Transcript of interview with Dedee (DaVeen) Nave by Claytee D. White, June 8, 2015

AN INTERVIEW WITH DEDEE (DAVEEN) NAVE An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ii ?Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2014 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV ? University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Project Manager: Barbara Tabach Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Interviewers: Barbara Tabach, Claytee D. White Editors and Project Assistants: Maggie Lopes, Amanda Hammar iii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grant. 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 University of Nevada Las Vegas 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 with permission of the narrator. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Claytee D. White Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas iv PREFACE Dedee (DaVeen) Nave reveals a life filled with distinguished results in the cultural evolution of Las Vegas since her move to the valley in 1971. She was a young bride and soon a mother when she arrived with her can-do energies. She was a trained educator who was eagerly looked outside the classroom for a way to make a difference in the community when she took a position with the Camp Fire Girls Over the following decades, the impact of involving Dedee in many valued projects is evident. In this interview, she provides a glimpse into her various aptitudes and the many people she has worked with to great results. Dedee Nave was born DaVeen Maurer in 1948 in Indianapolis, Indiana, to David and Virginia Maurer and has a sister, Marilyn Maurer MacCollum. Their mother was a convert to Judaism who instilled them with a solid Judeo-Christian foundation. When Dedee became the bride of a mixed marriage, she raised her daughter Alisa in the Jewish faith. Alisa, who is married to Robb Worth, is a practicing attorney in Las Vegas. A graduate of Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, Dedee studied fine arts, considered being a theater major, modified her plans and became a skilled organizer of people and projects. This ability to envision, implement, and fundraise is seen in Dedee?s distinguished list of community programs, among them her work with: the City of Las Vegas Arts Commission; two terms on the Nevada State Arts Council; a past president of the Junior League of Las Vegas; former chairperson of the Junior League?s Endowment Fund Trustees; Lied Discovery Children?s Museum opening; and chairperson of Morelli House Public Program and many other initiatives. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Dedee (DaVeen) Nave June 8, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada Conducted by Barbara Tabach Preface??????????????????????????????????..iv SESSION 1 Begins with background of being born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1948; her mother?s conversion to Judaism when her parents married; her recollections of being Jewish and also celebrating Christian holidays. Recalls family vacations by automobile to Las Vegas where her father enjoyed gambling; hanging out on Frontier Street with her sister; saw many of the famous Strip shows that were ?family friendly?; Foxy?s; Disneyland; hotel swimming pools???.1 ? 3 Attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri; interest in theater as a major changed and got into school politics; story of meeting her future husband Jim; Chinese wedding ceremony in Hong Kong; husband was in military; being a young bride and student and learning to do household chores. Explains how she and Jim, a young veterinarian, moved to Las Vegas in 1971; decision to raise their mixed religion daughter Jewish???????????????????....4 ? 10 Recalls Las Vegas of 1971; apartment on Twain Road; tried being a teacher and then took a position as field director with Camp Fire Girls; promoted to executive director. By 1975, husband?s veterinary partnership changes, she resigns from Camp Fire Girls; joins Junior League; active with the Allied Arts Council of Southern Nevada and volunteer docent for national traveling exhibit called ?Art Train;? Junior League?s Arts Committee and Suitcase Gallery chairperson. Discusses how Metro Arts Council replaced Allied Arts Council. Mentions several community leaders involved at the time: Lamar and Pat Marchese, Patrick Gaffey, Helene Follmer, Robin Greenspun, Joanne Nivison?????????????????????????.??.??.10 ? 17 Talks about developing a project adoption process with Bobbie Gang; Junior League supplying the labor for a community survey that identified interest in a children?s museum; project campaign led by Robin Greenspun and Mark Tratos; demonstration exhibit; Fantasy Auction as the primary fundraiser. Mentions Charles Huntsberger who oversaw major libraries and related initiatives in Las Vegas; her niche as a successful auction organizer; $1 million donation from Christina Hixson; personal decision to do Discovery Museum or become president of Junior League and eventually becoming development director??????????????????..????...17 ? 23 vi Describes grand opening of Lied Discovery Children?s Museum; mentions Jeanne Greenawalt, Lance Burton, John Kidd; her role as development director and starting ?Building Block? program; resigns; birth of daughter Alisa; induction as president of Junior League in 1988; appointment to State Arts Council; worked on Richard Bryan?s gubernatorial campaign. Being advocate for reauthorization of National Endowment for the Arts. Reflects on knowing movers and shakers; being a community volunteer; people she has met and worked with over the years. Talks about Mesquite Club; not involved with League of Women Voters; husband on Clark County Veterinary Association; daughter?s decision to attend Duke University, then Berkeley Law; divorce from Jim; how decorating for inaugural balls and Christmas trees lead to a new job with Ralph Jones Display.................................................................................................................................. 24 ? 31 Works for eight years for Ralph Jones Display; love of travel and history; remembers opening of Boulevard Mall and Commercial Center and where she used to shop for clothing. Talks about Morelli House project (2004)????????????????????????.32 ? 36 SESSION 2 Discussion of her granddaughter?s recent baby naming ceremony; how she observes Jewish religious rituals. Talks about her past year: chairperson of Morelli House Public Program; how this led to Sands Copa Room project for Nevada Sesquicentennial commemoration. Details about her quest for a Chautauquan to create a character from Las Vegas history; Tom Santopietro and Tony DeSare; Copa Girls contacts including Judy Jones, Mary Neivans; historians Michael Green, Larry Gragg, Dennis McBride, Eugene Moehring, Carole Terry, Cynthia Cicero; writing Nevada Humanities grant proposal to cover costs; meeting with Department of Cultural Affairs and Las Vegas Centennial Commission support????????????.????????.37 ? 46 Tells of The Century of Sinatra program finally coming together; Carolyn Goodman opening remarks and proclamation that September 20 would begin the Sands Copa Connection Program Series; successful event; reception at Morelli House May 9, 2014 thru final program on October 25, 2014 at Nevada State Museum. Mentions Deni Conrad, treasurer. Talks about Gov. Kenny Guinn asking her to join the Nevada Commission of Judicial Discipline; served four years; Judge Halverson case. Conversation about narrator?s community involvement???????.47 ? 56 vii 1 Today is June 8, 2015. This is Claytee White. I'm in my office at UNLV's Oral History Research Center with Dedee Nave. Dedee, how are you this afternoon? I'm good, Claytee. Well, Dedee, I want you to spell your correct name and pronounce it for me. DaVeen; that's a capital D, a, capital V, een, all one word. Nave, N-A-V-E. Thank you so much. As long as I've known you, this is the first time I've actually? Heard my name. Yes, the real name. So Dedee, tell me a little about your early life; where you grew up and what that was like. Well, I grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. I was born in 1948. My father [David Victor Maurer] was a successful used car dealer and lots of fun. My mom [Virginia Burton Maurer] was a homemaker and also lots of fun. They both had great senses of humor and were highly creative people. And you had how many brothers and sisters? Oh, I have one sister who's five years younger; her name is Marilyn. Her married name is MacCollum and she lives in Florida, in the panhandle, in Destin, Florida. So growing up, we did all the usual things. [Marilyn Jeaneen Maurer MacCollum was born 1953] My mother converted to Judaism to marry my dad. She raised me Jewish. So I went to Jewish Sunday school. I was confirmed; I was never bat mitzvah-ed. My father's family is a very large Jewish family in Indianapolis. There were seven brothers and sisters of his. So we celebrated all the Jewish holidays. I especially remember the Passover Seder dinners with the entire family in my grandmother?s living room. Now, even though my mom converted to 2 Judaism by taking classes from the rabbi in order to marry Dad, we also celebrated Christmas and Hanukkah and Passover and Easter. So I'm the typical Reform American Jew. I am grounded in the Jewish religion, but I'm very ecumenical and, actually, it's served me very well because I have friends from every religion. They are what they are and I accept them. So tell me about going to that Jewish Sunday school. What do you learn there that immersed you in that culture? Well, you learn the Old Testament, the stories and all of that and the tenets of the religion and the Ten Commandments. My Grandmother Maurer was the matriarch of the family. My father's father had died very early. In fact, my dad had to quit high school to help support the family, as did a couple of his other brothers. So even though my dad was editor of the high school newspaper, he had to drop out. Dad was really smart and he always regretted not finishing high school; it was an issue with him all his life. But he was very successful. And, he also loved to gamble. All right. Now, this is our Las Vegas connection. Dad loved to gamble. So for our summer vacations growing up for about five years, Mom and Dad would load my sister and I in the Cadillac, (and this was before air-conditioning in cars,) and we would drive on Route 66 and come to Las Vegas during the summer for a couple of weeks, and then they dangled Disneyland on the end of the stick for us. So I became very familiar with Las Vegas. My sister and I were Fremont Street rats. We stood there on those air grids in front of the open casinos. The casinos back then?and maybe still, I don't know?used to have like this air grid that would blow air up to keep the air-conditioning inside. Children weren't allowed in the casino except when they went to the snack bar. So my sister and I stood on that grid and watched my mom play the slots on the end cap and watched all the lights downtown and all of 3 the people while Dad was at the poker table in the back of the Fremont and the Mint and the Horseshoe. That's where he liked to gamble. Well, in order to keep Dad happy, they would give dad comps for us to see the shows on the Strip. So we saw Frank Sinatra. We saw Sammy Davis, Jr.; Liberace, Dean Martin. We saw the early version of the "Follies" and the "Lido" and all of the shows that were ?family friendly? (no boobs). Those shows made quite an impression on us. Of course, the swimming pools at the hotels were a treat, too. ..Back then to get to go to a swimming pool was a big deal. So we would swim in the day and we ate at Foxy's for dinner on nights we didn?t go to the dinner shows. Foxy?s was a deli at the corner of Las Vegas Blvd and Sahara. That was my growing up in the summertime in Las Vegas. Then, of course, we got to go to Disneyland. Now, our friends really thought it was neat that we got to go to Disneyland. But truth be told, Las Vegas was much better than Disneyland. Yeah. But even for young children? Well, we were always watched. We weren't left on our own ever. Yeah. But all the shows and swimming in the hotel pools were just as much fun as Disneyland. It was great. It really was. And we dressed up in our party clothes to go to the shows and Mom looked beautiful. It was just great. We had such good time. So how many years did the family do that? Well, I think about four or five we did that. Probably, when I was, I don't know, maybe eleven or twelve. But then that stopped and Mom and Dad's marriage crumbled. So after that Mom pretty much raised my sister and I. Dad provided the money, but Mom was, in essence, a single 4 mom for a long time. And that was still in Indiana? Back in Indianapolis. Tell me about school, also. Well, in high school I was active in theater and I did some civic theater. I was in the top singing group at my high school, ?The Counterpoints? and we gave performances to civic groups throughout Indianapolis. I was an alto?now I'm a bass. I had that theatrical bent. I co-directed Westside Story my senior year in high school and tried my hand at forensics and the poetry reading competition. I had a wonderful high school experience. After high school, I attended Stephens College for Women in Columbia, Missouri. My father always said, "You're going to go to Stephens College." And I never questioned it. It never occurred to me that I might not get in, but I got in. Stephens had a very strong theater program, the arts, which is what I really was my forte back then. Soon after I arrived at Stephens College?it was originally a two-year college but became a four year college. It was kind of looked at as a rich girl's finishing school, but actually, it was very progressive when I attended. That was during the time when the women's movement started. So I don't feel slighted at all that I went to Stephens College because it was the perfect learning environment for me. I started out as a theater major, but then I got stage fright, and so I decided that wasn't for me although I really liked the back end of theater. I liked the producing. I liked the directing. I didn't want to be on stage. But in order to be a theater major, you had to be on stage. So I switched to English literature and philosophy. Then I got into school politics, which I had never done in high school. I was elected vice 5 president of the student body in charge of culture and education. Well, okay. And I did programming, which? Which is perfect. Which later on in my adult life, of course, played into what I do now. So it was just a great experience. So then I met my future husband while I was at Stephens. Dad came in to see me and he said, "You can invite some friends out to dinner." So I picked this wonderful restaurant that specialized in the best fried chicken I've ever had in the world. It was kind of considered an upper-end restaurant at the time in Columbia, Missouri. Also, located in Columbia, Missouri, down the street from Stephens College was the University of Missouri. So it's a huge college town. So we went to this restaurant. Of course, they had student workers, waiters. Well, my future husband was the waiter for that dinner party. So a few weeks later I get a call from this very, very Southern Missouri accented boy asking me out on a date. I thought it was my current boyfriend, who was a nice Jewish boy from St. Louis, playing a trick on me. And so I said, "Of course, I'll go out with you." Well, the day of the date I came down with the flu and I had to go to the school infirmary. Then I remembered I had this date with Eddie. I called over to the desk at my dorm and I told the receptionist, I said, "I'm supposed to have a date with Eddie. Would you tell him I'm sick in the infirmary?" Well, so Jim [James Edward Nave, DVM], who really called, shows up and the girl forgets to tell him. But one of my friends is standing there and she says, "Oh, she's in the infirmary." So while I'm at the infirmary, I get a phone call from this Southern Missouri accented man saying, "Oh, I just wanted to see how you were feeling." Well, then I realized it was no 6 joke and I thought, I've got to check this guy out. If he has the balls to call me and see if I'm really here, then I want to meet him. And then the rest is history. [Laughing] That's wonderful. So why did you decide to move to Las Vegas? Well, okay. So Jim and I got engaged. Jim was a senior at the veterinary school at the time we met. I guess I must have been a junior or a sophomore, maybe. I can't remember. And so Jim was on the GI?not the GI Bill. But if you signed up to serve in the military after you graduated, the military would help pay for your college education. That was at the time of the Vietnam War, and so he signed up. As a veterinarian, he went in as a captain, which is much better than going in as an infantryman, but you still have to take the basic training and crawl on your belly and go through hell to do that. Anyway, so we became engaged. After Jim graduated, he was first stationed on Staten Island, Fort Wadsworth. So I decided I didn't want to be without Jim. So I switched schools and went for a semester to Wagner College. I didn't care where I went just as long as I could be with Jim. So I enrolled in Wagner College. Then Jim unfortunately got his orders to go to Vietnam. So I went back to Stephens so I could complete my senior year at Stephens and graduate from Stephens while he was in Vietnam. So then he said to me, he said, "Well, why don't we just get married?" So I said, "Okay, why not?" This is between my junior and senior year in college. But I had gotten a scholarship to study Medieval English literature at the University of Brighton in Brighton, England that summer. So I went over to Brighton and did that and then I came home. I was home for a week and then I flew to Hong Kong by myself?I was nineteen?and met up with Jim and we got married there. Jim made all the arrangements. The justice of the peace conducted the ceremony. Hong 7 Kong at the time was still a British territory. The tailor who made our clothes was our witness. During the ceremony, I kept waiting for the justice of the peace to say, "Do you take this woman...?" And all that. Well, all of a sudden, he starts talking in Chinese and then I kept thinking, okay, now they're going to do the English part. Nothing happened. It was done, in Chinese. [Laughing] My father kept calling all day, "Are you married yet? Are you married yet? Are you married yet?" But anyway, we had a wonderful reunion, although I did have some second thoughts on the plane going over there, the nineteen-hour plane ride. Yeah, I thought, hmm, why am I going to...? Oh, well. So we did have a wonderful reunion. So he finally got back from Vietnam and he still had about six months to go. Fortunately, he was stationed at the R and R center in Vietnam and he was in charge of the food inspection because that's what veterinarians do, plus the guard dogs. And he was very enterprising. So he would trade steaks that he would condemn to the guy that was in charge of the telephone to the States. So I actually could talk to Jim once a week all the time he was in Vietnam. He was always a wheeler dealer and he still is today and I'm very proud of that. Wonderful. Now, did you go back to Stephens? I went back to Stephens. And I finished up my senior paper and I graduated 10th in my class. Okay, good. So I did well. So then Jim got back from Vietnam and then he was stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. And so that was really our first time in our little apartment. He was stationed as the head veterinarian there. Oh, I forgot to mention while he was stationed in Staten Island, he made friends with the lady in charge of the Broadway tickets for?for the soldiers because he treated this lady's dogs 8 special. So we got to see all the Broadway shows. It was a marvelous time. Did I care about what grades I got at Wagner City College? No. It was a great time. That's great. [Laughing] Anyway, back to Fort Carson. So we were stationed at Fort Carson. We did that. It was a challenge getting used to married life. I had never really worked a washing machine before. So I made friends with this girl down the hall. She was a delight and she showed me how to do all that stuff. I didn't know you were supposed to clean an oven. I didn't know how to work the washing machine. So I had to learn how to be a wife and a homemaker. And so the girl down the hall, Lori, taught me how to do that. So are you what was called a princess? I was a Jewish super princess for sure, A super princess. [Laughing] A JSP. I don't deny it at all. So why didn't your mother teach you those kinds of things? Well, because we always had help. Ah, so you never had to do it. But Mom did her own lawn. Oh, wow. And I did the cooking. But my sister, my sister who's a really good cleaner, and I admire that she would clean up after I cooked the dinners. So we sort of had a division of labor. I knew how to fold clothes and iron, the important things. Yeah, exactly. And you could cook. I like that. I think that's the way life should be. Well, it worked. So I learned how to do that stuff the best I could from Lori down the hall. 9 All right. So Jim was going to get out of the Army although they wanted him to stay and rise in the ranks, but he didn't want to do that. So he had gone to vet school with this other fellow who was a year ahead of him and they had always talked about going into business together. This guy was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base. He was in the Air Force whereas Jim was in the Army. So this other fellow said, "Well, I think we ought to set up a clinic in Las Vegas because it's going to grow." So of all the places I never would have wanted to live because I knew how hot it was, how tacky it was, it was Las Vegas. But, of course, you do what your husband wants. I mean a good Jewish woman knows that. So we moved to Las Vegas and that's how I got to Las Vegas. Which year was that? 1971. So from that time, from the time you started Stephens College, you were away from home. I was, basically. During the summer I might have been there for a few weeks. Did you continue going to Jewish services; anything like that? No. Not really. I just wasn't observant. What about Jim? Jim wasn?t either. He was raised Protestant, but he wasn't especially religious, either. So I guess that never presented a problem, until our daughter, Alisa, was born. [Alisa Nave Worth married to Robb Worth.] And what happened? Well, I said, "Of course, our daughter is going to be Jewish because I'm Jewish." Jim was not too pleased about that. But we didn?t let it become an issue, and, we sort of let that slide by. We enrolled our daughter at St. Viator's Catholic School because it was supposed to be so wonderful. 10 And, as it turned out, it was for her. So she got her religious training basically from St. Viator's Catholic School. Of course, I let her know she was Jewish and we talked about Hanukkah and we talked about Passover and the Ten Commandments. One year while my daughter was a St. Viator?s she was awarded the ?Christian Student of the Year Award? and I was overjoyed because she had those principles. So there's just a way of looking at the world. So what did that mean to you that she had those principles? It meant everything. Actually, Christianity is just an extension of Judaism. So you embrace the Ten Commandments; you've got it. I mean it's about living ethically and what you do on earth and being fair and being honest and all that and believing in a higher power. So that's what it's about. So she did that. In fact, Alisa, married a Jewish man, Robb Worth, in 2009. Their daughter, Sydney, will be raised Jewish. So, after all, I guess you could say, I prevailed. I'm going to turn this off one second. [Pause in recording] I was very proud of my daughter. My daughter always did very well in school. I mean she's brilliant. I'm sure she gets that from her dad because he's pretty brilliant. I think her mom's pretty brilliant. Well. Jim is very, very smart. Fantastic. I want you to jump back now to 1971 when you have to come back. So we came to Las Vegas. What does Las Vegas look like? You remember the childhood Las Vegas. I do. So now you're a young woman. What does it look like now? 11 Well, it's grown quite a bit and the Strip is filled out by then. There were still empty patches when I was a kid. Let's see. Bally's, which was the original MGM, was being built when I arrived. Our apartment was Central Park West, which was on Twain which is also Spring Mountain Road. (It has since been torn down.) So we were behind the Sands, our apartment. I remember...Well, downtown was pretty much the same. There were dust storms because there were all these undeveloped areas in town, and so there was still tumbleweed and dust and all of that. And then I remember being kind of lonely. I mean, I didn't know anybody except for the fellow that Jim went into partnership and his wife and Jim worked at a separate clinic at the time. But I really didn't know anybody. I substitute taught. I passed the test, of course, and then I was a substitute. Well, that's kind of a lonely job if you don't know anybody. I wasn't very good at it because nobody told me how to run a classroom. I went in too nice. You need to go in firm and then get nice. Well, I went just being the type of the person I am; I'd go in nice and then they'd run all over me. And I had a few times?well, one time they put me in a choral music class, because, I guess, they'd figured I?d had music classes. One time I just lost total control of the class and ran into the principal's office and said, "Help me, help me." And I was only like twenty-two years old, twenty-three years old. I was a kid myself! Mumps were going around the school district at that time. One morning, I woke up and my neck was all swollen. Well, I figured it was the mumps. Come to find out, it was a congenital condition and I had a cyst on my neck, a bronchial cleft cyst, and it had to be removed. As organized and as smart as Jim is, he forgot to get us medical insurance because we were covered in the military. So all the money I made that spring substitute teaching went to pay for my cyst operation. Well, at that point I decided I need to get a different type of job. 12 Teaching just wasn?t for me. Lo and behold, in the newspaper they were advertising for a field director for the Campfire Girls. Well, I had been a Campfire Girl back in Indianapolis from Bluebirds through Horizon Girls. So I knew the Campfire Girl program backwards and forwards and I really did like it. So I applied for the job and luckily I was hired. So I started as the field director and I organized groups and I wrote the monthly newsletter, and I organized leadership training and programs and did all that kind of stuff. It was right up my alley because I had done so much programming in college and I just thought, this is wonderful; I know what I'm doing ?finally! Then my boss, the executive director, moved away, but to my surprise the board hired me as the new executive director. I was the youngest executive director ever in a United Way agency. Well, I knew how to do a lot of things, but I did not know how to do budgeting. I had never even seen a budget. So the director of the United Way, Garth Winkler, sat with me for two days and trained me how to do a budget. I actually kind of liked it. It was a big puzzle. Because you still do them well today. Well. So I learned. So a roundabout way, I learned about nonprofits on the job, no formal training, just OJT. And so I was the executive director for a couple of years. Let's see. Then what happened? Then I stopped. So let's stop there. That's about how many?where are we now? We're probably around 1975. So now, how has your husband's business progressed in that time? Well, he and this other guy opened a clinic and they got it going, but they didn't get along. They had totally different business philosophies; my husband wanted to put all the money back into the business and grow the business and the other guy wanted to spend the money. So they just 13 didn't get along, which is a real shame because they were really good friends in college in vet school. So the partnership split. So my husband, with the money that Jim?s partner paid him to buy out his interest in that clinic, Jim bought a piece of land to start his own clinic at the corner of Tropicana and Eastern. At the time there wasn't very much out there. There was just the Bootlegger restaurant, not even the shopping center, and the clinic. It was on the edge of town at that time. Where was the Bootlegger? Well, the Bootlegger is back in that corner next to Putter's. It was where Putter's is now; that was the original Bootlegger. Okay, good. Well, it was like out in the boonies. And I said to him, "Why do all the other veterinarians get all the good spots?" Well, as it happened, the town moved out there and way beyond and Jim's new clinic, the second clinic, took off. Then he bought a second clinic. He's built about thirty clinics in Las Vegas since. He's been the president of the AVMA, the American Veterinary Medical Association. He's quite a generous donor to the University of Missouri Veterinary School. I'm very proud of what he's done. Even though we've split, I am very proud of his business acumen. He's really...He's also an excellent veterinarian, but his business acumen is just over the top. Sounds stellar. It is. That's amazing. It is. So then I stopped being the executive director. I took some time off because it's one of these jobs that burns people out. It?s easy to understand why directors of nonprofits burn out, because it's so intense all the time and there's always fires and there's always budgets and there's 14 always reports and there's always the board. There's all kinds of.stress and pressure. It?s a very high-pressure job. Well, okay. So after taking a couple of years off, we bought a house. Oh, and then I joined Junior League. Where was the first house? It was on Sterling Circle, which is off of Topaz, right down the street from where you live. And it was close to the clinic. When we started that clinic, the Tropicana Veterinary Clinic; that was before cell phones. So you always had to be near a telephone because you had to pick up emergencies. You have to give clients service if you're going to be a successful veterinarian. So you have to be near a telephone no matter where you are. Well, when cell phones came in that problem solved. But we lived very close to the clinic. All right. So then I was asked to join Junior League and that was back in the day when you had to be asked to join. That was through some people...Let's see. Oh, it was the wife of the architect of the Tropicana Clinic, Sue Borns, who spearheaded my nomination for Junior League. Well, I did think about the old Rodney Dangerfield thing, who would want to join a club that wants me? But I just decided I would?actually, when I was working for Campfire as the field director, they assigned me to be the representative from Campfire Girls to the Allied Arts Council because they knew I was very interested in the arts. Where was I going with that? Junior League, Allied Arts Council. Oh, okay. So one of the things that the Allied Arts Council did was to sponsor a project called the Art Train. It was an art exhibit that would travel in a train across the country. My job was to train and organize and coordinate all the docents for exhibit when it came to Las Vegas. It was truly a traveling exhibit. And so that's how? 15 So docents went along with it on the train? No, no. There were volunteers as docents for the exhibit in each of the cit