Transcript of interview with Perle Garrett by Marilyn Swanson, March 2, 1975

UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett i An Interview with Perle Garrett An Oral History Conducted by Marilyn Swanson 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 Perle Garrett ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2017 UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 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 Perle Garrett iv Abstract On March 2, 1975, Marilyn Swanson interviewed her neighbor Perle Garrett (born April 27, 1905 in Overbrook, Kansas) in her home in Boulder City, Nevada. This interview covers Boulder City during the 1930s, with special focus on the building of Boulder Dam. Mrs. Garrett relocated to Boulder City because her husband Theodore Garrett was one of the workers at the dam. She also discusses Six Companies houses, family life, the weather, churches in Las Vegas and recreational activities for local children. Her husband is also present during the interview. UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 1 The interviewer is Marilyn Swanson, 612 Avenue G, Boulder City, Nevada. I’m interviewing Mrs. Theodore Garrett, Perle Garrett, of 619 Avenue G, Boulder City. The wife of one of the workers at the dam in 1931. This is for the Oral History for the American Association of University Women. The date is March 2nd, 1975. It’s seven pm. Ah, Ted and I were both born at Overbrook, Kansas. Although he was born on a farm about fifteen miles from Overbrook. I went to school with his brother and sister. He was six years older than I was and wasn’t around Overbrook ‘cause he was in the service in World War I. Then he came back and he went to Business College at KU. Then he came down to Overbrook and was selling Ford cars and I met him at a dance one night. And then we also had—then we were married not too long after that. About six months is all that we went together. Then the—also we sold Delco light plants. And then, the big Depression came and no one was buying a new car let alone a light system. So by selling out we had our six room—eight rooms house and furniture, ah, our son and a new car and six hundred dollars, we thought we was broke so Ted started out to look for work and he attended up out here and I stayed back home in Kansas with my parents until he had a place for us to live. And what a place! It was a screened porch, which was covered with canvass over the screen and there was a partition separating the bed and the dresser—no chair in the bedroom, from the other room, which had two chairs and a kitchen and a kitchen table, a hot plate, for our cooking and we had to pay fifty-five dollars a month with utilities on top of that, which at that time was very, very high rent. Was this a house of your own? No. We were renting and here in Boulder, and the porch—this is here in Boulder. What was the address? That was up on L Street. I don’t know the address. UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 2 Mm-hm. Six— On the Six Hundred block? Six Hundred block on L Street. Whose house was it? I— Who were you renting from? A man by the name of Mr. Brown. Now I don’t know that I should tell this to you Marilyn, I don’t know so much about taping but I never will forget my first night in Boulder City, Mr. Brown, who owned this house, also owned one next door. He worked days. Ted was working swing shift. Well, Mr. Brown came in off the swing, he and his partner got very drunk and they came over—came over to the, ah, the apartment or this room where we were living and they wanted to come in. They were trying to finish the shower bath for us and I was very scared. The two men coming to the door walking in and I told them to go away! And they said, “Oh no, now listen, we have to fix your shower bath or you won’t have a place to take a shower, you can’t take a bath.” And one argument brought on another and I said, “Well, go right away! Where I came from men were gentlemen.” And Mr. Brown said, “Mrs. Garrett, out here men are men and then women are glad of it!” (Laughs) (Laughs) So then he finally apologized and he said he knew Ted and worked with him and they did have to work. So I opened the door and let ‘em in and that’s the way—was my first night in Boulder. Well, the rent was high and the place was horrid. So I spent most of my time trying to find a better place to live and we did move every time I found a better place. UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 3 Mm-hm. Ah, and the rent came due. All we had to move was a couple of trunks of clothing, most of which didn’t do very well for desert living. All my shoes had high spike heels. Boulder City had no sidewalks and what a time it was. Ah—I had quite a time to get some flats. So I had, couldn’t get fit in Las Vegas. I had to mail, send back to Topeka and have the shoe store there that fit me send me a pair of shoes. I—oh, we had Penney’s and Ronzone’s in Las Vegas that sold shoes. Rather soon, we got a Six Companies house on—with one room, which is down where the high school is now. The school building wasn’t finished, the first year of ’31, and we had to—and we had no school. That is why we left Teddy back home with my mother. She was then five years old and started to school there—and he had his first grade in Kansas. That made him a year or two younger than most of the other children in his room. There was a couple of women, a Mrs. Opal Karens and a Mrs. Cunningham, that had a private school in their home. But most of the people couldn’t afford that to pay for private school, so the children just were out of school. Oh yes. Yes. I arrived in Boulder City about the 23rd of December. The 25th was our wedding anniversary and Ted was so very lonesome out here, he wanted me to come so badly, that I made it in time for Christmas. Well, this horrid old porch wasn’t quite ready and anyway that wouldn’t have been much fun to spend Christmas there. So we stayed at the Overland Hotel in Las Vegas, which is down at Main and Fremont Street, across from the Sal Sagev Hotel. It was one of the nicest hotels that to me, coming from Topeka around Kansas City’s old built, it wasn’t much. This was in 1931? 1931. Mm-hm. Is when— UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 4 Mm-hm. Yes. So we were here then for Christmas and then I really think we had more to do socially and recreation than we have now. All the clubs and organizations were getting started. The building was going on twenty-four hours a day. Hammering was everywhere. The Masonic Temple went up in a few days and was built on a small hill and out southeast of town. The churches were going up very fast with volunteer labor and much volunteer lumber was donated also. The Grace Community Church, the Episcopal, Catholic and Mormon were the first churches in Boulder City, all but the Mormons are in the same place that they were then and are still using the first buildings. But have—been built on. So they’re very much larger. The Grace Community Church had a very large Sunday school, which was, which met in what is now part of the post office building. We called ourselves the young matrons. Hm. We found, we fund a basketball league and have two teams playing tournaments and so forth. Myra Dowse was our coach as she had coached in college. We did pretty well. We played on the school court. Okay. Do you practice every day then? Yes. We’d practice every day and we’d have our tournaments and then the winners would have to entertain the losers with a breakfast or a show, take us to the theatres or something like that. We really did have a good time. What—? Huh? Was this organized by the Young Matrons class? No. UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 5 Or? The Young Matrons was in the church. Mm-hm. It was just a group of friends I kind of started and got together and it, one of those things, it just grew. No sponsor, just a group of women that they let us use their court. Mm-hm. Basketball courts. So we went out there and practiced every morning or played every morning and— Mm-hm. Had a grand time. Then we—cause we didn’t have a golf course, we had no way, you know, to get out and do things. We had to do something outside. Then cards also took a lot of our time. Bridge was very popular and we played morning, noon, and night. We also had a lot of parties and picnics. The American Legion had a big hall where the Parks Service building now stands and there they stage real large adult dances, two and three times a week, which was very popular. Dancing at that time was popular. Oh, yes, the heat was awful and what a time, we didn’t have any lawns, only the government park and the homes had lawns. But down around all the other places people just didn’t put in lawns. There were no coolers or refrigerators, as refrigerators weren’t even manufactured at that time. Ah, then when they were—the Six Companies got a whole car load and we were fortunate enough to get one of those. It was one of those old monitor top GEs, which was running good for (Laughs) about thirty years. The last I heard of it was still running (Laughs) and it was really the best ever. I really think the poor iceman was happy when we got the refrigerators because he really had a time trying to get the ice into the old iceboxes UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 6 before it all got melted and the kids would be just following him all over trying to get a little chip of the ice (Laughs) away from him. Did he bring the ice from Vegas then? Or was it—? I don’t think so. I think that came out of the—yes. I think it came from Vegas but I think it came out on the train. We used to have the train coming out all the time. He didn’t haul it out on account of the roads were softly bed I’m quite sure that that came out on the train and after that—after the theatre was built, now the picture show would go on all day, start in the morning and run all day way into the night. Because there was three shifts of men working here and there was always a big crowd of people going to the picture show. And then, we went swimming an awful lot. We went down to the river, Lorenzi Park in Las Vegas had a very nice swimming pool and then there was a swimming hole out in Paradise Valley that was filled with artesian water and we’d take the kids out there and swim. Then we’d go up to Mount Charleston and camp for a week or so; that is in the summertime. Our husbands come up on weekends and so forth and we’d pack up the kids and go up there and cool off. (Laughs) It was really nice and of course in those days women weren’t working. They just didn’t work and it wasn’t any such a thing as a babysitter. So mothers took care of their children. We’d take them with us wherever we went and Manx store and Six Companies store were the two general stores and took pretty good care of most of our needs. The Emporium was a little variety like a variety store. And that was just about it for shopping in Boulder City. Las Vegas had Penney’s and Ronzone’s and that was the only two stores. But then so many people came in here you couldn’t get anything, unless you be right there. Hm. UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 7 Unless they call you. After Ronzone’s got where they knew my size, Mr. Span, was a salesman, shoe salesman’s name, and he knew what size shoe and what type of shoe I wore and when he’d get shoes in he’d call me, “You need shoes, now what color? What kind?” And then I’d tell him and he’ll put them away for me. Mm-hm. Now that’s how fast—things couldn’t get delivered fast enough at the site, people would buy it. Mm-hm. Just a great market and not much to fill it. Oh yes, and there was a (unintelligible) and this being a government reservations you couldn’t get in without going through the gates out there and checking a station, which was between here and Railroad Pass and what a time those poor men used to have. They would have to—we’d always more than one go shopping and you’d always have a lot of things in the car. And they’d be out there in all that heat going through every one of those packages, feeling and trying to find a bottle of liquor. We weren’t allowed to have one bottle even in your home. So after you’d show ‘em your badge and then they’d check your groceries then you could be on your way. The road between here and Vegas was really awful. It was just unpaved, narrow, two way lane, then we used to—if we did have any rain, it would wash out. It had so many chuck holes even from the dust and we’d have quite a time sometimes getting back and forth from town. But there’s a lot of men that were working out here that lived in Vegas and they thought nothing about it. They’d just go sailing past us and leave us in a big cloud of dust (Laughs) no trouble at all. It was—going to town wasn’t like it is today. I remember the shopping very much though but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t coming you know, ‘cause we didn’t do that too much. You didn’t go to Vegas very much. Let me see, I said the men past us that did that. Yes. UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 8 Mm-hm. (Unintelligible) Oh, I didn’t know you— (Laughs) (Laughs) Anyway, we always, I usually went with somebody else, Mildred Kind and I used to go some, and Mary Brown. Ah, Macy Fells, Fir Louise, and that’s about all that’s left in Boulder now that we used to go in to do our shopping and taking our kids with us. And, but anyway, with all these hardships, Boulder City was a very happy town in those days. The people were so friendly and being so much younger than we old timers are now, made for a wonderful time. We still have—we’re still here after forty-some years and we thought as soon as we retired—well, we didn’t even think we’d retire here. We thought as soon as we got enough money together that they could go back home and start all over then that’s what we’d do. We never brought our furniture. We never brought any silverware any linens, anything. Ted wrote and told me not to bring much of that because ah, what they—maybe I should bring some, what they furnished wasn’t much. Well, I thought he thought it wasn’t very good. But it wasn’t anything. (Laughs) So then we bought some cheap stuff and went on from there and bought all the furniture, we never have brought our furniture out and never will. Mm-hm. Where did you live after you were over on—? Six Company. In the Six Company house? We lived on K and then off (unintelligible) in a government house. Then we lived in, on Arizona Street at 713, I think it is, Arizona, right across from the hospital, where Lafon’s now live. Mm-hm. UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 9 We lived there for fourteen years till we went to the coast. Then when we came back from the coast we lived in a government house over on Utah Street. At that time they were going to start to sell the houses and Ted didn’t want to buy one of those old government houses. We had built this house for a rental. When was this house built then? Beg you pardon? When was this house built? I don’t know. Ted should answer that. It was the first house on G Street. The (unintelligible) and this house cost three thousand five hundred dollars to build, cash, before it was started. (Laughs) It’s the only house about on this street, it’s the only house that was bought for cash and there’s Pratts are still living in theirs and Eatons are living in theirs, and outside of that every house on this street has been sold. Mm-hm. Course that didn’t include our lot. No. The lots were nine hundred. Ah. Yes. Oh yes. The house was built in 1941, when they used to be Six Company houses. Mm-hm. All on this—of this area. But they took those all out, there are few down at the end of the block, which they sold for a hundred dollars. UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 10 Ah. How many years were these—this area empty of houses then, before people started building? Not very long. Not very long at all. They just started and, I wouldn’t, I would think within a year, that every lot was gone and every house up, don’t you think Ted? Theodore Garrett: Mm. More houses built? It wasn’t only about a year till all these? Ted’s mother loaned Mr. P. S. Webb, who built the house, a contract of money, that he built Perkins and down including Snows and the one next door. That was—those houses are kind of track houses. Mm. It was just two four a fence and they were like—this house isn’t like them. Mm-hm. And they sold for quite a bit more than ours. Mm-hm. You know, now the house is valued over twenty thousand. (Laughs) How about that? Ah, Teddy was in the first grade then when he came here? Yes. He didn’t go to kindergarten. Kansas did not have kindergarten in those days. So he’d finished first grade then? Yes. At five years old. Mm-hm. UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 11 Now see he graduated from high school when he was sixteen, all his senior year, which was too young. Most of the kids were a year or two, two years, some were even three years older than he was. What did he do for recreation? Oh, when they was little they were so busy. He would play an awful lot with Patty and Marie. They were such good friends. (Unintelligible) had all the boats down there and oh, he rode his bike and they went out in the desert a lot. He tried to get a gun. He wanted a gun so bad and we wouldn’t have it, said he couldn’t have one, so he writes to my mother and she always bought him anything he wants. (Laughs) (Laughs) So she got this .22 rifle and they drove out and then when he got a little older he was an Eagle Scout with Ollies Ponds and they had an airplane club that the (unintelligible) The what? The (Unintelligible) Snoopers, they called themselves, they met in our house. He was in an orchestra down at the American Legion that played for the children’s dance once a week. He was in the drum and (unintelligible) core and was a very, very busy little boy. Was he in scouts? He was an Eagle Scout. Oh yes. And had—yes. But who sponsored the troop? Oh dear, who sponsored it? I think—who? UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 12 Legion. Oh, the legion. Mm-hm. (Unintelligible) And they always went to camp, we would take them down to San Bernardino Mountains. Mm-hm. That’s where they used to go down. When he went down to play with Pat Emery how did he get down there? (Unintelligible) came up, you know. Uh-uh. We’d go down in the morning and then we’d go down and pick him up. He’d come up at noon, somebody’d be coming up. They always had transportation. That was no problem. (Laughs) (Laughs) They’d take their dogs and away they’d go. Be down at that lake, oh so awful much and then he and Tat played a lot, if they weren’t busy. Mm-hm. I think really they had a lot more fun than the kids do now. They loved to go out in the desert and hike around and explore. Tell about the clay. There’s a place that was kind of a draw over just the outskirts of town, that had this clay, and the kids would go over there and get that and they’d make all these dishes and ashtrays and ah, dry them in the sun and have more fun. This was over in the area of North Ridge now? UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 13 Yes. Uh-huh. It’s where that (unintelligible) was so bad, you know, these two houses, if they all broke up from this (unintelligible) when it got wet, when they planted their vines and then the watering. The water came down, the ground extended and the houses— Cracked? Cracked. So the kids had a good time playing with that same clay? Oh, they loved that clay. (Laughs) (Laughs) How they loved that clay and we had a basement in the—underneath the whole house up on Arizona Street that was so nice, and Ted had made him this big long table with a soft wood on the top, that they could work in their—on their model airplanes and every kid, oh, there’s quite a few children in town that came over there and worked, if the parents and the grandparents would buy them the gas model— Motors? Motors and all then they had it made. They belonged to them. (Laughs) They were quite expensive at that time. Course they were bigger, too, then. Going back to the heat, I don’t believe I will ever, ever forget the heat, how hot it was. Ah, Ted would try to sleep days. I—it was, oh it just awfully hot. But one night it was so hot I took blankets and bath towels. Put them in the water, draped them all over the bed and put a sheet up at the window with water on it. So the bedroom would cool off so Ted could sleep. Well, he got real comfortable with sleep and I just couldn’t sleep so I went outside and I got the hose and I watered the sand all down good with the hose. Then I had an old rug and I put it on top of that and I slept out in the yard that night, in this heat. UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 14 Did you have any other trouble with the weather? Was cold in the winter time. We had such funny little stoves. They burned oil. I don’t know if—(unintelligible) you cooked the (unintelligible) in the Six Company houses but you heat it with a (unintelligible) and that is the nastiest smelling stuff and I don’t like the smell of gasoline. It’d make me kind of nauseated (Laughs) but all winter we’d have to heat with that type of oil. Hm. See we couldn’t have the electricity to heat with or cook with at first. Mm-hm. Lucky to have lights and to run the fans. When did people start putting in lawns and things? Well, when they felt permanent. When they bought their houses. A few did before. Just, you know, to cool it off, but in (unintelligible) and all. But most of the people living in—course the government houses all—and the private. There’s a lot of private owned, see all on L and M, all over in there, that was settled, L and M—was settled with private homes, right from the very beginning. See that’s where we lived when we first come. Mm-hm. That was all that moving around over there. Mm-hm. People would find a piano box or something like that and they’d make an apartment out of it. (Laughs) It was about that size and about that (Laughs) big and they’d rent it. (Laughs) Anything to live in. That’s the way Franklin’s got started down there. They built a little house and then they kept building on and on till I don’t know how many people they had living down there. UNLV University Libraries Perle Garrett 15 (Laughs) In their little places. Yes. They’d find boards. They gave them lumber down at the dam. You could get that if you could haul it up. Ah. (Unintelligible) Used (unintelligible) lumber, see. Mm-hm. And people would bring that up and they’d build a house, live in it themselves or rent it. (Tape ends)