Transcript of interview with Vivian Harwell by Pamela Atkins, February 27, 1979

UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell i An Interview with Vivian E. Harwell An Oral History Conducted by Pamela Atkins 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 Vivian E. Harwell ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2018 UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 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 Vivian E. Harwell iv Abstract On February 27th, 1979, Pamela Atkins interviewed Vivian Harwell in Las Vegas, Nevada. Harwell begins the interview by explaining her reasons for moving to Las Vegas from Arkansas, and the type of living quarters that she had. She then goes on to talk about the recreation in Las Vegas in addition to the Nevada Test Site and local politics. The two later discuss the convenience of having local colleges available in Las Vegas and the availability of children’s activities in Las Vegas. The interview concludes with Harwell’s personal reflection on her time living in Las Vegas, and that she does not regret moving to Las Vegas.UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 1 This is an introduction to Vivian Harwell, interviewed by Pam Atkins on “Life in Las Vegas – 1946 through 1979.” You gon’ start me? (Laughs) (Laughs). Forget like that— Alright. Vivian, I would like to know the circumstances that brought you to Las Vegas. Okay, it was shortly after World War II, and my husband got out of the service in October, and we settled in my hometown, Texarkana, Arkansas. And at that time, we both had good jobs, but my sister and her husband were on their way out here. They came home about February on their way back out here, the reason being, he had just gotten his discharge from Harlington, Texas. And while he had been stationed out here, as a gunnery instructor at Nellis, they vowed and declared they were going to live out here when he got out of the service. So that’s how we first decided to come out, if they kept tell us what great wages that people were getting out here. In fact, the custodians in the schools got two hundred dollars a month, and I was just a live-in secretary making about a hundred and ten, and I thought, “Fantastic,” – (Audio cuts off and returns mid-conversation.) When we finally made—finally made our mind up to come out for sure, my husband built a little two wheel trailer and—and took him about, I guess a month to do it—and we loaded it up with our worldly possessions, and we go about my father and mother’s house, and they were—they just really couldn’t believe that we were coming out. My mother told my niece that they’d probably never see us again because we were leaving Texarkana, that wasn’t quite sold, because my sister and I made our annual trip back every year. Anyway, our trip out here was great fun, my husband and I have been married since 1941, and, then after the war broke out, it had been UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 2 five years since we had really—in all that time, we’d only been together about seventeen months. So we thoroughly enjoyed our trip out to Las Vegas. It took us four days, maybe five, because we were advised to be sure we stopped by five o’clock every night to find a motel, which was just about the truth because the highways certainly didn’t have the motels it has now. When we got to Las Vegas, it was around maybe, the eighteenth, just before the annual Helldorado celebration, which is put on by the Elk’s Lodge here in Las Vegas. Helldorado is a western theme—everyone dressed western, the men wore beards, the whole town cooperated, the stores, the offices, the government offices, schools, everything turned out for Helldorado. Even on Thursday afternoons, the schools were dismissed for the first parade, and I think that Helldorado has lost a lot of its hometown flavor, because the town has grown so that they—it just isn’t the participation now that it used to be. My sister and her husband lived in Victory Village, which was a government housing project just across the highway from Henderson and Mike and I got us an apartment in Victory Village also. We were here two weeks before we decided that we better start working—looking for work. My husband got a job at the power and Telephone Company and I went to work for the County Clerk’s office. At that time, divorces were scheduled every five minutes, on the two district court judges’ calendars. Sometimes there was as many as fifty or sixty divorces scheduled for one day—apparently, it was the breakup of the war marriages, which helped the, settle some kind of divorce record for Las Vegas. I went from the County Clerk’s office, across the hall to the District Attorney’s office, in about four-five months. And the District Attorney at that time was V. Gray Gubler, and his secretary became my closest friend, and she still is, of course. The election—that was also an election year, and Mr. Gubler did not win re-election, but Bob Jones as D.A. and I stayed with him, where Ruth went Mr. Gubler to his private practice. Well, in the District Attorney’s office, I joined the Beta Sigma UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 3 Phi Sorority—Ruth got me in that. My husband joined the J.C’s, he was also a Charter member of the Optimus Club. And we just had a great time, all those social clubs and those social organizations—as far as the sorority goes, I became eventually Chapter President of two chapters, and then city council president of the twelve chapters. And the sorority is still going strong now, and I think it’s got as many, oh it must have twenty-five or thirty chapters here now, which is great. In Las Vegas? In Las Vegas. Oh my goodness. Oh, I might be wrong on that, but I know that it’s almost doubled from what it was when I was president. One of the things that happened while I was in the District Attorney’s office was the murder of Bugsy Siegel in Los Angeles, and I remember the deputy in our office talking about how glad he was that it did happen in Los Angeles. Now when we came out in 1946, there were only the two hotels, the Last Frontier and the El Rancho Vegas, and it was a lot of fun to go to their pro-shows, there was no maximum or minimum, you didn’t have to have dinner if you didn’t want to, and the shows changed every two weeks. And we found that you could go almost every week and see a different show, or you can go twice in one week and not go for another two or three weeks. So every payday, we almost knew what we were ‘gonna do, we were ‘gonna go out and see a changing show. (Audio cuts off, the collector tries to fix the recording device.) Next to the two hotels that were here when we came, the El Rancho Vegas and the Last Frontier, were followed by the Hotel Thunderbird and the Flamingo, which was built by Bugsy Siegel. Incidentally, we went to the opening of the Flamingo, and saw, sat—oh I guess about three tables UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 4 from Bugsy Siegel, and they were having an auction. And it was for the cancer drive, and I won’t forget that, because he had some good looking girl with him, and he would give her money to go up and bid on the (unintelligible) or something. And one of the attorneys here in town, won one of those (unintelligible) stoves. I could—well anyway, that happened of course, shortly after—1947 I think it was. And then Bugsy Siegel was killed in Los Angeles, I think it’s that— (Audio cuts off and returns) What about recreation? Did you ski, did you go to the mountains, did you go to Lake Mead, or did you stay on the Strip? (Laughs). Did I play on the Strip? (Laughs) Every two weeks! When there was a floor show change. (Laughs) No seriously, they hadn’t developed the Lee Canyon ski lift yet, but we could go to Mount Charleston in the wintertime, and go down on toboggan runs, that was fun. Or we could go to Mount Charleston in the summertime and cool off. We used to go to Cold Creek a lot, which is a little further up from the now, Charleston Park Lodge—Lake Mead we could go to, and would go to, and well, I don’t—they had boats, even then at Boulder Beach. The—Boulder City would put on a Lake Mead Regatta and I think they still put that on, which was around July the Fourth, that celebration is in Boulder City. The J.C.’s always participate in that, the J.C.’s also would have a faire, and during Helldorado—back to Helldorado— the J.C.’s always raffled off a Cadillac, and I’ll never forget that. One time my husband had the winning ticket on the Cadillac and sold it thirty minutes before the winner was drawn, and it was a Henderson man, which we were all real happy for, because so often it had been a tourist that would win the Cadillac. But my husband said, “Just think, I held that in my hand thirty minutes before the drawing.” The UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 5 other recreations, there was one swimming pool in town, I believe it was—I think it was there, the (unintelligible) Memorial, but at that time, it wasn’t named after Bob (unintelligible), it was a policeman, it was named after him. Now, it’s known as Dula Park or Dula Pool—that was the only pool in town, it was quite large, and when my kids were born, we enjoyed going there. Now you can go swimming up street at the, most of the junior highs have swimming pools. As far as I know, there weren’t any bowling alleys here yet, I don’t know—there were some horseback riding, which we didn’t participate in until after the girls’ got grown, and I had girl scout troop working on the horse running badge. As far as recreation goes, we could go out of town to Zion Canyon—Zion and Bryce’s Canyon, they’re up a ways from Las Vegas into Utah. Utah. And really, when we first came out here, we were sort of—Las Vegas was so isolated, there was only three highways out of town, and it takes you three hours to get out of the desert, so that was one of the drawbacks of being out here. There really wasn’t a heck of a lot to do for anybody, everybody made their own recreation, we played cards with friends once a week, and that’s about all as far as recreation go. Can you tell me anything about the Test Site, when it first started—like the above-ground atomic tests in the early 1950’s? In 1951 was when they first started testing in Nevada, and my husband went to work the summer of 1951 at the Test Site, and he stayed up there sixteen years. I can remember the above-ground tests, I could stand in my dining room and look out the window, early, when they would have the tests, and see this mushroom cloud—this bright light and this mushroom cloud, it was really a fantastic sight. And we could feel the shockwaves and a funny side story on it, is that my sister had this huge bird-dog that would sleep under her bed, and just ever so often her, she would UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 6 blame the dog for hitting the bed, and waking her up by shaking the bed. And she’d just get so mad at that dog and threaten to beat it to death, and it turned out it would be a bomb test and the shockwave would have rattled the blinds, and shaken the bed, and she was blaming poor Tuffy for it (Laughs). One of the sides of the Test Site there. My husband also went to the—after they outlawed, well I don’t mean outlawed, but had a moratorium on above-ground testing, he also was sent to Enewetak in—for those tests. Then there was tests onboard ship just out of San Diego that he went to, two weeks before Christmas, and I won’t forget that because he got back into town about December the twenty-second, and had been gone two or three weeks prior to Christmas. And he lived on board a ship for two weeks out in San Diego, off the coast of San Diego, where there was some kind of underwater tests there. That was related to the people who were testing in Nevada? Yes, and he went overseas five times with the Tests—for these tests. He went from the Hydrogen Tests, over in the Marshall Islands, to Enewetak, and then over in that area. I didn’t realize they carried ‘em like that. Yes. I just thought it was strictly here in Nevada. No, they had ‘em there. Oh, I— The—when he first started working up there, he worked seven days a week, and he would come in maybe Wednesday night and Saturday night, and then get up and go back the next morning. He got to the—well, where he would go from one contractor to another right at first because when their contract would wear out, would—would expire, or be completed, or cease, he would go—he would draw his vacation pay and get another job with another contractor. So it turned out UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 7 that he was up there seven years before he ever had a vacation. My sister and I, and the children would be going back to Texarkana to see our parents, whereas he would stay here. Oh. The Test Site, the bombs were interesting. He would come home, with—telling about the precautions that they had to take and everything, I know that’s some big stuff now. And this (unintelligible) that they’re having to pass the lawsuit on, he was involved in that. I was going to say, does he, or do you have any, like definite feelings about that one way or the other? Well, he’s suffering so from his asthmatic bronchitis, and his borderline emphysema almost killed him the other day, and I asked him why he didn’t get on that list of casualties from that (unintelligible) because I know that he was up there walking those mines, and those tunnels, and breathing that dust, and that sand up there, it’s bound to have some effect on him, but he swears it’s the smoking that he did (Laughs). But it would be hard to prove that it had anything to do with the Test Site. Vivian, I’d like to know if you’re interested in the Las Vegas politics, when you first came to town, and if you’re still interested and take part in them now? As soon as I was eligible to register to vote, Mike and I registered. I once worked for an attorney who ran for office, and so I guess that he sort of got me interested in politics. I’ve known some of the politicians here, in fact, of course the two district attorneys I worked for are politicians. One of the deputies that was in the District Attorney’s office with Bob Jones was Harry Claiborne who later became a very well-known criminal lawyer, and is now recently appointed our federal district judge in the state of Nevada. I’ve met Paul Laxalt who is now senator, and was our governor at one time, I’ve met Howard Cannon, in fact I know Howard Cannon, who’s UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 8 our senior senate—United States senator. The mayor in Las Vegas at the time in 1946 was Ernie Cragin, and his wife was actually in the sorority that I had mentioned earlier. In fact, we used to go out to her house almost annually for our preferential tea, that our sorority held for new members. Some of the—you asked me once about the principals of schools, if I knew any of ‘em— Oh, yes, Mm-hmm. And I know several of them—the very first school that my two daughters went to, the principal there has a school named for her, and I know quite a few of them. I’ve been working for the school district, ‘course you know, I do know them. What—what was their name, what was the name of the school? Laura Dearing was principal of Mayfair and when I was president of the Parent Teacher Association, and they have Laura Dearing schools now over in Parkdale. Another school named for Harvey Don Darrel who was one of our deputy superintendent schools, his wife is the former chairman of the county commissioners, and she and I were active in the sorority together, in fact she was also one of the presidents of the city council. And George Harris Elementary School, I know Mr. Harris, he also was an educator and was principal of Las Vegas High at one time. Plus, being in my own office when it was first started, the school facilities’ division. Oh, there’s ‘lots of principals I know. Also, that new junior high that will open this fall, will be named for Dr. Kenny Glen, who was also one of my bosses, and also one of the superintendents. About the education here, like, when your three daughters were coming up through the grades—elementary and junior high, and high school – personally, what do you think about the education here in Las Vegas? Well— UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 9 The education system. I’m kind of partial to it, I think we have a very good educational system. It’s a very outstanding school district, it’s one of the largest in area—the whole of Clark County is the Clark County School District, and I think—what did you say it was the other night?—tenth in rating— I—I believe at one time, that I had read, it was of the tenth highest rated school systems in the United States. And as far as the integration, we are under court ordered integration, we have been overtaken to court by the NAACP and forced into our integration program. But it has worked very well in fact, we have—just two or three weeks ago, the peace—an article in the paper appeared about how well it has been done. We have what we call our “Sixth Grade Center Plan,” and we have seven sixth grade centers that has only kindergarten and sixth grade, and the students that live in those particular zones, first through five, those students are bussed out to surrounding schools, and then the sixth grade in those schools go into the sixth grade centers. So that’s our integration bussing. Now, integration started, has always been in the secondary schools, from seven through twelve. But it was just the neighborhood schools that weren’t integrated, until nineteen of ’71 or ’72, when we were forced—(Laughs)—into the bussing program. We didn’t have a lot of trouble though. We did have some parents that were holdouts, and—but now, I think they all reconciled—sometimes send their students out of there, sixth graders out of town to live with relatives, but it was very few. What about the, like the medical community here, and the dental community—when you first came to town, was it hard to find a new family doctor, like it is today? It was—it was hard. I think the only way you could get in to see a doctor is be referred by one of his other patients, or had them call. My family doctor that I have right now, I’ve had all these UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 10 years, he’s delivered all three of my children, and performed surgeries, and oh, everything that we’ve needed. But he was referred to me by one of the, in fact, it was the investigator for the District Attorney’s office that referred me to him. At least his, associate, and the associate, only did surgery, and I didn’t request surgery, so he turned me over to my doctor who is still my doctor. Now dentists, I understood, that they had sort of a closed shop (Laughs). They wouldn’t let any new dentists come into town, and at that time, anybody that needed oral surgery or an orthodontist, they went either to the St. George or to Los Angeles. In fact, Ruth that you heard me speak of, her sister used to get on the train every two weeks to go to Los Angeles to have her braces on her teeth fixed, straightened, and tightened. So that was quite an expense in those days—it’s bad enough right here in town, but it was quite an expense then, as far as the travelling. Well, it just took a gradual length of time for these people to open up to outsiders? I knew they were mostly a closed society but, that’s something in Las Vegas. Well, Las Vegas just started growing. People started coming out so fast that they just almost—they had to let ‘em in. Just like almost a quota, then the state didn’t want them in. At least, that’s what I’ve heard, now I’m not really sure—also, you had a long waiting list. That same way by the dentist, it was by reference. A friend had to call and make the appointment. Is there anything you’d like to add about anything we’ve talked about so far—the recreation, the gaming, the education? It’s one thing that I remember, when my oldest daughter was able—or eligible, or able, or old enough to start to kindergarten, her birthday was in August, and she could start in December to kindergarten. But the year before, the school district decided it had better abide by the letter of the law, which read that any student that was five years old after October the fifteenth, that they UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 11 had to wait until the following years because the school was so crowded. The schools really were very crowded that your neighbor—they were just pushed for classrooms, so prior to that time, they wouldn’t let anybody that turned five or six to kindergarten or first grade between October fifteenth and December thirty-first. They let ‘em start school in September, but the year before Becky started kindergarten, they had to not do it, because of the crowded conditions. So a lot of those parents held their children back for a year, and then in the meantime, in January, the legislature passed, they changed the law to read to December thirty-first, therefore the year that Becky started, was able to start school. She started September at the right age, but beginning October fifteenth, over half of her class started turning six years old, which in a way, really affected her because she was not that competitive, and when your school friends start getting a year older than you are, you think that, “Gee, they’re smarter than I am,” (Laughs). Anyway, it really bothered her, I think for the rest of her school life. Something like that can. I know. It’ll have a great effect on your life, and it’s a shame that it happens. And I remember, in one—one example of how crowded the schools were, this Mayfair School where Becky and Davy did go to school, it only had kindergarten through fourth grade when she started kindergarten. Okay, when she’s got to the first grade, they added a fifth a grade, K through Five. When she got to second grade, they added a sixth grade—then they took the sixth grade and sent it over to John C. Fremont, which is the school down the street. Then by the time that she was in sixth grade, she was able to stay there for the sixth grade, but that’s how crowded and how fast the city was growing, and the students just almost overran all the schools, and we UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 12 even—when I first started to work with School districts, there were only half day sessions, they were on double sessions. Oh, I remember that when we first came here! I believe that’s how it was, I remember that. I understand there’s an Indian Colony in Las Vegas—do you know anything about the Indians? Yes, it’s been—it was here—it’s been here ever since I’ve been here. Anyway, I used to take my girl scouts there occasionally to visit them, you had to let ‘em know in advance of when you were coming— How did the Indians feel about these visits? Well, I think they liked it. Really? You think you would have liked it, living there? No. They just sort of, you know, they just didn’t—well now, we don’t think anything about— the Indians, went they still go I guess to the same neighborhood school, Bridger and Rancho Jr. High, just the way it’s on. Now they can go—they hold jobs, that you know—you don’t really realize there are any, but it is an Indian Colony, it’s just across from the El Flog down on Las Vegas Boulevard. Then there’s not that many, it’s not that large? No, there’s not that many. What about, do you know anything about the Indians who have the reservation outside the city? From here, in Moapa? (Unintelligible) No, but I should, but I don’t. (Laughs) Do you remember any of the visits from any famous people, presidents, or— (Tape one ends) UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 13 Do you remember any visits from any of the presidents or any other important people like that, outside of entertainers? When President Kennedy came to Las Vegas, we were able to get—able to see him at the Convention Center. And weren’t really too far from him when he walked down the aisle and his motorcade also. And I remember he had the bluest eyes, just gorgeous eyes, and then when President Johnson was here, I went to hear him. Also, Leonard Bernstein came and had one of the largest—In fact it was the first time that the convention center was filled, was when Leonard Bernstein came. And then Billy Graham was here not long ago, just last February, Billy Graham was here for his, what do they call ‘em— Crusades. —Crusades, and he was here for five days, and the convention center was filled for that. That really went over well in Las Vegas, I think it surprised the rest of country. Yes, the minister of our church was on the committee, to—the planning committee for that, so we sort of, got involved from our church. You do a lot of church work. Yes. What church do you belong to? I belong to the Griffith Methodist—United Methodist Church— How long? Have to put the United there now—we well, we were almost charter members of Griffith, which was founded in 1955, it was off shoot of the First United Methodist uptown. And it was their bi—bicentennial celebration or something to form Griffith. And Mike and I already went down there and signed the charter, but we have been going there since 1955. I’ve been president of UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 14 United Methodist Women, and (Unintelligible) Service Guild—my middle daughter and her husband were the youth coordinators for the Methodist Young People, and well, we’re quite active. My husband has been chairman on the board of trustees, and it keeps us busy. Is it a large church? Are the Methodists strong—I know the Mormons are, a probably the strongest here—how do the Methodists rank? We have the largest and prettiest Methodist church in Las Vegas—but we have a facility for about a thousand members, and I think our membership is about 550. So it’s—we certainly need more members—we have a new dynamic young minister, Dr. Wood, which is—I think is just what the doctor ordered for our church. But we’ve had kind of a bad three years of church, it’s had quite a lot of vandalism, and I—I just, it’s hard to say why we don’t have more members, but we don’t. We need ‘em, and we have the facility for ‘em, but we don’t have ‘em. Well maybe because most people are Mormons here—I think there are a lot of Catholics here, and— Yes. Ah, Catholics—(unintelligible) There’s a history here too. Yes, as you have new people come in especially, from the southeast, a lot of people are moving here from you know, Florida, you’ll get a lot of Methodists, I think. Well Methodists and Baptists. We have quite a few visitors every Sunday from—people that come here for conventions, you’d be surprised by how many come to church. I would like to—I often thought that if a lot of people who come here like that, and they get to church, and there are quite a few— UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 15 They do. I think they do. ‘Course, if you have a convention with eight or nine hundred people, and if we get four or five at our church, that’s pretty good. But then, look at how many churches are in Las Vegas—we have more churches per capita in Las Vegas than in any city this size in the nation. So if every church in town had five new—five visitors from these conventions, think what it would do for churches. That’s—that’s good. That’s a good point, that’s a good side, I guess you could promote, for Las Vegas to other people. At least they could back and say that at everybody is not out at the gaming table (Laughs). (Laughs) Which isn’t right. I have never yet put a shot of—a game of craps, or played blackjack, or slot machines, but bingo, the only thing I can do is far as the gambling bit. What do you think, of like, your friends who live here, are most of them—feel the same way that you do with, I guess the exceptions of those who work in the casinos. Do you find that probably, it’s the tourists who frequent the hotels, especially the gaming part of it? It’s tourists—most of the people who live here who work out in the gaming industry—I—we really in all the years we’ve been here, have only known just a few people that are close friends that work out there—now, Mike tried working out at MGM once, I think he stood it about three months—He was in, what they call pit clerk or something, and he, oh, he nearly went berserk. They just drove him crazy—he’s not used to working with all that noise—oh my Lord. Oh! I wanted to ask you why I’ve heard so many people say here, they’ll do anything here but work gaming, and the first thing they say is the noise. He’s one of ‘em, he just can’t take that noise. Yet, on the other hand, I worked with a girl who’s husband is a dealer at downtown, and they’re moving to New Jersey next month. He’s going to UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 16 work for Caesar’s World, and as one of the bosses. Here he’s a pit boss, but he was a postman, he came out here from Allentown, Pennsylvania. He and Verna and her six kids, and he came out and transferred his civil service from the postal department and was a mailman. But he, this little short, fat, bald-headed man, he couldn’t take the sun, and—the sun just killed him out here. So he, one of his, one of the men on his, delivery—mail delivery route, was a dealer down at one of the casinos downtown, so he talked him into coming down and training, just train him on his own, and he—he was kind of a wiz in mathematics, so he liked it. Oh, it came very easily to him. He likes it, and he’s going to Caesar’s World in New Jersey. I think they’re ‘gonna start him out at some fantastic salary. Verna will leave our office too, she’s looking forward to it. But we really have few friends that are connected to the gambling industry. It’s fun to show off to visitors and company— Yes, because you have what no one else has—and every once in a while, the kids say to you, “I wish we lived somewhere else,” and I said, “Shouldn’t say that, because you live where everybody else in the world wants to come to.” That’s right— Especially when there were times, like what were we ‘gonna do? (Laughs). Nothing to do, but you get used to it, you get—everybody here wants to leave on the weekends. Yes? They can’t wait to get out. But it takes you three hours to get out of town, remember me saying that? What changes have you noticed about southern Nevada since you first arrived in 1946? You wouldn’t believe the changes. Where I live right now was desert in 1946— And what is your address? UNLV University Libraries Vivian E. Harwell 17 Right here? 549 East Saint Louis, was desert. Oakey, was the last street over, last street this way, south, and it only went from the Strip, or rather Las Vegas Fifth Street it was called, Las Vegas Boulevard South to Fifteenth, and Fifteenth: dead-end on Oakey right there. And Maryland Parkway was a beautiful tree-lined avenue, just gorgeous, and it’s been about five—oh, maybe ten years ago—they took all those trees down and widened Maryland Parkway, and took out that center section. Now where was that, on Maryland Parkway, where were those trees, like—near the boulevard down there? No, near East Charleston, yes, how’d you know it? Do you drive—There’s just this little circ—cir—circ—its little circles around this little park. But the whole trees went from Charleston up to Sahara. I’m not—What’s up here?—Sahara. Sahara? Well, maybe St. Louis. Anyway, it was tree-lined, wide— Palm trees? Boulevard. No, no. You had real trees? Real trees. Cottonwood— Wow, geez. And elm, oh, huge elm trees, and now you c