Transcript of interview with Ann Clark Kanie by Lois Goodall, March 20, 2014

AN INTERVIEW WITH ANN CLARK KANIE An Oral History Conducted by Lois Goodall West Charleston Neighborhoods: An Oral History Project of Ward 1 Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ©The West Charleston Neighborhoods: An Oral History Project of Ward 1 University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2014 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV – University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Project Managers: Claytee D. White, Barbara Tabach Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Editors: Stefani Evans, Pat Holland, Maggie Lopes, Barbara Tabach Interviewers: Claytee D. White, Barbara Tabach, Shirley Emerson, Lois Goodall, Judy Harrell, Anna Huddleston, Linda McSweeney, Wendy Starkweather ii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of Dr. Harold Boyer. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank the university for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Claytee D. White, Project Director Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University Nevada, Las Vegas iii PREFACE ANN CLARK KANIE Born and raised in Las Vegas, Ann Clark Kanie, elementary teacher, exemplifies the love of teaching in Clark County. Her mother, Marie Larson Clark Dane, taught elementary school at Lincoln Elementary School for 35 years. Ann attended Lincoln Elementary with her mother, Jim Bridger Junior High, Rancho, and then graduated from UNLV in elementary education. She also began teaching, like her mother, at Lincoln Elementary in North Las Vegas but later changed to Wasden Elementary which she obviously admires. Ann recalls growing up in Las Vegas and the fun that she and her friends enjoyed: participating in Helldorado Week, renting horses at Tule Springs or Old Nevada, riding bikes to the Meadows Mall and the Black Hole at the Springs Preserve, sliding down Becker’s Super Slide on Decatur Avenue, watching Disney movies at the Huntridge Theater, playing miniature golf and ice skating at Commercial Center, and going to Lake Mead and investigating the Potosi Mines. Ann married, continued teaching at Wasden. Her only son has chosen to follow his mother’s footsteps, graduated from UNLV in English education and teaches and coaches at Cimarron-Memorial High School. Even though she admits that teaching has become a very difficult, time-consuming job, it is obvious that Ann Kanie loves educating students and has passed this love on to her son. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Ann Clark Kanie March 20, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada Conducted by Lois Goodall Preface…………………………………………………………………………………………..iv Describes Irish grandparents migrating to Nevada to work on Goldfield-Tonopah Railroad, father born in Tonopah, and Ann Katie born in Las Vegas Hospital and Clinic and raised in Las Vegas. Ann’s mother was a teacher and daughter and grandson also entered teaching the profession......1 Recalls experiences from childhood home was small in North Las Vegas; went to high school at Rancho; and graduated in elementary education from UNLV…………………………..…...…1-4 Describes Wasden Elementary School, teaching elementary students, Howard Wasden, bussing, integrated with various races, described duties and admiration of principal, Scott DuChateau, traditions such as the Halloween Howl, and taking fieldtrips……………………………....…..4-8 Recalls various people who impacted her teaching, compares differences in modern teaching: more paperwork, computers, testing, grading, planning, meetings, and more homework. Explains English second-language classes and appreciates extra help from retired teachers…8-12 Recalls participating in Helldorado Week, renting horses at Tule Springs or Old Nevada, riding bikes to the Meadows Mall and the Black Hole at the Springs Preserve, sliding down Becker’s Super Slide on Decatur Avenue, watching movies at the Huntridge Theater, miniature golf and ice skating at Commercial Center, and going to Lake Mead and investigating Potosi Mines.12-17 v Once called West Charleston School, Wasden Elementary School was built in 1952-1953 and surrounded by mostly desert. Ann Clark Kanie began by teaching kindergarten and then moved to teach third grade. Named after the first principal, Howard Wasden, Ann Clark Kanie not only revered Howard Wasden but has continued to admire the principals and her peer teachers with whom she teaches. vi 1 Today is Thursday, March 20th, and I [Lois Goodall] am here at Wasden School with Ann I'm going to ask you, please, to spell both your first and your last names. Ann, A-N-N; middle, Clark, C-L-A-R-K; Kanie, K-A-N-I-E. Thank you. I'd like to hear a little bit about your ancestry. My ancestry? Yes, like where were you born, where your parents were born, that type of thing, and their names. My grandparents were born in Ireland in the 1800s. My father was much older than my mother. So my grandparents emigrated from Ireland and came to Central Nevada with the railroad. My grandfather was a boiler maker on the Goldfield-Tonopah Railroad. My dad (James Henry Clark) was born in Tonopah, Nevada, in 1910. So it was like having a grandfather for a dad because I was born in 1959 in Las Vegas at the downtown hospital. The one hospital. At the one hospital. I was raised in Las Vegas, seeing family in the Goldfield-Tonopah area, but was raised in North Las Vegas where my mother taught kindergarten at Lincoln Elementary School for approximately 35 years. I went to Lincoln Elementary School, Jim Bridger Middle School, Rancho High School, and graduated from UNLV and became a substitute and then a teacher with the school district, like my mom. Very good. Tell me your mom's and your dad's names. My mom's name is Marie Larson Clark Dane. And my dad's name was James Henry Clark. And they're both deceased. Did you have brothers and sisters? My father had children with his first wife, so I have two older brothers and a sister from that 2 marriage and they're quite a bit older than the next three were. My full brothers, I have one older brother and one younger brother. So six in all, before the steps. [Laughing] I have a step-brother and sister, as well. I see. A nice large family, then. So you went to school here in Las Vegas. Yes. How was school different then than what you see your students having here at Wasden Elementary School? It's just totally different because I spent my whole ...before I started teaching life in my mom's classroom at Lincoln Elementary School. What's nice about Wasden Elementary School is it still is an older school like Lincoln Elementary School was so there are a lot of traditions and a lot of great history and a lot of neat things about the older neighborhoods. But the students have changed and the teaching profession has changed. We used to be able to do so many things without so much paperwork and documentation. You'd just load the kids up—even when I started here at Wasden Elementary School and at Lincoln Elementary School—field trips, we'd do so many because there weren't so many constrictions. You knew your neighborhood kids and you played outside. Just a lot more freedom. Our parents would let us play outside. The kids today, their parents don't let them play outside, so they don't have a lot of the experiences coming to school, a lot of background knowledge for reading and understanding a lot of things because it's a lot of electronics and TV and computers and not so much life experiences and traveling and things that the kids in my generation had. Now, you mentioned Lincoln Elementary School. Could you give me the general cross streets where that would be? When I was born in 1959, my mom started teaching probably right after I was born at Lincoln 3 Elementary School. It is in North Las Vegas. At that time there weren't so much—you didn't really know the neighborhoods. North Las Vegas, because of Nellis Air Force Base, was a pretty booming, nice community, and Lincoln Elementary School was clear at the edge of town. My parents bought a house. It's just weird that that neighborhood has not been maintained as well as some of the neighborhoods over in different parts of the town. But it is north, like Cheyenne and I-15 area, like Cheyenne Avenue and Civic Center Drive. That was the end of town and that school was out there all by itself. It was a dirt road and we lived in a brand-new community. Growing up it was just a nice, close, little neighborhood like any of the rest of the older neighborhoods in Las Vegas. You mentioned it was an older neighborhood. Was there air-conditioning in your home when you were a child? We had swamp coolers on top of the roof. Everybody had swamp coolers in those days. There wasn't very much humidity in Las Vegas. So they worked fine. They worked well. There was no problem with swamp coolers in those days because we didn't have humidity. Right. Now, what type of things would you do in the summertime to keep cool other than be in the house with the swamp cooler, probably reading? Well, we'd go grocery shopping, Vegas Village and Von Tobel Commerce Center and some of the old stores, Thrifty Mart. That would be a good way to escape the heat in the summer. We didn't really feel the heat like you think. It was just part of life. I mean you knew you had to run really fast with your bare feet to get into some shade. But we played outside. We went to the desert. The heat of the summer didn't faze us at all. We had public pools. Jim Bridger Middle School had a pool. J.D. Smith Middle School had a pool. A lot of the middle schools. So we'd go to the pools and have swimming lessons. We were just kids. You had to watch for sunburn. 4 But we were on our bikes and skating and playing hopscotch and jump rope. The heat did not slow us down. That's good. Now, tell me a little bit about your house. Was it a ranch style? It was just a little track home. My mom was a teacher. We were not rich. Just little three-bedroom house. Cross streets were Evans Avenue in North Las Vegas, like Evans Avenue and Civic Center Drive, sort of. That whole neighborhood was just small, little three-bedroom, one-bath homes. Everybody's house was kind of the same. You were more into keeping your yard and having flowers and roses and trees and fruit trees that you didn't really notice that you only had one bathroom and small bedrooms. Right. Now, you mentioned going to Rancho High School; is that correct? Yes. Rancho High School would have probably been a fairly new school at that time; is that right? Not really, actually. I graduated in 1977, so it had been around, because I have relatives that have graduated—it's been around since the 1950s. Oh, is that right? So Rancho High School was already an old school when I went there. Okay. I think of Clark High School and old Las Vegas High School. I didn't think about Rancho High School being in that— Old Las Vegas High School is the oldest. My step-grandmother was in the first graduating class at Las Vegas High School. What was her name? Her name was Virginia Dane. Her family ran the first business in Indian Springs. So she was in 5 the first graduating class of Las Vegas High School. The early schools then—Western High School and Clark High School were relative—well, actually, my husband's sister was the first graduating class at Clark High School. But back in the old days there was Rancho High School and Las Vegas High School and Basic High School. There were not a lot. I mean Clark High School was a newer school. Western High School was a newer school. But when I was in high school in the 1970s, the basic older ones were there. There were probably, I don't know, maybe 12 high schools in the valley at that time. Interesting. It's grown so much. Would you have been old enough to remember seeing any of the testing out at the Nevada Test Site? I was born in 1959 and I think that was before me. I think it probably was, yes. Okay, very good. Now, let's talk a bit about Wasden Elementary School. How long have you been teaching here? I student taught here in the fall of 1987 under Gail Manly, who was a long-time teacher here. I was hired right away. Actually, when I was hired in January of 1988, my mom had just retired and I was offered my mother's position of kindergarten at Lincoln Elementary School or a first-grade position at Wasden Elementary School. I chose Wasden Elementary School and I was happy to have chosen Wasden Elementary School. That's very good. Can you tell me who Howard Wasden was or is? Howard Wasden has passed away. He was, I believe, the first principal that was here at Wasden Elementary School. He's mentioned quite a bit in this history of Wasden Elementary School. At that time they had gardens and animals and just all kinds of agriculture and things going on. This was an outdoor school and he really promoted that and was very beloved by the school until his death. He would come to our functions. He was in his nineties, but he would still come. 6 Even after he passed away, his wife would still come to our functions. We've always had his picture posted here. I think it's in the office. Everybody just always loved him. That's wonderful. Do you happen to know when the school was built? I believe 1957; it's on the plaque out front. It was originally called the West Charleston School when some of my relatives went here. I'm not sure. I could find the dates that it changed for Mr. Wasden, to be named after him. But people knew this as the West Charleston School when there were only just a few schools here in town. I notice that you have quite a few portables around the school now. Do you have more students than the school was built for? We're pretty right, right now. I think we have about 650 students. The portables that you saw coming in here, they house Vision Services. Those are like school district offices for other things. We do utilize at this time two of the portable rooms for some reading interventions for our students, but there are no classrooms in portables right now. Oh, I see. Our population is not over like some of the schools are in Vegas right now. That's good. About how many students do you have? In third grade I have 28. So our numbers are higher. I've taught first grade, second grade and third grade. We had class-size reduction for many years, and so the lower elementary classes were very small. When I taught first grade, I had 15 to 20 students. When I taught second grade, like twentyish. Third grade, the normal was like 21, 22. And so the last few years, 28 last year, 26 this year, a little bit higher, but definitely manageable. Do you feel like when the classes were much smaller that you were able to accomplish a lot more? 7 Oh, of course. Plus the kids just had so much more—they were just so farther ahead. And the population here at Wasden Elementary School has changed a lot. When I first started here in 1987-1988, this was really a special school in Las Vegas because in the old days the affluent people lived in this neighborhood and they were not all the private schools. So we had our Catholic private schools and I believe Las Vegas Day School. But there were not a lot of private schools for the affluent to send their children to. So most of our children had a lot going for them as far as good parenting and the things that financial security brings you. They were really smart. Our population has changed. Still great kids, just a different—kids are different all over. Yes, yes. Do you have quite a few that are bussed into your school, or do most of them walk or get dropped off? Oh, we still get buses. Our kids ride in from over off Martin Luther King Boulevard. Then I think over in the McNeil area, I think there's a bus that comes in. I think we just have two buses, not that many. People still live in the neighborhood. What's neat about an old school like this is we just have a variety. I have had students of kids I taught. The older homes, the older families are still here sending their children here. We have all different races, but a lot of the older families still send their kids here. So it's a nice mix for just all kinds of people coming here. It helps all of the students that way to have a good mix like that. Yes, it does. Do you feel like mentioning any of the students that have come through Wasden Elementary School that have gone on to big activities in the neighborhood, in the city? I think that's private to those kids. I don't know if I would—I think we have privacy rules we really have to stick by. Certainly. I understand that. What is the role of the principal at an elementary school, in 8 particular Wasden Elementary School? Oh, my goodness. That's a wide-open question, isn't it? That is a difficult, difficult job. Oh, principals work so hard. Their job has changed so much. Our principal, he and I have a lot of discussions because he taught first grade and lower elementary and he really is a teacher at heart. We talk about the old days and how things have changed. Oh my gosh, they are so busy. They have no down time. There is so much managing of so many things like worrying about the safety of the children. I know he worries about the safety of his staff. You can just tell. He's always on guard to keep everybody safe because that is such an issue. There's just a lot, the playground and parenting, just so many safety issues and so many reports and studies. And then you have discipline. Oh, my gosh. Who is your principal right now? Our principal, his name is Scott DuChateau. Like I say, it's always nice to have a principal who's actually been in the classroom and knows. That does help a lot, yes. Sometimes if he has to fill in, he loves it. He loves to teach and he loves the kids. He's very professional. He is an awesome leader for Wasden. Do you have a PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) in your school? We do have a PTA and that has definitely changed over the years. We had many parents, housewife moms in the early years, and we really had a strong, strong PTA. It's hard now. People have less money and less time and fewer resources. So our PTA is awesome and they work so hard, but it is not as large of a group as it used to be, but still hard-working and still do a lot of things for the kids and the teachers and the school. 9 I think the fact that there are not as many in the PTAs anymore is universal. All across the country it's that way. Our big thing here is that we're famous for at Wasden Elementary School is our annual Halloween Howl. Past students, past teachers, everybody comes to the Halloween Howl at Wasden Elementary School and everybody wants to know when it is. That's the night that you can see so many wonderful people and kids of kids. It's a big tradition here at Wasden Elementary School and our PTA puts that all on. I see. So you involve the neighborhood in that, as well as just the current. And the whole city, really, because I'll get E-mails and calls, when's the Halloween Howl? And Facebook. Everybody wants to know the date. So it's kind of a city, just anybody who's been around. It's just a big thing we look forward to every year. That's a wonderful tradition to have. It is. You mentioned that there used to be a lot of field trips. I know you're in a good location. You're close to the Smith Center and the Desert Springs area. Do you get to take students to any of those activities anymore? The paperwork is unbelievable now and the safety issues. There's so much testing, finding the right dates. A lot of our students are from a lower socioeconomic. So if there's a cost involved, that limits us. The logistics have just made it—we're lucky if we take one a year on bus. That is really sad, isn't it, that it's come to that? Can you tell me the address of the school here? Do you happen to know that? At 2831 Palomino Lane. Very good. Okay, thank you. 10 Eight nine one oh seven. That's great. Is there anything else you want to say particularly about the school here? I think as a staff member—a lot of people that have taught here and either retired or moved on—it is widely known that we're a family here. Through happiness and celebrations, once you are at Wasden Elementary School, you're part of the family. And it's a really neat tradition even though times have changed. It's a wonderful school. I'm so happy that I've been here this long. That's wonderful. It speaks well for the school to have teachers that want to stay for a number of years. Do you have any mentors or people that you feel like have been a good source of encouragement or help to you in your career? Well, first and foremost, my mother, seeing her teach in Clark County. She was just an awesome kindergarten teacher and was just so amazing. Her mother was a country schoolteacher in Minnesota. So it kind of runs in our family. So my grandmother, my mom, me, and actually my son is probably going to—he's studying to—he just graduated and he wants to be a teacher, as well. But other than my mom, Marie Clark Dane, Susan Rothermel here at Wasden Elementary School just took me in and taught me so many things and just spent timeless hours with the students and just helping me get acclimated here. And my master teacher's name was Gail Manly. She was here for a long time. Really, really encouraging. Just a lot of people. Sylvia Mills and Helen Petterson and Judy Sadleman. What a wealth of information from all these people that helped me. It's wonderful that the teachers here are willing to help the new teachers that come in because you learn a lot in college, but being in the classroom is where you really develop 11 your skills and understanding of the students, I think. I think if we didn't have people helping us and if we didn't help the new ones...I can't even imagine not doing that especially now. It is so overwhelming for a new teacher starting now. Oh, my gosh. I mean I spend more hours—I'm working harder than I've ever worked. And I'm sure for a new hire it's just got to be so overwhelming. So much paperwork, you mean? Computer work, testing, grading, planning, meetings. I take work home every night. In fact, we all put in a couple of hours extra a day and we come in on weekends. I'm putting in more time and working harder than I ever have in my career. If I were starting out, you'd have to have the love of it because it's a really hard job nowadays. It is a job that is so important. But if you didn't have the kids, though, everybody forgets—they feel sorry for us. But we still have these eager faces. About the time you're thinking, oh, I—they walk by and they say, I love you, Mrs. Kanie. It's still extremely rewarding. It's not all negative. There's still a lot of great parents, great kids. It's fun. That's wonderful. Yes. I'm sure that if you didn't have the great kids, you wouldn't have stayed this long. That's true. Does Wasden Elementary School have special teachers like music? I know they're cutting down on a lot of things. Yes, we've had just some wonderful specialist teachers. Our kids have library, music, art, PE. We have some extra grant money, so we have some extra reading intervention for kids that just need a little extra. That's another one of my mentors is Sherrie Weller. People love Wasden 12 Elementary School so much. We have two retired teachers that are on grants to help teach our kids to read. They even come back after they're retired. Oh, that's wonderful. Let's see, other special programs. We have some extra tutoring for English second-language kids. Do you have many students that don't speak English as their first language? Many. Yes, many. Quite a few. I don't know the numbers. Right, right. I haven't asked you much about your personal family. You mentioned a son. I have my son. He was third-generation native Nevadan. My husband's family—he was born in Yakima, Washington, but came to Vegas when he was about four years old. So it's nice. If I don't know somebody, he does. And actually, he grew up close to Wasden Elementary School and he went to Hyde Park Junior High and E.W. Griffith Elementary School. So we cross each other quite a bit. And he puts in fire protection sprinklers. He's in construction. My son went to Wasden Elementary School, of course, with me. Went to Molasky Middle School and Cimarron High School. He just graduated from UNLV. I have just the one child. That's it. What was his major at UNLV? English. He wants to teach high school English. Wonderful. And coach football. I think his major is really football, but he needs a career, as well. Yes. And is currently a coach. He's in his third season of coaching varsity football at Cimarron High School where he played. 13 How exciting. We keep our ties here. [Laughing] That's wonderful. Do you know whether they have block parties and things like that in the neighborhood here? They do in the McNeil project, which is south of Charleston Avenue. Some of our teachers live in the neighborhood and keep us informed and our kids go there. It's called the McNeil neighborhood. They have like a website. I don't know if it's on Facebook, but they communicate. I hear in the summer they have block parties. Still a lot of community things going on in the Wasden neighborhood. Do you have far to commute to get here? I live in the northwest, Cheyenne Avenue and Buffalo Avenue. It doesn't take long at all. Especially when you don't have to go at rush hour, I'm sure. That's right. That's right. Very good. Do you have anything that you would like to add that I've not talked about that you think we should have discussed? Not that I can think of, just how I feel so fortunate that Las Vegas is my home. I've had the same best friend since third grade and another best friend that joined us in seventh grade. So I mean the lifelong friends and experiences and coworkers and students, I've had a really, really nice life here in Las Vegas. That's great. That's really wonderful. One of the questions I had planned to ask you was, why you became a teacher? But after hearing about your wonderful mother, I understand. It's just in my blood. It's just in my blood. Like my principal said when he first was here and he was observing me, he said, you're just a natural, some people. You don't even know what you're 14 doing, but you just know what you're doing. Right, right. So it was a compliment from Mr. DuChateau. Well, that's wonderful to hear. Well, thank you very much for taking your time to do this. It's been my pleasure. We're going to continue a little bit with Ann Kanie. She was telling me about the Helldorado Parade and things like that, so I've asked her if she will say it on the record. When I was a kid—so this would be in the 1960s, early 1970s—Helldorado was just a big Las Vegas event. We were proud to be in the west. In elementary school, girls had to wear dresses. You just always looked nice. But Helldorado week, we would dress like cowboys and Indians. Just was a big, big celebration. I had started in the band in fourth grade. I probably marched in that Helldorado Parade behind those horses a dozen times. But the whole town went out. And the rodeo at Cashman Field. Helldorado was just a big, big city event. Right down Fremont Street. It was just a really fun, fun community thing to do. You mentioned that your husband lived in this area. What were some of his activities? Similar to what we did over on the other side of town. We were doing the same thing and we didn't even know each other. He went to E.W. Griffith Elementary School and Hyde Park Junior High. That was about the end of the town heading out this way. I mean Wasden Elementary School and Hyde Park Junior High, that's about where the—Decatur Avenue, that was the end of the town. They did the same kinds of things only they would ride their bikes and go up to Red Rock Canyon and go in the desert. He said that when he went to E.W. Griffith Elementary School they walked across the whole desert to Western High School and that's where their Field Day was. Just think, from 15 we're talking Alta Avenue clear over to Decatur Avenue. The whole school would go over to Western High School field and that's where they would have it. Field Day was always a big, big deal in these schools, too. Get to compete. We could wear shorts, oh, my gosh. We never wore shorts in those days, or pants for girls. Just things kids did anywhere, just play in the desert and catch horny toads and lizards. I was just telling my students today the big thing when I was a kid was renting horses out at Tule Springs or Old Nevada. That was a big deal of getting to do that once in a while because that was pretty exciting. Another thing you told me when we weren't on the recording was about your husband riding his bike up to what is now Meadows Mall—or walking up that way. Yes. There was something out there they called the Black Hole or the Big Hole. They would be out in the desert doing their things. And he said they would throw rocks and look over the edge. It probably was part of the Springs Preserve, a kind of aquifer or something. But they were always terrified of this huge child-sucking black hole that we were always very, very respectful of. [Laughing] That's great. Actually, he, growing up in this neighborhood, would ride. Wayne Newton has his horses. He has his own stories. I'm not sure of all of his stories. But this was a horse neighborhood and they would get to help exercise people's horses and they thought that was really a lot of fun growing up. That would be fun, yes. When I think he was about 12, they had a Super Slide over here on Decatur Avenue. That was another big thing when I was a kid. Riding horses was occasional. And of course, movies at the 16 Huntridge Theater. Our parents would only let us go to Disney movies. So you didn't go to that very often. You'd get a quarter and that's what it would take. The other big events on weekends were going to the Super Slide, which was owned by the Becker family up here on Decatur Avenue. My husband's first job was there when he was about 12 years old. And I know I must have met him at that time because we would go there once in a while. You'd climb up this big slide and you'd go down. They had miniature golf or the Ice Palace. There was ice skating out in Commercial Center. That was a big deal, too. My mom and my aunt would load all of us kids up and we'd do that. I guess when you mentioned earlier what you did do to beat the heat…go ice skating. Most people in the Midwest could not do that. Just a lot of hiking. My best friend Fran that we've been friends forever, her parents would take us on outings. They were pretty daring. We went out in the mines out by Lake Mead, like into mines, Potosí mine. We went into those mines with no gear. We'd climb ladders and things that you would not—I don't even know if my parents know I did that. The lake and hiking and just so many things here. And skiing, we snow skied in the winter. There were a lot of things to do. Does Fran still live here in town? Fran and Ann. Fran and Ann, yep. What's her last name? Her name was Walton. Fran Medlin Walton. She's a nurse at Mountain View Hospital. And so we kind of grew up and we both have our different circle of friends, but we walk in the mornings. We see each other several times a week. We've stayed friends, well, since we were eight and I'm 55. That is really a treasure to have a friend like that. 17 She's my bud, yep. Now, you mentioned early on about you were born in the Las Vegas Hospital. I neglected to ask you the name of the hospital. Do you know what the name of the hospital was? I don't know. But I do know—Southern Nevada Memorial was a hospital and that downtown one—I picture it, but I can't remember the name of it. But I was born there. Dr. [Grant] Lund and Dr. [Gerald] Sylvain were our doctors. We went to all of our doctor appointments in that hospital because the doctors had offices. Had our shots there. Had our tonsils taken ou