Jack L. Monroe Jr. interview, March 15, 1981: transcript

UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 1 An Interview with Jack L. Monroe Jr. An Oral History Conducted by Marie Carmichael 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 Jack L. Monroe Jr. 2 © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2020 UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 3 The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division. The OHRC conducts oral interviews with individuals who are selected for their ability to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. The OHRC is also home to legacy oral history interviews conducted prior to its establishment including many conducted by UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske and his students. This legacy interview transcript received minimal editing, such as the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. The interviewee/narrator was not involved in the editing process. UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 4 Abstract On March 15, 1981, Marie Carmichael interviewed Jack L. Monroe Jr. (b. 1937 in St. Helena, California) about his life in Las Vegas, Nevada and his work as a cook among many other topics. Monroe speaks initially about his time working alongside his family in the restaurant business, with his father working as a cook, his mother a waitress and himself as both a busboy and a cook. He discusses the working conditions of cooks, the competition between casino restaurants and the relationship between workers, bosses and the public. Moreover, Monroe speaks about life in Las Vegas as a youngster, the significance of YMCA, summer camps and other recreational activities, and the school system. Lastly, he talks about the changing infrastructure of the city, the paved roads and public transportation, how casinos made their profits and the attachment residents develop towards the city of Las Vegas. UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 5 Narrator is Jack Monroe. The date is March 15, 1981 at one p.m. The place is 3616 East Bartlett, Las Vegas, Nevada. The interviewer is Marie Carmichael, 3616 East Bartlett, North Las Vegas. The project is Local History Project Oral Interview: Life of a Las Vegas Cook. When did you come here? I moved here in 1952. Whole family moved out here. Okay. Now, why did you come up here? Well, my parents had sold their business in California, and they’d been working all these years, and they get tired of, you know, the same old thing, so they decided to try a whole new thing in Las Vegas, in Nevada. It sounded like a good area. My father being a cook, my mother a waitress it was a—an open market. There was plenty of jobs to be had. So, my dad thought he’d come up here and try his luck at gambling, and he’d done some dealing in California (unintelligible). And he’d been to Tonopah and he’d been to Carson City but he'd never been to Las Vegas, but he knew that there was jobs here. (Unintelligible) So we moved from, from Monterey, California to Las Vegas. I—and in Southern California, Santa Ana, I took care of my sister, I and my mother, for a couple—three weeks while my dad came up here and kind of situate. Then we came on up from there. Alright. Okay. Where were the first places that you lived? Well, when we first got here, we stayed in a motel on Las Vegas Boulevard, which was Fifth Street then and the motel is still there. Stayed there for a couple—three weeks. And then my parents managed to get—find an apartment on Second Street, just off of Charleston Boulevard. And we stayed there for, oh, probably a year, year and a half. Okay. Now, during this time, did your dad do the gambling and whatnot? UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 6 Yes, he—and, of course, lost. (Laughs) ‘Course. He went to work at the El Cortez when he first got here, so he did—he was gambling there while he was working. In those days you could do that. Came to get me there while he was working in those days you could do. Okay. Your dad was a cook? Yes, but at the El Cortez at the time he was mostly a room service waiter, a busboy. Okay, so he started out from the bottom and moved up? Yes. Yes, he went into the kitchen there for a while, then he got a job at the El Rancho. That's a hotel? Yes. It was a hotel—mostly a casino at the time. It really wasn't a hotel. It had cabins spread out all over the property but it wasn't a hotel, per se. And he worked room service there and he could make very good money there because he had to go all the way from the hotel to these different cabins that were spread all over the street over four acres. Okay. What was room service like then compared to now? Is it—is it—? Well, then—if you was a cook like my father was and you had to travel that distance to these different rooms. That helped because he could get there and help reheat the food and this and that. He knew how to finish things off. The food was much better and the customers were quite happy so he made quite much better money. Okay, so his experience in cooking did do quite a bit of good? Yes. Then after about a year of working there, I guess he got fed up with that because (unintelligible) he didn’t want to be locked in any place. Yes. UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 7 (Unintelligible) so many years. So he went to a little small place called Sue's Drive-in. Right. Now, this is a steakhouse or what? It was a drive-in type restaurant. Hamburgers and milkshakes and french fries. It was a young kids operation. Little young for my father to be doing but they did have a fairly nice dinner house in the place. So they—so he became a dinner cook there. And then my mother went to work there as a waitress, and I went to work there as a busboy, dishwasher, whatever you want to do. I did a little bit of everything in the place. Okay. Now, what I want to get into was the conditions for cooking. What did your dad have to do compared to now in cooking? What was the differences? Okay. In those years mainly it was—was the lack, the lack of proper ventilation in the restaurants. The heat conditions in restaurants, and especially in Las Vegas, was extremely hot during the summertime. And unionism was, was a very small thing, it was just starting up in Las Vegas when we moved here. And Local 226 was a desk in one of the hotels Downtown, which is several blocks away from themselves. It's—the whole union consisted of one desk and one man, Mr. Al Bramlett. Anyways, the cooks used to get—they used to keep an extra two or three cooks around just because the guys would get sick and have to go home. There was no taking a fifteen minute break here and there. Okay. You took a break when you got a break. All right. There—so there was no laws or anything saying the poor cook who was slaving over this thing could have any breaks at all unless? The only time you get a break usually was if business fell off. When business was slow, you got a break, but then that was it. UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 8 What are the side effects of this working conditions? Well, one of the major side effects was insurance—for life insurance. It’s strange but it was a high risk type job in those years and if you wanted insurance, which most cooks didn't bother to do it, but then it cost ‘em. They didn't purchase insurance with the installation of unionism and unionism, moving into them and becoming something of course, insurance was given to ‘em through the employees. So, with the volume of insurance then, by automatically being a union member, insurance rates went down. And then over the years, as kitchen conditions improved, insurance rates have come down and doesn't cost that much more for a cook to have a life insurance than anybody else. Could a cook, if he decided to be become a cook, could he expect a shorter life expectancy? Mm-hmm. Yes, it was. It was averaged out to about forty-five, fifty years old. Most cooks, they grew up in a kitchen, you know, like I have done. By the time they were forty-five or fifty, they were ready to fall over. Okay. So what would happen to ‘em? Heart conditions or what? It was the lungs and heart—it would be, would go bad. We have—all cooks have a saying, “We get our brains burned out.” So, like—medical facts on that and understand (laughs). (Laughs) You burned your brains out. If you're a cook, your brains get burned out. And that was the general, probably was the heart and the lungs that were affected mostly. The breathing in heavy grease and oil from those days, the ventilation systems didn't suck the cooking grease, the one that fires out. The oven ventilations weren't always that good. Okay, now your dad died of heart condition and you have one. Could—does cooking have something to do with it? UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 9 There's a possibility, yes. I wouldn't—I wouldn't doubt it. But then again, we've had family problem too. So it's hard to say. Mm. Okay. Let's talk a little bit about your mother. Now, she started work about the same time your dad did, right? As a waitress? Right, my mother went to work about same time father did, after they got married. Before that, she didn't work. They—she came from a fairly wealthy family, well, and she didn’t have to work. But it soon became apparent that my dad couldn't make it on his own. Not on a cook’s salary. (Unintelligible) was seven days a week he worked. So she took a job as a waitress and she worked as a waitress up to about seven years before she died. And they worked together most of the time, in the restaurants they owned, the restaurants they worked in before they owned the restaurants. And then when we got here to Las Vegas, for the most part, they worked together. Sue’s Drive-in to the Riviera Hotel. They worked the Riviera—how long did they work there? (Unintelligible) Well, it was—within the first year the Riviera was built. My dad watched ‘em build the Riviera. And he kept saying that's where he wanted to go to work. It's a new hotel. It was a whole new venture there. Because by now he more or less decided we were staying in Las Vegas area. This was, this is already (unintelligible) five years, six years. (Unintelligible) move up and the Riviera was built. So my dad went to the Riviera, my mother followed him and I followed them. I only stayed a few weeks and then I left. My dad worked there for a year or two, my mother worked two or three years, whatever. Your dad worked there as a cook? Yes, he was the broiler chef. (Unintelligible) (Unintelligible) And your mom was a waitress? UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 10 Yes, in the coffee shop. She worked in a separate room which was not what you’d call a gourmet room in those years. It was just a, just dining, separate dining room and it was a coffee shop. Then they had the showroom and the coffee shop and the showroom kitchen were combined, which at that time was the biggest kitchen the whole state of Nevada. And probably the biggest kitchen my father ever worked in. How many cooks were there? Or chefs? Well, I really couldn't say—I don't, I really don't know for sure, although I know it was probably not less than six or seven cooks working at one time. Counting the chef himself. Okay. Now, what years were this? Oh, it had to be probably ’57, ’58, maybe ’56. Someplace in there. I went to work (unintelligible). My mother stayed at the Riviera until she could quit working. My father had gone from the Riviera to an Italian restaurant. Later on, after I got back in service, I went to work there. So we followed each other around pretty good. So, you guys always worked as a family business, practically, together? Yes, a family that works together, stays together. Yes. Yes, that was—that was not the theory but I mean, that’s—was what happened for the most part. Okay. Now, exactly what did your mother do? Waitressing back then I know was different from what it is now, to a degree it was respecting what it is now. Yes. In the fact that the people who ate out, people—a bunch of people ate out on a steady basis. The waitress became their friend. They usually found a place they liked, they found a waitress they liked and then she was respected she was. And you see, a waitress stayed in a place for quite a while. There wasn't that much moving around. So, you got to know your customers, your UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 11 customers got to know you. And the waitresses, because of that and being a smaller town—because of that the waitresses were treated with a lot more respect. They were part of the community. Yes. Now, what kind of breaks—working conditions did they have? Well, I once again, same as the cooks as far as the union (unintelligible) goes, as far as they took a break when they got a break. And in the case of waitresses, they usually got more breaks than the cook did. They had a busboy, for example, in most cases. So when they finished serving the customer, the busboy cleaned up the tables, whatever, and the waitress could go smoke a cigarette or whatever she wanted to do. So the waitresses usually got their—they got a little more decent breaks. Okay. How many days a week did they work? Well, a six day week. Six day a week. Okay, so—. Yes, everybody worked a six day week in those years. Or up till I think about 1960, ’60, ’61, ’62. Somewhere near where union contract (unintelligible) you know, to the whole valley area. Then quite a few places went to a five day week, but even then, it was still, you know, a lot of places were still six day week. Okay. Now, was that an eight hour shift or what? (Unintelligible) with cooks’ and dishwashers’ and busboys’ job to a great degree were. And probably half of the waiters it was eight hour shifts. With the waitresses and some of the waiters and some of us it was six hour shifts, sometimes four hour. Showroom hotel people who worked in the showrooms, they usually work the shorter shifts because the shows weren't that long. It UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 12 was like six hours involved in the whole thing so there wasn't even an eight hour shift there to be had. Okay. So, your mom worked what? A six hour shift or eight hour shift? Well, she worked in the smaller places till she went in the Riviera so she worked mostly eight hour shifts. In the Riviera I think she worked three days a week like eight hours and two days a week worked six hours. And she usually worked Sunday too, right? Well, Sunday is just—in the restaurant business, Sunday is just another working day. Now, you mentioned your mother worked at Sue’s Drive-in with your father. Did she start right in with you? Or did she start somewhere else in working with him? Well, she worked in Gail's Bakery which was on, on Fremont Street at that time and I believe Eleventh. It was just a little coffee shop. That's how we found our house when we moved from the apartment (unintelligible) we had a home. It was a short time, you know, we didn’t think there was any such thing in Las Vegas as a house, but there are homes. Okay. You had the same misconception a lot of people have that Las Vegas is just casinos and apartments. Maybe that's it? Yes, because when I first—like I said when I first got here, all I seen was the motel we moved into, and then we moved right into an apartment. So—and Tenth Street, from where I was from Second Street, was more or less on the other side of town (unintelligible) the other side of town. And that's what was the area where there was more, more housing. Well, there was housing in the area where I lived at on Second Street but it didn't register, you know, to me as a child there’s homes until we moved into our house because all my life I lived in a house. Okay. Now, Gail’s Bakery, now was that before the drive-in? UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 13 Yes, she worked there before she went to Sue’s Drive-in. She worked there several months. YMCA was just around the corner there, it was part of the same building. YMCA renders part of that building. Oh, so they had just the whole thing together and just? Well, there was a wall partitioning and everything was separated out. Sure. But it was just a little hole in the wall the YMCA in this town. If you had 50 kids in there you were— Lucky? Sardines. Oh (laughs). Well, you're more than lucky. Probably wouldn't hold twenty, maybe twenty, twenty-five children at best. We were there for four and a half, five years before they finally got the new YMCA built. Okay, what was the YMCA like? What, do you remember equipment or stuff like that? Oh, the trampoline was the main thing. Trampoline (unintelligible) And punching bag (unintelligible) bag, there were some weights, tumbling mats for tumbling. And, for the most, part that was it. There really was no room for much of anything else. Okay. What went on at YMC—was there classes or was it the meeting place for the youngsters or what? It was a hang out to some degree. Yes, there was quite a few—the kids used to hangout. And you know, it was a meeting place. You go in and you mess around for a little while and you get together and decide to go to Sue’s Drive-in. You know, you go and have hamburgers or whatever, or go out and get in a little trouble if you could find somethin. Wasn't too much to do UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 14 here. The YMCA was a big thing, even though it was a little thing. It really wasn't that much to do for the children. There still isn't today as far as that goes. You know, some people are here now. The population in those years, the YMCA was almost enough. Okay. Now on the west, did they have any classes or organized activities? Well, we had—yes, we had the YMCA Camp up at Lee’s Canyon, which is the big organization. Then we had field trip type things occasionally. Most— Well, what do you remember doing? Mostly basketball. Basketball? That was the thing at the YMCA, for most of us kids. You had a team? (Laughs) you could call it that, yes. (Laughs) did you compete against anybody? Yes, mostly church, the church teams. The churches all had recreation homes, you know, five or six churches were, you know, big enough for that. So we had six, eight teams in the league and then we occasionally would play a school, usually their junior varsity. Did you ever win? Never. (Laughs) Yes, we very seldom ever won a game. I think the biggest game we ever won— What kind of (unintelligible)? Well. Okay. Oh, field trips was—usually consisted of going up to the YMCA Camp after the (unintelligible) usually camped and that would help restore the camp. That was one of our trips UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 15 out, we got—we got to camp for a little less money. We usually go out there and put it in shape. Then when we left the camp at the end of the season, we went after whoever else was followed, it was usually Salvation Army. Which they were the next biggest outfit in town as far as where children could get involved. We didn’t have any boys clubs, town wasn’t big enough for boys clubs. Then we had to do the Recreation Center a few years later and then a few years later there the Recreation Center opened up, baseball league, some football stuff. And then we, you know, started having a little more because the town got bigger. We have more activities for the kids now. Okay. Now, the YMCA, you mentioned that you do cleanup projects what not. What else did you do up there? How big of a group went up there? And what would you do while you were up there? Well, in my case, I was one of the counselors. Junior counselor the first time, and then I was a counselor the second year and third year. And we had two week camp periods for each group of children. And it was, I don't remember the prices, it was twenty years ago, but most of the children could afford to go. So, so the town had, you know, for six to eight weeks out of the year, they, you know, six, it’d be six weeks out of the year you had half the kids in town up at the YMCA Camp. That's a pretty big percentage. Yes, it was. It really was. It was, it’s was very—it's a very, the campus is much bigger now, but I don't think it's even any bigger than it was then as far as the buildings. It was a very good, you know, for that time period. It was a very big camp. All ethnics groups, all—? Everybody would go. YMCA doesn't—mean, there's no, you came whoever you were. UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 16 Whoever you were. And we even had the charity thing to some degree for some of the children who were short money and their parents couldn't, couldn't afford it. Because we had things that we did during the year to raise money for those—for that kind of reason. Selling of soap. The Christmas tree lot, froze my tailbone off. We sold Christmas trees. What was the price of the Christmas trees? Can you remember? Oh, a big tree was three bucks. Big tree, I mean a big tree. The old—good old days, right? (Laughs) Yes. It was, so two or three times a year we sell (unintelligible) and it was a very good bargain so companies in those years were a little more generous per capita or whatever you want to call it. So, the profit on the soap was fairly good and that helped build a new YMCA. Selling of the soap, about three and a half, four years of putting that (unintelligible). The Christmas tree lights and rummage sales and stuff like that, pie bakes. Conned our parents into baking pies. It was a little easier in those years than it is now, evidently. Now they just hand you the money to go out and buy a pie. But mom and dad used to bake pies pretty good. And we put together, we put together enough money every year that we could, you know, maybe five to six kids, we get paid for the whole thing. And then there was always maybe ten or twelve more as long as they paid some of it, we could pay the difference. And there was always one or two freebies I guess that got in. What was Mount Charleston like back then? Did it have dirt roads or were there paved roads or what? Well, the road up Mount Charleston was paved, and the road up Lee’s Canyon was paved. But if two vehicles wanted to pass each other—one going up, one coming down—somebody had to get UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 17 out the way. It was—there was nothing—it was very small. And it was always needing repair. The roads up there, it was always very, very dangerous. Especially, especially right after winter, after the snow melt. But there was always volunteers who’d go up and help set it up, help clean it up. And they had the professional outfit come in, took care of what we couldn't handle. Okay. Now, I’ve talked to you before and you mentioned once that you'd seen when the atomic bombs go off or at least the mushroom. What do you remember seeing? Well, we were up there with the YMCA camp, we were out hiking. (Unintelligible) As it was, it was just three of us. We weren't as a group hiking up, you know, we were just on our own. It was, you know, we got a day off or whatever, can’t remember now. We got up on top of the main mountain that surrounds to the—yes, to the west side of the canyon. And we (unintelligible) flash of light. Blinked our eyes and the whole bit, there was part of the mushroom coming up. We couldn't see it all that well, there was quite a bit of dirt and dust and it was a windy day and it was heavy cloud but we could see the mushroom and we did see the, you know, the flash. And it wasn’t a total surprise, we knew they were doing it. But it was (unintelligible) looking for that to happen to us then. It was a surprise in that respect, we weren’t expecting to, to actually see a bomb go off, which we did. That was pretty neat. Quite a few miles away so there really was no danger or radiation. It was (unintelligible) about forty-five miles away, something like that. Forty miles away. Lee’s Canyon, where they were setting the bombs off at the time. And there was a mountain—small mountain range in between. So whatever radiation, most of that went into that far side of the mountain range, it didn't get over, didn't get over to where we were. It would have had to travel all that distance. UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 18 (Unintelligible) Okay. Now, to get back to Las Vegas. What do you remember of the roads and the buildings and what was going on at the township? You just—when it started growing. Okay. About 1955, that's gonna be our boom year. That's when, when Las Vegas began to really grow. People had seen the money they could be made here. They've seen that with growth, we could become a city instead of just being a good sized town. Our road conditions in those years was terrible except for the main highways. And (unintelligible) your wealthy-man part of town the streets were very nice but the rest of town the streets were well, for the most part, the condition they are today. Our—our streets in town, Las Vegas, you know, in Las Vegas area and North Las Vegas, they're—they're bad. They're not in good shape at all. And this is about the condition they were in. Much smaller streets but the condition they were in. But when the money started coming in from the big contractors started moving here, they started building homes, track homes, and the city started to expand then the streets, of course tax money was collected, then the streets were repaired and fixed up and we started getting some paved streets in town. Okay. Where were paved streets before the track houses went? And where were dirt roads? Well, if you went east, down Fremont Street, you went right to Boulder City or Henderson on a main street, probably to Fifteenth Street was about the last page street. So you had, you had fifteen streets of paved going that way. Going south toward Los Angeles, Charleston Boulevard was the last paved street. Sahara was blacktop paved but, you know, it was barely paved. Till they built the Sahara Hotel, you know, the old Bingo Club was there. When they tore that down and built the Sahara Hotel then they paved Sahara. Now, going west on Sahara, it only went out a few blocks, maybe half a mile. It was dirt road. And going east on Sahara, it was about the UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 19 same thing, maybe—maybe down to about Fifteenth Street it was, far down it was paved, and then it went into a dirt road until you hit the highway again. Going north it was paved, got to the end of North Las Vegas. And it was, there was more growth that way. That was where most the homes were, in that direction. Like when I said earlier, when I lived on Tenth Street, it was all paved (unintelligible) there was quite a few homes back in that, down to that old Cashman Field. It's where it's just a deserted field now but it was, that was a rodeo area where the events were. (Unintelligible) Las Vegas had a shebang, when they had something going on, that was where it was held. So it was paved down, down that way. For the most part, I guess Rancho Boulevard was a dirt road until they built Rancho High School and then it was paved and they started—right in there was where they started building a lot of housing tracks, right in there, going in the north side of town. West Las Vegas, it was only two, three streets that was paved. What was the traffic conditions like back then? Well, you’d get from one side of the valley to the other without much trouble. There was very few stop signs. Traffic, of course, was light except maybe on weekends, it would be a little heavier on weekends because of tourists. And then they stayed mostly around the main paved parts of town as far as the housing areas and as far as like the shopping centers and stuff, there was anything (unintelligible) except grocery stores, that was it. Did every family own two cars like they do today or was it mostly a transit by (unintelligible)? How did most people get around? It was mostly two car family, for the most part. Because of distances to get one place to the others, it was so far apart, same as they are today. And we weren't that big a town to have that kind of a bus system. There was a two street bus. It was, you know, just the Strip bus. There was a bus that went out in the Charleston area a little bit, and that was it. UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 20 What did the buses cost back—? You know, I'm remember riding the school bus when I was going to school was ten or fifteen cents. And that was with a transfer, you had transfer which is only two ways you could transfer in it. And then a few years later, probably (unintelligible) service, so it was probably about 1961, ’62, bus service became, you know, reasonable. Not good, but reasonable to use ‘cause, you know, the town got big enough they had to extend the bus service. They brought in used buses, of course, because they really weren't that big a company. Not that big a town. And half the time the buses were breaking down (unintelligible). If you had to go from one side of the valley to the other on a bus, you know, maybe transferring twice or something, you never made it without having a bus breakdown. That was— It was adventurous. Dangerous. (Laughs) Well, it wasn’t so much dangerous. It was just inconvenient. When you went, you went—if you lived in North Las Vegas, example, and you work out on the Strip. You’re in trouble. Yes, you left two hours early to get to work. Just to be sure you get there. Now if you live Downtown and you want to get off the Strip, it wasn't too much trouble because the buses ran about every twenty minutes like that. So if you get in a bus that break down, if you left a half an hour, forty-five minutes early for work (unintelligible) if your bus did break down you usually had another Strip bus come along you get on to work. I guess, I guess the biggest transportation problem, because of the street conditions because we didn't have the paved streets, the biggest problem was getting from one side of the valley to the other, if you wanted to go out to UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 21 Henderson or Boulder City, something wasn't a problem because you had the paved highway. But if you want to get out to somebody's ranch or visit a friend, you had to have a car and for some reason or other most people in this town didn't have two parents working. And if they didn't, they had to have a second car because, because of mechanical problems, because of the heat here the cars used to overheat and break down. So if you didn’t have a second car, you was in a lot of trouble. Yes, of course, it was a lot easier you can call your boss and say, “I am gonna be late for work, my car broke.” He’d go, “yes, well, you're the fourth one today already.” So it was no big deal. What kind of interesting buildings and whatnot do you, as a child, remember? What really stuck out? You— The bank. The bank? The bank on Fremont Street. Why? Well, everything else was glitter type (unintelligible) it was neon signs, not as fancy as big as they are now, of course, but they were neon signs. The bank was right in the middle of town, you know, as far as Downtown Fremont Street. And that was the only building, it was a conventional type big block building. It looked like a bank, looked like a bank of—like anybody else's bank. It didn't have neon signs on it. What were the neon signs like back then? Mostly the twisted type of neon. The names written out, spelled out and they had some—well, a couple of casinos they had some blinking lights. They had the blinking light neons. Could you walk down the street and read a book like you can today? UNLV University Libraries Jack L. Monroe Jr. 22 Yes. (Unintelligible) Well, there was the streetlights, it was—it was smaller, it was congested more. And you had the light shining, they had open windows and everything, so you had light coming from inside the buildings. You had the streetlights, you had the neons. What was gambling like inside the casinos? Was it, as big, as many wandering around the day? Well, for the size of most of the casinos then, yes. It was, you know, when you go o