Transcript of interview with Dan Hill by John Bennett, March 1, 1979

UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill i An Interview with Dan Hill An Oral History Conducted by John Bennett 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 Dan Hill ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2018 UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 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 Dan Hill iv Abstract On March 1, 1979, John L. Bennett interviewed Dan Hill (born May 20, 1914 in Illinois) in his home at 2130 Walnut Road, Las Vegas, Nevada, about his memory of Southern Nevada. In addition to the collector and informant, there is an unidentified woman present during the interview. Hill explains that he originally came to Nevada in search of work. He briefly moved to Europe during the First World War where he served in the Army; at the end of the war, Hill returns to Las Vegas to work at the Nevada Test Site. Hill then goes in-depth about his experience as a worker at the Nevada Test Site and different mining sites that he had also worked at. The two briefly discuss the different sheriffs that had been in charge of Las Vegas, and how many people came to Las Vegas to work at the Henderson Magnesium Plant and Hoover Dam in addition to the Nevada Test Site. UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 1 Informant Dan Hill, date: March 1st, 1979. Time: 10:45 AM. Place: 2130 Walnut Road. Collector—History 117, Project: Local History Project. When was the first time you came to Nevada to live? First time I came here to make it my home was June 1951. Okay. I know you mentioned earlier to me before we went on the microphone that you came here in the forties. Could you sort of describe how you came here and what you came here for? Well I came out here lookin’ to work during the war in 1943. And they were building a Basic Magnesium plant in Henderson—I went to work there for a short time, and they had a Tent City out there. You lived across the road from the plant, lived in these tents, the workers did. And, I didn’t stay too long, I went home and enlisted in the Army and went over to Europe with the Infantry. In the Tent City, what were the living conditions like? Did you have to—Did they have outhouses? Did you have to go out and collect water and bring it in, could you describe that sort of life? No, they had showers, a bed and latrines, and you lived in these tents. They had a big mess hall, big beer hall, so if you wanted beer that I remember in there, out of Washington— (Phone rings) Okay you can go on. Well, the only transportation for workers from Henderson proper to Las Vegas at that time was a bus that they called the “Pony Express,” that’d break down two or three times on the way in. But, that was no problem, nobody seemed to be in a hurry in them days, like they are today. And there UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 2 wasn’t very many places of businesses, any at all out there. I remember the old Victory Club, it’s still there, (unintelligible), most of the ‘fellas hung out down there right after work. Who started that plant out there, do you know? And what were the reasons behind it? Oh, it was—the plant was started for the magnesium, you know, it’s put in steel. For planes, and bolts, and for the war effort. Yes, that’s what I was wondering, if it started with the war. Yes, it was all government, and government financed the whole set up. So I left in—as I said before, when the army went overseas. Then I came back here in ’51. Okay, what did you come back here for at that time? Well, I heard about the Nevada Test Site was opening up and it was going to be a ‘lotta work and I came out here and went to work on a drill armory, and I stayed there. You worked on a drilling rig at the Nevada Test Site? At the Nevada Test Site, and I stayed out there—I worked out of the Test Site for years. I worked as a laborer, a miner, and I did a few things. I worked a lot in the (unintelligible) union, warehousing, just about did a little of everything. What was it like going out to the Nevada Test Site at that time? Was it—did you, did you go out on the bus? Did you drive out, up there? We drove out, we drove. It was a two-lane high way then, they called it the Willow Maker, and about a year, about ’52 I believe it was, they put a little S.L paper on the side of the road to make it a little bit wider. It was—There were a lot of dips in the road and they took them out to improve the road. Later on, of course, they made it a four-lane setup all the way up. But, in those days, everything out there was (unintelligible), you know, the government, and you just could—UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 3 Work as many as hours as you wanted. We worked a lot of overtime, in 1951 the labor scale was a $1.75 an hour, today, labor scale is $9.95, almost ten dollars an hour, little difference. Mm-hmm. But money went just as far as then, just not further, seemed like to me. But then, I was a young ‘fella then and nothing bothered me. You had your family with you there—? I drove my family out and we moved out in Henderson in Victory Village up there. It was a housing project—government— and all the buildings were just one story, no two stories affairs, and there were a lot of Spanish people out there. And weekends were one big fiesta, everybody was out barbecuing, everybody was out having a beer or their tequila, and you never had so much fun in a life. We’d go down to Vegas Wash, down the river, by the lake, Lake Mead, they called the kids in a truck, a ton and a half truck, we’d pile all the kids in, the neighborhood kids, my kids, and we’d all head out for the lake and sometimes just spend the weekend at the lake. And it was good livin’ in them days, no trouble. If I could do this today, I don’t remember any hold ups, I don’t remember and dope problems, a few of the boys got too much to drink, but that was about all. What were the homes like? Did they have air conditioning, stoves; when did the lights come in and things like that? Oh yes, there was air conditioning—you know, swamp coolers— and regular stoves, you know. It was a nice set up, I had—I think it was six rooms— and it cost forty-five dollars a month, but partly furnished! Beds, kitchens, were furnished, and you couldn’t beat that. And everybody out there had a mob of kids, so no—nobody was offended by children. They were running all over the place, it looked like a big school yard out there. So it was a pretty good way to live for a UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 4 young ‘fella coming up you know? That is, if you didn’t think you were going to be president of the United States or anything, and just wanted to work for a living. How long did you work at Nevada Test Site? Oh, pretty steady all during the ‘50s and early ‘60s, and I wound up there about, ‘70. Did you—how was the—as far as the government, were you always worried about whether they were going to close it down or keep it open? Never gave it a thought. Yes, because I know later on in the ‘70s like they always—you never knew whether they were going to close it down or not. Well, there was always some talk about closing it down, but we knew it was a necessity, you know, if you got right down to it, they—They had to test some place, and they were testing here, and they weren’t going to change it. So actually, there wasn’t anything to worry about, and they’ll use that Test Site for something from now on. They started the tunnels up there, I went and worked as a miner in the tunnel—One thing about Nevada, you—It can happen here, and the people are altogether different, I met the United States senator up there in the tunnel at one time, Molly Malone, he was a senator here in the ‘50s, and George Malone, he came in the tunnels. He had been a hard rock miner in his youth here, and he worked for four dollars a day, he told us. We were driving workloads at the time he came in the tunnel, and he came in with old man Reynolds and his boy Jackie. And my shifter, Jim Fisher, he —when Malone told us to introduce us to the senator, you know, and then Malone said, “Well,” he said, “Boys, I did the same thing you’re doing for four dollars a day!” And Fisher said, “Well, it was probably all you were worth.” (Laughs). UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 5 Oh that, and hit him on the back and said, “You miners haven’t changed a bit.” (Laughs)—so old man Reynolds was kind of shocked when he said that, and I said, “Well, we can kiss our jobs goodbye,” but nothing happened. Who was Reynolds? Was he your boss, or—? Reynolds was the man that owned us. Reynolds (unintelligible). That was a man from El Paso, Texas. And he came out? He came up in the tunnel with his boy Jackie. His Jackie was a wild one, the old man had to ship him out, he would send him back to Texas. I guess Texas was a little tamer than Nevada. (Laughs). And I met Pat McCarran one time in the ‘50s, early ‘60s. He was a United States senator and the airport out here is named after ol’ Pat. (Unintelligible)—Rex Bell was your lieutenant governor here at one time. Well at that time, Rex was running a clothing store and had to ran some search light and he introduced me to Pat McCarran. McCarran had asked me if I had worked and I told him “Yes, I was out there at the plant with a pick and shovel,” and he said, “That’s a good thing to keep you out of trouble,” and shook hands with him. But I don’t think—Back east any place, you’d walk up to a United States senator and shake hands with him and talk to him on a street. You’d probably run into a few bodyguards before you get to the senator, but here it was a different situation. It was, oh Nevada was just great in those days, and I ran into Grant Sawyer one time at the train at the El Cortez. And I said, “You’re Grant Saywer aren’t ya’?” and he said, “That’s right,” I said, “Well,” I said, “I never shook hands with a governor,” I said, “I guess this is a helluva’ a place to shake hands with a governor,” and he said, “Well,” he says, “Shaking hands with a governor in any place is a helluva’ place to be, isn’t it?” UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 6 (Laughs). Shook hands with ol’ Grant Sawyer and now I said to myself, “Now that’s something you wouldn’t do back east either,” you know? And this was a great, great place in those days. And Rex Bell went on to be lieutenant governor, and when he was elected he ran against Jim Ryan. Jim Ryan was the head of our union, and he was in the Assembly at that time. He was the best man state of Nevada ever had. He was a laboring man for the working man, and he did more good here than any man the state ever had. He shoulda’ been governor, but things didn’t work out that way. But he paid more grocery bills, hospital bills, saved more homes, and especially on the west side, because our local is, oh I’d say, seventy percent black people. (Unintelligible) They all come from the south, you see. During the war, they brought them people out here—they practically hijacked them and brought ‘em up here to work out there in Henderson. They were—they had a labor shortage, and they went down to Louisiana, and Mississippi, Alabama, the southern states, and ah, those people come up here and work, and that’s how the population that settled the west side was settled by those people at that time. I heard that the Westside wasn’t dominantly black at first, it was a ‘lotta the people that worked on the railroad that lived up on the Westside. Well that was—Years ago, the Westside was Las Vegas, that was Union Pacific property when it started out. And it was old town really, and when they start building downtown, people moved over that direction— Was it on Fremont Street, where they lived around? The Westside, they kind of deserted the Westside, and black people stayed, and made it their—their territory over there. So that was years ago, but then people comes from down south during UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 7 the war, they settled over there and that’s where the population built up. But as I said, Jim Ryan was a wonderful man for this country, but Rex Bell beat him for lieutenant governor in the elections, fifty four. And after the election, Rex Bell took me in the back of his store and, said, “I gotta show you something,” and he had a desk back there and he had a coat and hats up—you know, boxes of hats, suits, and silver just like a warehouse, and he showed me the charter up above his desk, “Lieutenant Governor,” I say, “Is this your office?” and he says, “That’s my office.” Later on, oh, I’d say a few months later, he says, “I’m going to show you, so come over to the state building on Bonanza sometime and look me up,” So I went over there, me in my business clothes to go see what he had over there, and he had an office over there. He had a big desk, and you know, a leather chair, leather couch, and I said, “Boy they fixed you up real nice, Rex,” I says, “Now you’re big time.” He says, “Yes,” he says, “Only the thing is, you’re wrong one way, they didn’t fix me up. I bought this furniture.” I said, “You had to buy it?” and he says, “That’s right, I bought it,” he says, “Well,” he said, “I made the down payment on it.” So that was Rex Bell, he was one of the best ‘fellas to ever hit this state. His boy now is assistant district attorney and he was a good man. He was running for governor when he died of a heart attack, and Paul Axel took off from then on, and Paul Axel became the governor. Do you know anything about the sheriffs during that time—who was sheriff at the time? Well, Glen Jones was sheriff here when I came. Glen Jones was sheriff for about twelve years—he was a good sheriff, a good man. And well, they didn’t have the problems they got today actually, and when somebody did something wrong, you called him. That was — They didn’t fool around with ya’, I don’t know what it is and all—all the trouble there is today with this dope, and crime. People running from one store to another with a pistol in their hand holding these people up—it wasn’t that way. But it was more wide opened then, as far as that goes. They UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 8 had houses of prostitution here, they had one out at four miles—You go straight out Boulder Highway four miles, and they called it “4 Mile,” and I believe the people’s names who ran that was Clippinger. And they ran that for years out there, it was a pretty big place. It was a reconverted army barracks from Nellis and finally, the federal agents closed them down. The local police didn’t—the federal agents raided there one time and shut ‘em down. They had another place over there in Paradise Valley, that, — what did they call it? — Seabar— Sea or something like that, and that got burned down. I guess some of their competitors or something burned ‘em out of business. Another place over here in North Vegas—they all got shut down eventually and they outlawed it here in the county, you know? Was it outlawed before they shut ‘em down? Or were they still running all—? Well, it was optional. They was—Either was they ran and they— ‘course, the sheriff’s department knew about it and everything, so— Who became sheriff after this other man? Well, Butch Leypoldt was in for a while, for one term, then Ralph Lamb came in—Ralph was a good sheriff, well, and so was Butch. But Ralph stayed in there about, fifteen years I guess? He just got voted out here in this last election. But he was a real good sheriff, when he came in, the office was like Glen Jones’ time, it wasn’t the problems there are, and they just build up, you know? But it takes a good man, maybe this McCarthy’s a good man, I don’t know anything about him, but he’d have to be real good to beat Ralph Lamb, because they don’t come much better than Ralph Lamb. Ralph Lamb? He worked out of the titanium plant for a while I think. Well, I don’t know about Ralph—if he worked out there, they came from Alamo, and his father was a Rancher. They still got a big spread up there—buck, goat, and lamb and cattle— They UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 9 employed Lamb as a state senator, he’s a, he’s a wheel in the family, you know, the head of the family. His father was killed by a horse up there, got kicked in the head. And Floyd took over, he was a big wheel in politics in Lincoln County, and then he came down here and he took over, and he got the big state senator, and he’s been state senator and head of state finances. He’s the guy that got the first strings here in the state of Nevada. This Ralph’s out of work now. Darwin Lamb, another brother, he was County Commissioner for a while. And I know he was—he worked out of the heavy equipment. You know, operating engineers, he was local flow. But he was the County Commissioner, and then—He’s got a restaurant and night club here on Ann Avenue now, that’s what he’s doing, but I don’t think Ralph’s doing anything. Okay. (Audio cuts off and returns mid-conversation).We used to take our beer and go get some ribs, and go back over by his place and barbecue and drink beer and sing hillbilly songs and some got—One ‘fella had guitar there, and they’d do something like that I guess and they’d arrest you for disorderly conduct for disturbing the peace. We’d have some good times, we had the Helldorado parades, they were really something then. I guess maybe I enjoyed ‘em more because I was younger. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans came here one time and Death Valley Scotty used to come in from the Castle for the parades, and they’d bring a twenty-mule team clear from the valley—they drove it in one time, and they made twelve miles a day coming in. And they drove it clear in, they used to bring it in on (unintelligible) most of the time, and then one year, they drove it all the way in. And then the El Cortez hotel used to sponsor a twenty-mule team. And Monty Montana, Dale Robinson, oh all of those; I saw Danny Thomas on horseback one time, oh everybody used to come then. It was a big, big deal. This year, they’re going to have it on the Strip, not downtown. They’re going have the parade out on the Strip, I don’t know how it’d be, UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 10 but it used to be really good. They used to bring—People from all over the west would come, you know? They had the mountain men from Williams, Arizona come, and riding groups from California, Tucson, Phoenix—people from all over, it would really be a big thing. But it died down, it— I don’t know, it died off, and you save a lot of that western atmosphere during that day that they haven’t got anymore. Hmm. They just haven’t got it, they don’t seem to — Well, new people, you know, that don’t understand it, and you know, they don’t seem to go for it so much anymore. So how long did you move out in Henderson before you moved into Las Vegas? I lived there about five years. Then you moved into Vegas? Moved into Vegas— And this is, this is where you live——? I lived here for seventeen years. Oh. I came here seventeen years ago. How much was land back then, like—? I don’t know—how much did I pay for this place? (Unidentified woman) I don’t remember one bit. Altogether this place here was about $12,000. And how, how much—? The house is a lot—I’ve got an acre here. $12,000? UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 11 Yes. Today it probably goes for seventy-five, eighty, more—(Laughs). Yes, my boy built this place, the place over there, and this place. All this lumber here comes from Nevada Test Site—These windows, the doors, everything—Nevada Test Site. We bought a whole mess hall out there for a thousand dollars, it was up for bid, and we came into beer hall one time, and he said, “Dad,” he said, “I’m gonna’ bid on that mess hall.” I says, “What’re you ‘gonna do with it if you get it?” “Oh,” he said, “I’m going to go and do some building,” So I said, “okay,” and so be bid on it, and he got it. So he bought these lots, built on the steel here, and I got this place out of it. Now I got a roof over my head. (Laughs). Now that I’m retired, living off the fat of the land is my golden years here. (Laughs). Could you tell me a little bit more about Nevada Test Site? Or, what you could tell me, out there, how was—besides the senators coming out and things like that and visiting you—how was the atmosphere? Were there people living out there, what was the—How did people feel at the time about testing the bomb and waking up in the morning and looking at the mushroom coming over the hill? Well, it was melting pot out there. People from all over the United States, you know? And I never saw any trouble, people all got along, all crafts, and even the scientists just seemed to be regular people. But when I first come out there, they had those towers shot, you know, the tower and the plane drops, stuff like that. And we used to go up to the C.P—the Control Post—and watch ‘em shoot, and one time we were up there, and they blew one off, and the heat rolled over us, like it was, like they had opened a furnace door. And the concussion knocked some people off their feet. We’re up in the same thing, knock some people off their feet, and I said to myself, UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 12 “Well Dan, you followed up again, here you are.” (Laughs). “War wasn’t enough, you had to come back here.” (Laughs). But every once in a while, some people get sick. You know, I don’t know, they’ve got this radiation thing going on now, you know, that they’re suing the government, these people that died of cancer over in Utah and different places. Well it’s understandable, you can’t be around that without something happening, and radiation is ‘gonna get somebody out or somebody’s ‘gonna get sick. Other people feel like the war was over. Did they feel that they shouldn’t be testing the bomb out there? No, the people out there didn’t feel that way, and maybe the people around, like the farmers in Utah and the ranchers and farmers, and the people that weren’t associated with it probably felt that way. But those people were making a good living, a very good living. And there wasn’t a craft out there, say you know, operating engineers, steam fitters, plumbers, carpenters, laborers, any of ‘em that were making more there than they could make any place else in the United States. The scale was out of this world, you know, it was higher. And the overtime was terrific, you’d come home with some outstanding paychecks. So they were lookin’ for a good living, they weren’t worried about what the bomb was doing either. You know, they weren’t giving it much thought I don’t believe—I know I didn’t, and I never heard anybody else say anything about it. Someone’s gotta’ put those pork chops on the table for his family, you know? And they worked up in those tunnels, and hope that—didn’t get radiation that’d make ‘em sick up there. You’d go in, you know, re-entries after the shot, you know, and you’d have to take all that material out—the old steel, and the air pipes, out of there, would all get hauled out, all be bent and blown up UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 13 and stuff, all that stuff was hot, but it’s gotta’ come out. And now you have to—You go back to the control post, you know, they’d take a reading on you, and if you were too hot they’d take your clothes away, and you’d have to take showers. And if it didn’t contaminate your clothes, but if they, sometimes you’d go back in that shower two times, sometimes three times, before you, you know, until you’d be clean. But sure there’s a risk, there’s a risk to anything. Every time one of these pilots take off over here at McCarran airport with a load of people, with a hundred and fifty people, there’s a risk that he’s gonna’ get to Chicago or not, (unintelligible). When you walk out the front door in the morning, you don’t know if you’re gonna’ be home for supper either, that’s the way it is: you can’t worry about it. About the gambling situation, I know you mentioned the El Cortez hotel, that’s probably one of the oldest ones here in Las Vegas, isn’t it? Pretty old—I used to—my favorite spot was the Boulder Club, where the Horseshoe was now (unintelligible), right down in there, a guy by the name of Farmer Paige ran that. It was a working man’s place, and upstairs there they had union officers—the labor council was up there, and the labor hall was over by the post office then, and we were pretty close. We’d have a couple of beers and hurry back to see if our name was coming up to go to work. So, I used to like the Boulder Club because it, oh, all the working stuff’s out there, and Binion opened up the Horseshoe, and it was real nice place. It’s a lot different than it is today—They had a ‘lotta old paintings there, beautiful paintings, western paintings—they had the biggest collection of long-horns, and Texas steer horns I’ve ever saw in my life. — Guns and stuff like that, they had a ‘lotta of that Old West atmosphere, but as the years went on, that was taken out, and more slot machines put in, you know, it was more commercialized, I’d guess you’d say. More, to, get everybody in, I guess that is— UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 14 Yes, and they—there were a ‘lotta nice places along there—the Nugget—always was a nice place. They’re all nice places, but I never did gamble. I did my share of that drinkin’, but I never did gamble. What was the—the Strip wasn’t in yet, was it? No, the Strip was out there. I used to go out, in the old days, in the early ‘50s, the El Rancho Vegas, was in my idea, the nicest place out there—and practically for nothing out there, you know? All of ‘em places—The Thunderbird—I remember one night, we went out there and saw Hilda (unintelligible) down at the El Rancho Vegas and went across the street, (unintelligible) the pioneers of the Thunderbird, and I don’t think it cost us eight, ten, dollars, if it cost us that. So things were a lot different. Now you can’t walk in one of ‘em places with eight dollars, they’d throw you out. But somebody’s always walking around handing a drink, or free eats or something, I never seen anything like it in my life. Well that was the reputation that Vegas was built on, you know, and that if you come in after hours, you could walk in with levis and a work shirt on and nobody’d paid any attention to you right on the Strip. But it isn’t that way today. Did—was the titanium plant always run by the government? Or did it—? What? The Titanium plant— Oh it was started by the government, the whole thing was government money, you know, it was during the war. And that was— And get that magnesium open, they mined it up north, in the northern part of the state, and trucked it down here. And it was all war effort, you know, it was started in Henderson. UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 15 Mm. When did—do you know anything about Henderson, Las Vegas—you know where Henderson wants to be separate from Las Vegas and maybe Las Vegas wanted to be separate from them, do you know how that came about? Or any type of government issues over that? No, I don’t. Henderson was more or less, like Boulder City, but not quite. Boulder City was a government town, you know, the Dam created Boulder City. Well, the plant created Henderson and they built those little homes out there in Henderson, you know, and all of those financed government, everything was government, but they, finally everybody bought their own homes and stuff, and they had Victory Village, as I was telling you about. That’s wiped out, that isn’t there anymore at all, that’s all gone. Where was that at? Well that was across Boulder Highway, on North Side of Boulder Highway, back of Saint Peter’s Church out there. And to tell you how things go, I never see this anymore either. When they built the houses at Saint Peter’s there, Peter Murran was the priest out there everybody got together and helped build a school. And he was out there, he was a bricklayer, he was one of the best bricklayer I ever saw in my life, that priest. He was a—different kind of a cad, pretty rough old Irishman, he came from the old country, and he went back there and died. Still, but he was a rough one while he was around here. He helped with that hospital out there, you know, a great deal. He helped a lot of people out there, well, it was all the same, never—When they built a Mormon Church out there, everybody went over and helped— (Tape one ends.) One second—okay. UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 16 Everybody worked together—Mormons, Catholics—it didn’t make any differences. It didn’t seem to make any difference in those days. And now it just seems to me that those things have changed in Vegas—I guess, I mentioned about the police department, and school children, and never had any trouble with the kids, just the usual thing, a little hooky, and stuff like that, and the deputy sheriff ran over there, he’d take care of that, he’d march ‘em back to school. I guess ol’ Mike Callaghan took care of the rest of it from there on. And I had—all my kids went over there to the school, and so they got a good education over there. Your kids graduated from Henderson, or did they have to come to school in Las Vegas? How many of ‘em graduated? From Henderson—two— Three of ‘em I guess. What was this—school’s really small then? Were they—are they a lot better than now, do you think? Do you know anything about the school (unintelligible)? No, I didn’t know much about the schools to tell you the truth. I was working out of Mercury, and driving back and forth, and get in home around time to eat supper, go to bed, and get up in the morning and go to work. And it was driving clear out there, back and forth everyday, and (unintelligible) quite often I stayed out there. But I was raising my family, and I’d like to be as home as much as I could, you know? If the old man ain’t around, things can get out of hand. So, she’s the law and order of the family, ‘lotta people are forgetting that today, that’s why things are going the way they are. What were the things that the kids did back then? Did they—because even nowadays, there’s not too much fun to do in Las Vegas because of the gambling. UNLV University Libraries Dan Hill 17 Well, they had ball teams, out there in —They had Henderson Boy’s Club, they had some real good boxing teams out there—those Spanish kids are—sure can handle themselves, and they had a ‘lotta good boxing teams out there. And the kids that went along with that would be pretty good fighters. They had football teams and everything, it was—I’ve heard that a lot, “There’s nothing to do for kids in Vegas,” but if they look for something to do, there’s a lot to do. Right down here in North Vegas, they’ve got one of the nicest Boy’s clubs you’d want to go to! They just, get off, and need to get down there, and do something, you know, instead of standing around the corner and wonder who’s going to bring the weed over in the night. It’d be a little better if got some clubs and start working out, but on the average, the kids are just about the same. Those days, we did a ‘lotta hunting, a ‘lotta fishing down at the lake. We used to go deer hunting every fall, that was a big ceremony, everybody’d take off deer hunting—they’d go up north to Elko County and I used to go with a ‘fella (unintelligible), he just passed away here recently, pretty close to eighty years old. They used to call him the “Last of the Mountain Men,” He was one of the, well you know, he was old. He was a marine in the First World War, but he was one of the best men I had ever saw in the field, and that meant something. He would just bring back some big bucks. Another ‘fella I used to go hunting w