Transcript of interview with Jan Kennedy by Barbara Tabach, September 7, 2011

AN INTERVIEW WITH JANET KENNEDY An Oral History Conducted by Barbara Tabach The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas i ©The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2012 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV - University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Editors: Barbara Tabach, Maggie Lopes, Stefani Evans Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Interviewers and Project Assistants: Barbara Tabach and Claytee D. White 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 Jan Kennedy was born (1924) Janet Parmelee, the daughter of a Connecticut physician and a homemaker. In high school she met Norman Kennedy, who she would marry after both had attended college and to whom she was married for 64 years. Until 1963, their roots seemed to be taking hold in the Seattle area. That is until Norm was offered an attractive career opportunity as a weather man at the Nevada Test Site. They settled in and enjoyed a zest-filled life with their four sons and a dynamic group of friends who they often entertained at their cabin in Mount Charleston. In addition, Jan managed to volunteer for a list of organizations including UMC Hospital/Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital; Clark County Museum Guild; Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary; church deacon; Assistance League; Red Hats—keeping herself ever busy and joyfully satisfied. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Janet (Jan) Kennedy September 7 and September 27, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada Conducted by Barbara Tabach Preface iv Session 1 Talks about growing up in Connecticut; daughter of Dr. Berkeley and Grace Parmelee; felt privileged; met her future husband in high school; husband attended MIT and became a naval officer during the occupation of Japan; married in 1946 and had four sons. Moved to Las Vegas; built a home in city and a cabin in Mt. Charleston where they hosted many friends. Mentions traveling; Friendship Force. Talks about general transitioning to Las Vegas when her husband began working at the Nevada Test Site for the National Weather Bureau in 1963 1 -4 Sons attended Clark High School; talks about forming lasting friendships, Food Fund group; Mesquite Club, helping start the first library, Secret Witness program. Recalls Vegas as it was when they first arrived; lack of housing options; husband gone for a week at a time for work, providing weather support for atomic shots; underground test era; kids walked to school, being i n v o l v e d i n Boy S c o u t s ; unaware o f d a d ' s work; g r a n d d a u g h t e r ' s poem 5 - 1 1 Talks about Norm's bosses Booth and Mueller; friendship with Muellers. Recalls fashion shows on Strip called Yarns of Yesteryear; lack of organized activities for women in the community; positive feelings about her life 12 - 13 Session 2 Session takes place at the Kennedy's Mt. Charleston cabin, which they have owned for 37 years at the time. Describes book her husband did about the cabin; how it filled a void that living in Seattle had created for them; family traditions; parties with family and friends 13 - 16 Reminisces about her youth in Connecticut; marrying at 21; college educated but never worked outside the home; happy with quality of education in Vegas for her children; photos of friends whose husbands worked at the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) 17 - 24 Talks about being president of community organizations: UMC Hospital/Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital; Clark County Museum Guild; Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary; church deacon; Assistance League; Red Hats 25 - 27 Index. . 3 1 - 3 2 Appendix (photographs, ephemera) 33-46 Oral History Research Center at UNLV Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project Shake, Rattle & Roll: Stories of Nevada Test Site Wives and Children Oral History Project Use Agreement Name of Narrator: k e Name of Interviewer: I We, the above named, give to the Oral History Research Center of UNLV, the recorded intervicw(s) initiated on '9- 7-Sj along with tyj>cd transcripts as an unrestricted gift, to he used for such scholarly and educational purposes as shall he determined, and transfer to the University of Nevada Las Vegas, legal title and all literary proj>erty rights including copyright. This gift does not preclude the right of the interviewer as a representative of UNLV, to use the recordings and related materials for scholarly pursuits. I understand that my interview will he made available to researchers and may be quoted from, published, distributed, placed 011 the Internet or broadcast in any medium that the Oral History Research Center and UNLV libraries deem appropriate including future forms of electronic and digital media. There will he no compensation for any interviews. Library Special Collections 4505 Maryland Parkway, Box 457010, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-7010 (702) 895-2222 vi Session 1 Today is September 7th, 2011. I'm sitting in Jan Kennedy's apartment in Las Vegas. Jan, how are you today? I'm doing well. Good. How have you spent the morning? Just picking up things and making coffee and looking forward to your visit. Great. Well, we'd like to start out with you describing a little bit about your early life. Tell us a little bit about your background, where you came from, a little bit about your basic family. I'm a very fortunate woman. I grew up in a loving home in Connecticut. My father was a doctor, and so we had quite a few privileges. I think one of the most interesting things my mother told me at that time was just because I can afford this hundred-dollar dress doesn't mean you can. That's kind of been — I think helped me through my life. But we've been real fortunate. I met my future husband in high school. We both went off to college and we kept in touch. He joined the navy. He went through MIT in three years and became a naval officer and served with the occupation in Japan. I volunteered for my father in his office. But outside of that I have never worked except raising my kids. My husband and I had a wonderful life. We had four wonderful sons. We traveled extensively around the world. And all in all, life has been good. So how was it to transition from the East Coast, Connecticut, to the western part of the country? Well, it made Norm and I very much on our own. We happened to meet this wonderful lady. And she said why don't you build your own home? So Norm and I poured the cement, built our house in Seattle, doing the whole nine yards. We did have a Nevada sandstone fireplace that we did contract. But outside of that we did the work. So we never had a mortgage. That's pretty nice. Not many people can say that. Well, then the next thing that happened, we moved to Nevada in 1963. We missed the Pacific Northwest [Seattle] a lot. So we went up to Mount Charleston and bought a piece of property up there. In the picture here is my second home I ever built and my husband. That's our cabin at Mount Charleston. 1 That's beautiful. That's been wonderful. We've had as many as 200 people each year through the cabin. I make it simple for myself. When people are coming to our parties ~ it's usually friends from clubs I belonged to ~ we just say bring your own meat and something to share, and then I would do the coffee and tea. It made life easier. I didn't care how many people came. People love getting out of the hot summer here in Las Vegas, coming to the mountains. It's been a great joy. Tell me about your children. We had four amazing sons. There's Bruce, Greg, Steve and Ron. Bruce was head of Union (Parole) for the state of Nevada. And then our son Greg is a master potter, a lot of his dishes and different things he's made here at the cabin. He teaches [at] Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts. So he's really a fine potter. Son Steve is a doctor in Reno. He is an emergency room doctor. Then there's Ron, who's out of work, as many people are today, because he's an electrician. But he's an amazing, fun-loving son. So all the kids are unique. I have a wonderful family. That's great. And you have grandchildren? I have eight grandchildren, four girls and four boys, and then four-great grandchildren, two boys and two girls. So tell us a little bit about what it was like to be in a house full of men, raising four sons. Well, it made me special, I think, because of being a woman. But because of that I said I will not stay home. I would go with the boys whenever I could. My husband was a Scoutmaster for many years and received the Silver Beaver [award]. So there was a lot of scouting in our family. Of course, when I was younger I was a Boy Scout den mother and all that good stuff for the four boys, each little den. So I learned to sleep on the ground, sleep in the snow, wherever, and enjoyed that. We did many, many hikes. You said you have a big trip planned with the family coming up? Coming up, yes. Okay. Tell us about that. I'm taking son Steve and son Ron and his wife, and we're going to Africa, to Tanzania, on a safari. So we're looking forward to that. Life is exciting. So I got the sense that travel's been an important activity for you. And you've shared a little 2 bit about how you got involved in Friendship Force. Yes, Friendship Force. Tell us what that is and what you've done. It's a wonderful international organization. It started when [Jimmy] Carter was [U.S.] president ~ when he was governor and then he became president, and he thought this was a great idea. And so [Nevada] Governor [Mike] O'Callaghan noticed that the Bicentennial Committee went defunct, and so he turned to us when we came back from Washington, D.C., and said start this program. And so we've been able to travel around the world. We've been to I don't know how many countries. You actually live with a family, eat with them. When you get there they take you to places that they love. Sometimes those same people can come to visit Nevada, but not always because of financial difficulties. So we host people from around the world in their homes here. So it's a great, great program. Do you have a favorite memory from any of the trips? Oh, I have so many. It's just been just delightful because they show you things that you'd never see otherwise, chasing kangaroos in a car and around the shelter area, driving those animals out and then chasing them, you know, where a joey is getting shook up as she's being chased in her mother's pouch there. Japan, after Mount Fuji, we stopped at this place where this man had been interned in the Second World War in Russia and he came back to Japan and he made kimonos now in golden silk threads. It's something that the normal tourist wouldn't even know about and things like that. So every country is unique and special. I did have a fun experience with my friends from Japan. The mother and daughter were here in our house with their son. And later the father of the family died, and the daughter wrote and said she'd like to visit us. But she didn't speak English. So I wrote back. She actually brought two friends. And so there was no English spoken until this one day I had this jar opener. And so I took them to the store. And Kosuma says I'll take five. And Aki, the shy one, says, shocking maniac. And so they know English, but they're so shy they don't want to make a mistake. But things like that came out that - all week in the house and then finally this comes out of their mouths. So it's just things like that. It was just charming, wonderful incidents. 3 Well, I kind of get the sense from listening to you, with your parties and your travel experiences and all that, that you really enjoy people. Yes. What year did you move to Las Vegas? 1963. And what was that like? Were you able to connect with people easily? Well, when we came from California, the only thing I could think of was now I know why they're blowing up this place (at that time the Test Site), which my husband did work for. But you learned to grow to really love the desert and the mountains and all the valley has to offer. It's just a charming, wonderful place to live. I've been very content. Well, tell us what did bring you here. It was your husband's career? Yes. Okay. And tell us the story of that. At that time it was life; he didn't know what he wanted to do. So he had three job offers. And he came out of the bedroom after the third phone call. He said I've just taken a job in Las Vegas. And wow. So it was really ~ Was he non-military by that time? Oh, yes.. .He wanted to stay in the Weather Bureau. He had been working for Northwest Airlines and wanted to get out of that. So he decided the government was the best place to work. And so, do you know what his job was? Oh, yes. But that's also interesting because he did work for the government at the Test Site. And so I knew very little of what he did because he didn't talk about it. We would know when a shot went when the chandeliers rocked in our houses in Vegas. But outside of that ~ he did talk about the farm. He worked on a farm up there for a while with EPA. They had a cow at the farm that had a fistula in its belly so that they could go in and take out the radioactive material and test it so that they knew that the milk had a short - I'm not sure of the term - but shelf life, just say life. And so that the milk would be safe to drink after a short period of time if there wasn't anything happened with the milk; so things like that happened. He did tell me about that farm; and everybody knew about that cow. 4 So that was common, public knowledge. Yes. That was able to be talked about, this cow. But that was fun. How old were your boys when you moved here? Ron was five. So that would make those ten, 11. So they were young. Very young. And did they have any idea what their father did for a living? We didn't talk about it much. Kids at that age didn't really care. Their parents don't work, right? Our boys were lucky. They went to Clark High School and they became big fish in a little pond, just a little class. And there was an Honor Society and things like that. So they had a good life, enjoyed school. They had wonderful teachers at that time. And kind of going back, then, to the idea of integrating with the population of Las Vegas, moving here for yourself, personally, what was that like? Well, I was happy. It was a little bit hard leaving the house in Seattle, but that was okay; that was the type thing to do. Getting to know some of the women from the AEC [Atomic Energy Commission], I think that was a big thing because we were such a small group that we became quite close. And I still know people you are interviewing: Mary Shaw; Helen Fleming who moved now to the East Coast; Dorothy Yelinik, Cleo Goris. All those people were in the bridge group with us. We also had a — I call it Food Fund that I started. A what kind of group? Food Fund. So we shared recipes and just did things to get to know one another a little more. So those friendships fortunately have lasted over these years and are very important to me. Were they friendships easy to nurture outside of those what were employed in a similar, you know, in the Test Site as your husband was? Well, we all moved to different neighborhoods. So I think we'd get to know our neighbors a little bit. But that was probably our friendship group mainly, those people. And then, of course, they joined the Mesquite Club and I did too, later. I've been a member of that for 35 years. Tell me about the Mesquite Club. That's a federal women's club. We meet and have lovely little 5 tea parties and social things, but we also do things with communities. I don't think any group can exist if it doesn't do things for other people. What kinds of things do you do, or have you done? In the Mesquite Club itself? Yes, in the Mesquite Club. I did the bulletin for one year with another friend. I've been on a lot of different committees. I just enjoy the women very much and it's a great group. And they do things for the community, then? Yes. Yes. And what kinds of activities or projects do they lead? They did Secret Witness program. They started that. They were the ones that started the first library here in town. And that was also interesting. When we first came to town, you couldn't take out a library book unless you knew somebody. (Phone ringing.) Okay. We're recording again. All right. So we're with the Mesquite Club, the library. You were talking about the first library. We started the first library. So there wasn't a library in Las Vegas at that time? No. And books would leave, and so that's why they were careful now to have somebody be sponsored so that we could take out books. Now, what year approximately was that? That was before -- I'm not sure. I'd hate to say. But it was one of the first projects. Okay. And then you said the Secret Witness? Yes. Tell me what that is. I'm not familiar with that. That's when somebody reports a crime, the police will know about it. And so that went through the legislature. We have done a lot of projects that offhand I can't remember. Well, that's great. That is just wonderful. So do you remember when you first arrived in Las Vegas? Can you describe what it 6 looked like, felt like to you? At that time it was a small town, not as small as some of the other girls remember. I remember going with my husband to the Sahara Hotel. And they had the little shows in the showroom. Sometimes they were just glad to have a warm body in there... Any how, some good shows like that. I also remember going out New Year's Eve when we first got here. I saw a child kind of asleep on a bench. And I thought, oh, that's awful. So my husband and I turned around and hugged our own kids. That's good. And then, was it difficult to find housing at the time? We've heard ~ so the year that you came was 1960 — Early '60s, last of'63, '64. So what were the housing options like for you? There weren't many. We moved into an apartment for a while. That's kind of an interesting story, too. Well, you remember we loved the mountains. So we head for Mount Charleston and we went up to Deer Creek. There was a bat cave up there. And we found a bat and we brought it home. I remember taking it back to our apartment and hanging it in the closet, outside closet. And our kids took it to school to show and stuff like that. We didn't even think about rabies at that time, and I don't think they even had it at that time. No kidding? With four boys you do things like that. Absolutely. So how long did you keep this bat as a pet? Not very long. About a day, after the kids showed it at school, I think. But I remember hanging it in the outside closet. Did you go back to the bat cave a lot? Never went back. So you lived in an apartment; is that when you first moved here? Yes. And then we looked around for a house and bought it. It was a grand little house. We stayed in that and sometimes I wanted to move. Norm said he'd go with me wherever I wanted to 7 go. But I'd go to other places and say, ooh, I don't like the fence, or something like that. In other words, I really don't want to move. And, of course, now, because we've kept that house and lived there rent free, with the market like it is, I'm one of the lucky ones. My granddaughter lives there now. What neighborhood is that in? It's just down the street from here. Okay. And we're on the near west side. Yeah. Just up four blocks. Okay. Up in the Valley View [Boulevard] area. Yeah. Okay. So you found the neighborhood that you moved into, and you got your kids settled in school. So your husband, was he one of those that would go away for periods of time? Yes. He'd go to the Test Site probably like a week at a time. Were you prepared for that mentally? I don't think you had to be. Just that's the way life was, and so you just accept that that's his job. You didn't think anything of that? That wasn't out of the norm for you? No. That was part of his work. We just accept those things. Well, you know, oftentimes - I grew up in a family of four kids. Back in that era, what was it like to be, you know, the stay-at-home mom with four kids to raise and your husband not there every day? Can you describe what that was like, good or bad? As I say that's - you just accept the things the way they are and you go with it. And so it was good. My kids were doing well in school and enjoying it. The older ones went to a grade school right in the area and Bruce went to Western [High School], My other kids went to Clark when it opened. So they just walked to school. That's cool. And how long was your husband involved with working at the Nevada Test Site? He retired about seven years before he died. Oh. So he was there a very long time. Yes, a very long time. 8 And was his job always secret? All I knew is that he did the weather support for the atomic shots. So he was there on the panel. And so if the weather wasn't right, they had to wait till he gave the okay; that the weather was okay. They were always very careful with the winds at the Test Site to make sure that they were not coming over Las Vegas. And also, I did know that they would have the men that were in the mining get out of the tunnels. I also know that the hotel in Beatty, they figured that hotel wasn't safe, so they would not have the people in that hotel at that time. And so they did a lot of things to keep everything as safe as possible. And they were. You know, we hear stories all the time in our work of people who drove out to the desert to watch the tests going on and all that. Did people worry about that, or was it the scientists that were worried? That was before I came when they did the aboveground. By the time we got here it was all underground. And people weren't as aware or didn't worry? Or what do you think the population thought? I think from what my friends that watched it, it was like a big deal. They would get out and see what they could see. So we've talked about -- you're a poker player. We're not going to talk about that. You don't want to talk about that? No. I do it for fun. I would not play on the Strip. I don't want to give the Strip my money. It costs, this game, five dollars to play and a three-dollar buy-in. So if I lose the money, I lose the money. But that's a little club and I shouldn't even tell that because I don't think they know that we do that. Okay. Did your husband have activities that he liked to participate in? My husband was great with the boys. Even in a little bit of Seattle he was a den master. I was, of course, a den mother for years and years. And he did that and he had lots of fun with that. And then when he came to Vegas, I remember he decided to go to a Boy Scout meeting. And he came back home that day, and he says I could hardly find that place for the Boy Scout meeting; it was in 9 one of the casinos. And then also that brings me to the thing about church. We went down to volunteer at church one night. And we were cleaning chairs. The minister's wife said, oh, I got just the thing. She went up to her apartment and brought down some stuff that she would clean her — on the chairs went. All those things were kind of — it made an impression on me. And as the boys got older, did he talk to them about his work? No, not really because what he did was secret. I mean I didn't know pretty much what he did except he did the weather support. So they didn't all become weather buffs as a result of their father's interest? No. They weren't interested in it. Were there challenges at all in the fact that he had kind of a secret job, you know, for the kids at all, ever? Not that I'm aware of. I think when the children are young, they just accept whatever their father is doing and just take it in their stride. Were there ever times where you felt like he was in danger because of his work? No. He did tell me later in life—he did tell me about out at the Test Site. It was one of his jobs. And again, that's your job; that's what you're assigned to do, you do it. So when he retired what did he want to do? What did he have time for? Travel. And where did you go? We went to so many places in the world. I think it's like 27, 30 countries. Wow. We did a lot of cruises, did a lot of - (indiscernible/27:30) five times. We've traveled a (French course). What kind of person was he? I would say the most honest person you could ever imagine and very loving to me. We had a great life. Yeah. I think it's amazing. You said you were married 64 years. Yes. 10 That's very special, very special. Who's Amber? My granddaughter. And she wrote this poem? Uh-huh. You want to read it? I'll cry. These are actually Norm's hands. At one of our parties at the cabin we had an Alpine Fest. You know what that is? No. As I say, we traveled around the world. And one of the families we met is a Dutch family. And so they invited us to go to Switzerland with them. And so we camped out with their parents' sleeping bags in a tent. We were with that family seven times over the years. But anyway: "These hands tell a story. These hands tell a story of a man who raised weather balloons into the air and raised four amazing and unique sons. These hands tell the story of a man who wore his pencil down at MIT and led troops of Boy Scouts through arduous hikes. These hands tell the story of a man who hosts many guests in his cabin and (indiscernible/29:34) as he built it. These hands tell the story of a man who was a role model to his eight grandchildren and who tinkered with model trains. These hands tell the story of a man who (indiscernible/29:47) for his granddaughters and held the hand for more than 60 years. These hands tell the story of a man who always said grace at Thanksgiving dinner and helped handle the rough times with unsurpassed grace. These hands tell the story of a man who traveled the world, who made all the difference in the lives he touched." Wow. That's beautiful. Thank you for reading that. I appreciate that. That's a great sentiment. You didn't record that, did you? You reading that? CLAYTEE: Do you want me to tell the truth? Yes. Yes. 11 I think your family will enjoy that. Yes. I did an interview with Mrs. Mueller. Who? Jo Mueller. Oh, Jo Mueller, yeah. Oh, she's a dear. And her husband — Yes, he was — — was also a meteorologist. He was Norm's big boss. So tell us about that relationship. Norm's immediate boss was Howard Booth. And Howard was a dear friend of the family and still is to this day. And the Muellers, we traveled with them to Europe one time. And the four of us had a beautiful time. For example, they had never gone down the Rhine River. So we put them on the boat, and then I drove the car along the edge of the river and then picked them up later. We had a thing going, which I do with anybody we travel with, that we make it ahead of time that if they want to do something different and we know ahead of time that there's no hard feelings; that if they want to do something, it's not because they don't want to be with us, but it's just mutually agreed that they'll do what they want to do and we'll do what we want to do. But basically we were together. We did have one incident that was kind of fun. We're on the Autobahn and Norm was driving. And a car hit us from the back. That was in Germany. And so we pull over. And pretty soon the police came in a van that had a tail on it. And Norm and the driver from a French truck -- yeah, from the French truck that hit us—and two older ladies that stood there and waited until the police came. And the driver of the van. And the police said, ah, American driver, in Germany, French truck, international incident. Nobody was hurt, so it was fun. It was all right. So we've had fun experiences and that was with Jo and Hal. When you look back at your life here in Las Vegas, what kept you here, you think? I think that we were content here and a good airport. You could fly in and out wherever you wanted to go. We loved our cabin and we loved the people that we associated with. So we just 12 never wanted to go anyplace else. Now, were there memorable events in Las Vegas history that you can think of? Not really because the history was really made before we came, although I was involved in something I didn't write down there on the paper; that was we gave fashion shows on the Strip. Mary Shaw was involved as narrator sometimes. It was called Yarns of Yesteryear. And so we told the history of Southern Nevada through the use of clothes. We started out with underwear. I remember one of my favorite things was a World War I nurse's uniform. I had a big straw hat with medals and stuff. And I would strut up on the stage. It had the steps that goes — you know. Anyway, that was really fun. At that time women that came to Vegas didn't have anything to do. And so the town of Henderson came to Mesquite Club or — I don't know the whole connection. But anyway, they said if we could raise money to put up a house or something on the property, they would give us 25 acres. And so Sybil Jefferson gave us 25 acres because we got the money through the fashion shows to do that. That's very impressive. Now, was that through the ™ That was through the Mesquite Club. The Mesquite Club, okay. So that was another activity. There was a social club of the wives of the Nevada Test Site? Not really. As I say, we played bridge and things like that. But we didn't really have a social club. Not an organized club like that. No. So Mesquite Club was the pivot for these activities. Yeah, the Mesquite Club was the oldest women's club in the state of Nevada. It's a wonderful organization. Do you have anything else you'd like to share with us about living in Las Vegas all these years and your life? Just that I've been very blessed. I do have one other thing, and you may not even have any memories of this. There were always protest groups out at the Test Site at different times. 13 Yes. Do you remember any of those? And how did your husband see those kinds ofprotests? All I know is the gate there was secured and they just knew that they had the right to do that. And so, that, again, was accepted. Yes, they did that for many, many years. So we need to close on a better note than that. Yeah. Whatever that is. The coffee was delicious. The coffee is delicious. You're right. I have more. Would you have some fruit and — Uh-huh. I have everything. I have fruit. I have bread. I have too much of the bread, but. So if you wrote a book about your life, do you have an idea what you would title it? I guess like everybody else, This Is Your Life. And this is my life. Well, maybe you are the lucky lady, huh? I am. As I say, I've been very, very fortunate all my life. Excellent. Well, this has been a pleasure. Thank you for allowing us to chat with you. Session 2 Today is September 27th, 2011. We're sitting at Jan Kennedy's cabin home at Mount Charleston. Jan, how long have you had this beautiful cabin? I think around 37 years. We built it ourselves. We came in 1964 and we decided we loved the mountain so much we bought the property up here. I'm looking at a really nice book. You said your husband did this book? Yes. Tell me about this. He decided to write the history of the cabin and how we built it. It says that shortly after moving to Las Vegas durin