. I left here, I went to move to Oakland, California, and I stayed up there for about eight years. And that’s where I went to learn CPR and then I came back to Vegas. I came back to Vegas in about 1957. Vegas had grown to about fifteen, sixteen thousand to about fifty, sixty thousand. (Unintelligible) and I transferred back into the post office. I was the first black mail carrier in Las Vegas. (Unintelligible) So how long have you been married? Oh, about twenty-eight years. It’s going to be twenty-nine. And what do you think the secret is to being married that long? (Laughs) well, the secret to being married that long is to think of the give and take situations. If you gotta take a lot, then you gotta give up a lot. Especially now. (Unintelligible) to stay married. I never thought about as anything else but staying married after I got married. I didn’t UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 14 think someone—it’s what you make of it. You can’t think a lot about material things. You have to think about what you want. Was there any situation where you felt as if though (unintelligible)? Oh yes. Yes. When I left open—I was pretty frustrated living in Oakland, California. I didn’t like the city life, I had been in the desert all my life. I liked the country-type living of not being rushed. Not having to stand in line or traffic jams, or that kind of thing. I was really frustrated after having dinner one time, about five or six years I felt like I couldn’t stand it any longer. And that’s when we left and came back here. And my wife didn’t want to come back. She was from Oakland, originally. So I just packed up and left. I brought the kids with me and she followed me. And I figured if she cared anything about our marriage she was going to follow me. And if she didn’t—if she wouldn’t—but I had had it. I had made my decision as head of the household, I said that we would move, and we moved. However, she didn’t move with me at the time. She came about three months later. (Laughs) Now lets see—my oldest son is twenty-seven, the middle is twenty-four, and youngest is twenty. (Unintelligible) The oldest one is Bray. He’s a microfilm technician at (Unintelligible) and the middle one works for Nevada Cars. He drives to California every day. (Unintelligible) and he also works at the Biltmore. (Unintelligible) I’ve got three boys and I’m very proud of all of ‘em. Their endeavors—I feel like they got the best possible education that I could give ‘em. Especially the two young ones, they cost me about seventeen thousand in education. It cost me more to send them to catholic school then it was to send them to university out of high school. But I feel like it was worth it. They’re doing what UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 15 they want to do. And they’re being who they want to be. The thing about Las Vegas that has changed, is that you can do anything in Las Vegas now that you want to do. If you want to become an accountant, if you want to become a doctor, you can do it. You can do anything in your mind that you want to do. The kids who grew up that are my age now, at least in some part of their lives, had a doubt about whether they could survive here or not. That doubt’s been taken care of now. You can live where you want to live, have the kind of home you want, have the type of job that you’re qualified for. You can just do it. It’s all up to you now. So, (unintelligible). Did you have a goal in life that was (unintelligible)? Well, my only goal now is to get a good retirement. Because once you get to forty-seven years old, it’s (unintelligible). We have a guy, I have a guy that works for me that’s seventy-six years old. Beautiful man. And his goal was to work as long as he could. Everyone’s got different goals. I started working for the government thirty years ago, when I was seventeen—actually thirty one because I went into the service, I was sixteen. I went into the service out of high school. I’ve been working for the same (unintelligible) for the last thirty years, and I’m a little tired of it. I want to get out and do something else. But first, I just want to make sure that I have a good retirement fund. And I think that this (unintelligible) that I was part of the time—I think maybe just stems from the fact that I was part of—from the time I was an itty-bitty kid, I was part of the (unintelligible). And back then, being born in 1927, I was probably part of the Depression area. People born back then in that area, have a tendency to be security conscious. I’m very security conscious. I don’t want to be caught without monthly income. (Unintelligible) Oh yes. That’s probably the way that my life worked out. I know that some of the younger people feel like they could make (unintelligible) for one retirement, but being from that era, I feel like that I UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 16 have that—I think that I’ve done that. You know, that I—decent here in Vegas. I have a pretty good life. Now as a man, do you have any wishes—much better? Than when you were a kid? Oh yes. My children might be as—they won’t know about (unintelligible). When I was working, I couldn’t sit where I wanted. I had to sit in one other spot saved for the Negroes and Blacks. And they don’t know any of that. When I became a mailman, I moved back here from California, you couldn’t—if you’re black here then you’re living on the Westside. That’s all where you can stay. But they don’t know any of that. But when I tell them that, they say, “Oh, come on.” They just can’t conceive it, but there was a generation between me and my children to achieve that, more or less, with the help of (unintelligible). And I think kids in the sixties, the adults in the sixties, or in their twenties, they know this more than anybody else, because they decided that these were the children of (unintelligible). Made to—they decided that they were going to have the Civil Movements and they decided that and went about doing something about it. And that’s what happened. And they said, hey, I’m going to give up my life for what I believe in. I’m not going to accept this anymore, this is the way it comes down. And that’s the only thing that people respect: when you lay down the most precious thing that you got in your life, for an idea. And it took a long time for us to do that. And that happened here in Vegas, and that’s why my kids don’t understand anything about pure prejudice. I think they were just on the (unintelligible) that if you told them that they couldn’t do something they would go crazy. (Laughs) I don’t know what would happen. But I experienced that every day when I was seventeen years old. It’s got to be something like a way of life. It wasn’t something you wanted to live with, but that’s the way it was. UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 17 Are you (unintelligible)? I’m involved with the Catholic Church. Other than that, I’m not too involved with community affairs. I belonged to the NAACP, but I haven’t been to the meetings in a long time. I got to read up on that. I really believe in that. And that stuff in the organization, I really, you know, belong. (Unintelligible) Well, I should. That is one of the advantages that I have. (Unintelligible) What do you think could better this community? Well, what I would like to see in the community would be for black people to be more involved with their children. Not against each other so much, but to come together and form alliances and go out and vote in power. And there’s a lot of political power to be wielded to Black Las Vegans. (Unintelligible) come together. (Unintelligible) Black and white, that’s one thing that even if it takes the whole city—it’s the most miraculous thing you’ve ever seen. Everybody is aware (unintelligible) of the basketball league and football league, and everybody knows, everybody is just out there doing these things worth mentioning. And the whole community is totally behind everything that goes on in Las Vegas; that’s one of the few catalysts for the town and without that, I think we would have a lot less. Do you think (unintelligible) university? I think the university has more community projects or more community type classes than (unintelligible) above all things. How do you like the climate here in Las Vegas? It’s the best climate out of every place in the world. And it’s always been like that in Las Vegas. It’s always been good, I’ve been having no rain, looking forward to being with the sun. You just UNLV University Libraries Ray Christian 18 can’t compare it to another city. This city is going to be one of the greatest places in the whole world. In fact, and we’re living right in the middle of it and we’re a part of it. Any young person might be feeling, like my boy, but you’ll never have to live like I did, you’ll never have to move away to every try to achieve anything. You can just stay right here and if you want to become a millionaire, or if you want to become whatever you want, you can do it right here in Las Vegas. (Unintelligible) because you have miles and miles of advantages to take advantage of. Business opportunities, anywhere you want to go. Nothing to hold you back. You can do as much as you let yourself do right here. My boys have never even thought about leaving like I did. They have never g