Elissa Miller interview, March 3, 1980: transcript

UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 1 An Interview with Elissa Miller An Oral History Conducted by Frank Fusco 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 Elissa Miller 2 © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2020 UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 3 The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division. The OHRC conducts oral interviews with individuals who are selected for their ability to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. The OHRC is also home to legacy oral history interviews conducted prior to its establishment including many conducted by UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske and his students. This legacy interview transcript received minimal editing, such as the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. The interviewee/narrator was not involved in the editing process. UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 4 Abstract On March 3, 1980, Frank Fusco interviewed Elissa Miller (born October 29th, 1935 in San Francisco, California) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In this interview, Mrs. Miller talks about her life in Virginia City and Reno, Nevada. She discusses the growth in Reno and the problems that came from that. She also speaks about living life in Virginia City, a much smaller town in Nevada. She talks about the people who live and work there, as well as some of the things the town is known for, such as the International Camel and Ostrich Races that are held annually. UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 5 The informant's name is Mrs. Elissa Miller. The date is March 3rd, 1980 at eight p.m. The place is 1130 University Road, Las Vegas, Nevada. The collectors name is Frank Fusco, same address. The project is Local History Oral Interview about lifestyles of a Nevadan. Okay. Mrs. Miller, can I have your name and present address? Surely. My full name is Elissa Larrea, that's my maiden name, Miller. And I currently reside in Virginia City, Nevada. Mailing address, is that what you want? It doesn't matter. Well, I'll give you the street address then. I call it a street very loosely, it's more like a dirt road cut by a tractor. (Laughs) But it's 3167 Clemmens Road. Okay. And your place and date of birth? I was born on October 29th, 1935 in San Francisco, California. (Unintelligible) Okay. And how many members were there in your family? When I was born or in life? Are you talking about my immediate family or? Your immediate family. Well, there's myself and my husband. I have three children. Three children. Okay, and I guess also, your entire family, going back? Well, my mother's still living. My father died several years ago. And I have one sister and numerous aunts and uncles on my mom's side. My father's side (unintelligible) Okay. And your family history, I guess? Well, it's kind of extensive. How far did you want me to go back? Well, as far back as necessary. I don't know. UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 6 Okay. My father was born in Peru. Lima, Peru. That's why I'm not claiming any relatives. They all live in Peru and Ecuador. Okay. And their ancestors came over from (unintelligible). He was the first one to leave South America (unintelligible) and he went to San Francisco to open up a bakery shop. This was just prior to the Depression. And on my mother's side, her family came from Czechoslovakia, from Prague, somewhere in the late 1700s. Eventually they moved out to the Dakotas and she came down to San Francisco to live with her sister, who had come to San Francisco before her. Somewhere also right around the beginning of the Depression, at which time she met her husband to be, and they married shortly after. Okay. What education have you had? Well, I've practically completed my nursing studies at City College of San Francisco. Never did get around to finishing that. I also have a degree in computer science. And I've taken courses at the University of Nevada, Reno in business law and related studies. Okay. And besides San Francisco, what other places of residence have you had or, any traveling? Oh. That's a big question there. Well, I was born in San Francisco and I stayed in San Francisco until I met my husband at a USO (unintelligible). He was dancing on a table. (Laughs) (Laughs) But I won’t go into that story right now. After three weeks of absolutely (unintelligible), he swept me off my feet and swept me to a place called (Unintelligible), North Carolina, which if you've grown up in a city to be immediately transplanted to a community which can't be described as anything except hillbillies was quite a shock, let me tell you. But I lived in the UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 7 backwoods of North Carolina for a couple years, convinced my husband, or he convinced me, I'm not sure which, but it was a joint effort there. North Carolina was not the place for a civilized person, and we did a little bit of traveling. Then he and I both went to Europe and bummed around. We worked there for a couple of years. I didn't work at the time. Then we came back to the states poor. Not today's idea of what poor is, I mean we were poor. We decided to go back to San Francisco and live my folks for a while. And we got as far as a place called Susanville, California before the dam broke down and money ran totally out. So we stayed at Susanville, California for about a year. My husband worked as a construction worker and I had a job as a secretary at a preschool. And once we got our funds back together, we went on to San Francisco. We stayed there for a couple years and then came out to Reno. Followed the work. My husband being a construction worker, we generally do follow the job. And stayed in Reno for many years. Just in 1975, we moved out to Virginia City. In the interim we moved up. We've lived in many places. We worked up in Alaska and other parts of the country, mostly in the south and north west states, Oregon up to California, Washington. What can you say the major reason was for staying in Nevada? In Nevada? Before we get any farther, I want to square you away on the pronunciation there (laughs). (Laughs) It is Nevada. Nevada. Nevada. That's the worst thing that you can do to a Nevadan, is call 'em a Nevahdan. Oh. Okay (laughs). No offense, son. Please. UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 8 (Unintelligible) I don't know (laughs). (Laughs) We decided to stay in Nevada for a couple of reasons. One, there's a lot of individual freedom out here. There's a whole lot of it, political, social, there aren't a lot of—oh, anywhere you go, you're gonna find classes (unintelligible), but in Nevada, it's still so much of a pioneer spirit. The country's fairly new and it's not that long since neighbors had to depend on each other. So the people out here are extremely friendly. And life is easy if you accept people and people accept you. That was it. Second reason is finances. I don't think you're gonna find anywhere that is easier to live. Nevada is (unintelligible) tourism. It's rather self-supported. In fact, we're one of the few countries, or correction, one of the few states that doesn't operate on a deficit. So our state taxes, I'm sure you're well aware, are really understandable. We don't—correction, that's our regular tax. We have no state income tax. It's beautiful. We love it here and we plan on staying here for the rest of our lives. The time you've been here, what changes have you seen in, say, the growth of the state? Oh boy. That is something I've seen, and of course, no one likes to see growth in their own backyard. You like to experience the benefits—the economic benefits—but the growth is something that I really don't like to see, and I know a lot of my friends don't like it. When we first moved to Reno, we lived in a place in the northwest section and we were the only house there. And there was nothing behind us, it was just a vast wasteland. (Unintelligible) it was beautiful, just gorgeous. And there was a dairy farm about a mile behind us. Well, we'd been there about eight years and they put Interstate 80 right behind our house. And they put in a wire fence and a couple neighborhoods around us. UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 9 And now they're constructing Harrah's Auto World back there and the growth is just unbelievable. I can remember a time when you could get up in the morning and you could just see the entire valley. And that was not comparable to any large city. And I'm really sorry, see, that the growth is just far outdistanced its planning. (Unintelligible) planning in the area. There's not sufficient water and sewage, electricity, any kind of power right now. And they keep on expanding, without taking care of these resources. And it's really causing quite a large problem even though in '75 we moved out of Reno. We live in Virginia City now. It's being an hour’s drive away from Reno and that's where I work right now, so, and my husband. We do keep up with the situation in Reno and it's really quite bad. And not only Reno, Carson City, any of the large, I guess there's not many large cities, but all of the large cities are having this growth problem. And it just was poor planning. Greediness of the people, they want the money so badly they're just not paying much attention to the problems of its citizens. And it's reached a point that something's gonna have to be done one way or the other. It's gonna blow over. Now in Virginia City, we don't, we just don't have that much of a problem in the city itself, because you're not gonna find that many people that want to permanently settle down there. In the winters you have three foot drifts of snow coming over the roads and it's a long way from anywhere. Gas costs more, food costs more. But really, that seven miles of gas we got in the country, we used to be awesome, the only residents out there. We had 11.2 acres. And now we have approximately fifty neighbors, which, it's in a large radius, but from one to fifty, and this is in three years, so you can see the growth is gonna definitely cause some problems in the next couple of years. UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 10 You've touched upon my next question. What political changes have you seen either in the Virginia City area or the state of Nevada? Well, Nevada has a reputation for being really corrupt, really dirty. What do you think for? Of (unintelligible) gaming, which I think you know, the gaming, the prostitution, and (unintelligible) here. (Unintelligible) this is one of the most conservative states I've ever been in. I've heard the expression "Sin City". Yes. That's it. Well, (laughs) this is getting off the subject but let me tell you something too. Nevada has two different, distinct personalities. People from Reno, people from Vegas are like almost two different states, almost two different countries. They consider themselves Las Vegans or Renoites. There is no—there is a common spirit of being a Nevadan, but there's also a very distinct difference from (unintelligible) urban areas. So you're saying the common areas of the same state? Yes. Yes. But as far as politics or anything else goes, I think that people from Reno have a tendency to look down on Las Vegans as maybe the young, growing child, you know. (Laughs) Kind of a (unintelligible). Part of it’s born out of, oh, I don't know, jealousy perhaps, because they experienced the growth that Reno is just now starting to experience. And partly out of the fact that they were big—Reno was around much, much longer as a city and (unintelligible). (Laughs) We've gotten lost here, oh, politics. Politics. Yes. Politics, politics. But well, so I’m not gonna deal with the national, the national picture. Like I said, if what people think about Nevadans is not necessarily how we are politically. I think we're UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 11 really quite a conservative state. In fact, I know we are. Nevadans I think are very, very conservative. On a regional or local scale, I think I'm a lot more qualified to answer that question being as of course, you keep up with your local area. And Virginia City right now is very, a lot of political strife. That's the thing on most of our minds right now. Let's start with Houston Oil (unintelligible). Houston Oil. They decided to gold mine, (unintelligible) based on many things, there's still a little bit of gold up there. It's very costly to extract it, used to be costly. The price of gold now is no longer costly to extract it. So they've decided, Houston Oil, (unintelligible). Well, Houston Oil has the mineral rights. And the law is about (unintelligible). It hasn't been revised yet. So if a person has the mineral rights, they can pretty much do anything they want as long as they're under the surface. Unfortunately, their extractions have caused a number of houses—and I'm talking about historic relics—to start to sink into the ground. The roads have already done that. The roads are cracked. It's all the time, you have to have (unintelligible) directing traffic around in there. There are unsafe (unintelligible). Hm. But the houses, some of the fine old houses, the oldest houses in Virginia City in fact, and Gold Hill, which is the neighboring community, are no longer safe for habitation because they have sunk into the ground. The foundations are weak and you can no longer go in them. Now (unintelligible) has offered to reimburse these people for their house. They're reimbursing them at the value they paid for that house for a house of comparable size, location. (Unintelligible) Right. How do you put a value on history? How do you put a value on somebody's home? How do you put a value on a part of yourself basically, a part of your family, a part of your heritage? UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 12 You can't. This is the problem we're having right now. And before it goes any farther, a lot people, myself included, think that this excavation should come to a halt until some sort of decision is reached. But it's not, it's continuing. And once all the houses are in the ground, maybe then they'll stop and think "Well, maybe we should do something about this problem." And it's gonna be too late. I think that is the major political issue of Virginia City right now. Now we have our minor little problems. (Unintelligible) is always coming up with something or another for us to (unintelligible) No. I'm not familiar. (Unintelligible) is a businessman and a quite good one. He's making money. He operates a brothel called Mustang Ranch, excuse me, and a number of other quite lucrative operations. And he is a Storey County resident. Now, (laughs) his latest, am I, yes, I guess I'm allowed to say this, it's been printed in the newspapers. I don't think I'm violating his rights. His latest little adventure was to register his girls, his, well, the girls who work in his brothels for him, as Storey County residents, even though they didn't live in Storey County, they worked in Storey County and gave them his post office box. Therefore, they could vote in Storey County, and they always voted as a (unintelligible) block, sixty-four votes, sixty-five votes. Storey County's very small. You don't have that larger population and (unintelligible) everywhere. There's kind of an apathy and a lot of people won’t turn out to vote. So when you have that solid of a block, you're gonna have quite a sway into politics. (Laughs) And (unintelligible) quite a sway into politics. So I think that that's been resolved, at least. The girls either have to move up to Storey County or they have to re-register in Washoe County where they've been living. UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 13 Okay. What do you do for a living? Well, I work at a place called, well, it was Jessie Beck's Riverside Casino, now it's Del Webb Casino. Del Webb owns it now. (Unintelligible) quite a few of the other operators. Now, I'm a computer operator in the payroll section for the Riverside Casino Hotel and I'm on loan to a number of the other casinos in the area being as they've switched over to a new computer system. And well, I did work for the city of Reno in a specialized training on the computer that they're using right now. So that's about it. I also work as a full-time wife and mother of a sixteen year old daughter. She's the only one left at home, which is probably more of a full-time job than the other. Are your children still in Nevada? No. Only one of them is right now. I have two children in the service and—correction, now I only have one in the service and one attending school. My son's in Washington and my daughter's down here. And one left at home is a daughter, Rachel. My supreme wish in life is to live long enough to become a burden upon her when I am old. (Laughs) Okay. What does your husband do for a living? He's a construction worker. That's kinda broad, let me narrow that down. What he is actually is a sheet metal worker and he specializes in air conditioning systems. And he's a foreman right now for a job on Harrah's Reno. They're expanding. And pretty much what he does is run around all day telling people where to take their tool boxes. As far as I can gather, that's just about all he does. Okay. What types of employment are predominately inside of Virginia City area? Virginia City area? Well, I'd say we have three types in Virginia City. We have the type that works in the city, and that is totally, one hundred percent tourism. There is not a business in UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 14 Virginia City that is not up on tourism, which is (unintelligible) in the wintertime, because everything closes down except the school, the fire department, and the market, which only operates on a half time basis (unintelligible) the tourism business. And the other type of one, of course, the residents go down to either Carson City or Reno and work. And the third kind are, how do I say this nicely without offending anyone? Well, they're the old kooks that have lived up there for thirty or forty years. And they've got little shacks up in hills and they've got their mules. I honestly don't know how they got their mules. (Laughs) And they've got their little packs, and they live in shanties. And they have a fantastic time. They love it, coming to the city, as they call Virginia City (laughs) once every two months, three months, get some supplies and just go back out in their shanties. And that's just about the only kind of work or people that you have up there. Okay. Talking about lifestyles in the area, recreation in the Virginia City or in the area, or anything special about that? Well, have you ever been to Virginia City before? No. I haven't. Virginia City has one street, one main street. And they have a number of other residential houses, districts. Altogether is a population of 700. This is including the people that live within a thirty mile radius. In Virginia City, you can do nothing. There is no nightlife. At about ten o'clock on Friday, everything will close. On Saturday perhaps, it stays open a little later. This is in the winter. In the summer, you're open much later but it's totally for the tourists. As far as the daytime goes, well, most everyone I know has their dirt bike or motorcycle and myself included. UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 15 I many years ago became an advocate. I went around carrying my helmet. Let's see, we motorcycle ride, we plant our sagebrush gardens. (Laughs) (Laughs) We collect rocks. There's a lot of rock collecting out here. Other than that, you go to the city if you want any kind of cultural or social activity. Out here itself, it's just more of a country life and if you live out here, that's what you have to expect. That is, unless you plan on driving to Reno, which is an hour, an hour and fifteen minute drive each way. And price of gas, you just can't afford to do that, so you have to make a commitment to the kind of lifestyle you want. And well there is one other kind of entertainment here (laughs), and that's the Bucket of Blood Saloon. (Laughs) Our one saloon. It's, well, that's the name of it. It's patronized by the locals. Well there's Red's, Red's place too. What do they call that now? They just changed it. It's part of the old silver (unintelligible). But they're usually open a little bit later. The back door, not the front door. And the locals will go in the back and we sit around. We've got an old jukebox that's got everything from the 50s music to the stuff they have now. And you'll see everything in there from disco to jitterbug to you name it. Locals will all go in there and stomp around (unintelligible) dust. (Laughs) It's interesting. Are there any special events that take place in Virginia City or in that area? (Laughs) What? You've never heard of the world famous Virginia City Ostrich and Camel Race that's held every year? (Laughs) UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 16 Seriously. We also have a motor cross that's held in conjunction with it, but that's not the famous thing. And as a matter of fact, I once was able to ride in that. They have a—they have both out of state and resident. They have all sorts of special races. And I was in the Camel Powderpuff several years back. Let me tell you, if you've never ridden on a camel before, you're in for an experience. They're the nastiest creatures you've ever seen. If you can stay on, they're gonna bite your legs and just, I mean, horses bucking has nothing on a camel, let me tell you. Once you're off, you're in trouble. Once they finish kicking you around a lot, and they spit on you a little bit (laughs), they have a, yeah I'll say it. Well, this is what they do, I mean, they spit on you, they kick you, then if they can get away with it or if they're able to, they like to urinate on you. (Laughs) (Laughs) Sounds exciting. Then they go and they leave you. It's a lot of fun. It is a lot of fun. And believe, people come from all over the world. It's a big international event here in Virginia City. You'll hear every language conceivable on the street. Hm. It's really fantastic. And the ostrich races are a lot of fun too. And the local businessmen and just different hotels and casinos will each enter their favorite. And people train these, you know, animals year round for these races. And (unintelligible) had two entries last year. It was—it was very, very funny because they had a placard on one of the camels advertising his establishment. And I don't know, everyone gets a kick out of that. How long have they been conducting the camel races? I can only say they've been conducting it as long as I've been there. And as long—I first became aware of them about fifteen, twelve years ago. But I really couldn't say how much earlier than UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 17 that they go. Now out of Virginia City, Carson City, the state capitol, is just like thirty minutes away. Again, (unintelligible) and they have an International Spitting Contest held once a year there. (Laughs) And that's in the main street of town. They block up all the traffic and they have people also, this is from all over the world. Last year, a young man from Nebraska won and it's quite a sight. It's really something else. It's the only time in my opinion that Carson City comes alive, except for the state fair, or the state parade. They have the state parade once a year and the National Spitting Contest. It's (unintelligible) exciting things (unintelligible). Okay. End of side one. (Tape one ends) Okay. Mrs. Miller, can you describe the residents or the atmosphere of the local area where you live? Well let's see, the residents (unintelligible). But it's very isolated, which is not necessarily a point against it. Let me try to give you a description. As you're driving out of Reno, you drive about thirty minutes toward Virginia City. (Unintelligible) going to Virginia City, you'll cut off, and you'll need a four-wheel drive if you plan on coming out that way. And right across seven, eight miles on the road here, you cut through the track and several years ago it was graveled down. There's not much gravel left. I assume some of it's pounded into the road. You don't see much here. And I'd say about five, no, seven—it's about seven, eight miles from where the road lies, straight from highways (unintelligible) was our house. Now you pass about six or seven residences (unintelligible) out there. Used to be any (unintelligible). We're in the middle of a dip on the top of a hill. There's a dip on the side, so you don't really see it until you come right up UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 18 against—right, so it's totally isolated (unintelligible). It's an alpine type house. It's got (unintelligible) structure, totally open. What we do is set all the furniture back in the walls so the open (unintelligible) downstairs with a loft (unintelligible). And just a lot of privacy. (Unintelligible) Living in the city and a rural area, which do you prefer? Well, they both have their shortcomings and man just, I would say I prefer where we live now. Problem is, (unintelligible) the gas situation. It's very, very expensive, especially for going back and forth. I'd say the worst thing about living in a rural area is actually getting the newspaper delivered to your door. And probably the best thing is that we live too far from other people to get it. It costs about $4000 to get a phone, so we don't have a phone. It's beautiful. The first month, I thought I'd die, but once you don't have it, you can't be called to come in on Saturday to work or you can't be inconvenienced by solicitors. It's beautiful. I don't know how anyone survives with one. Getting back to Nevada lifestyle, are there any dishes or food native to this state? (Laughs) Yes, there are a few. Most of them are derived from (unintelligible). (Laughs) Okay. Can you (unintelligible)? One of our—yes, sure. The one that comes to mind most clearly, I think, is something that I've never seen anywhere else. It's something called squaw tea, and it's made from a plant. Gosh, I'm trying to think of what that plant is. It's got needles, it's a bush is what it is. It's got red, bright green needles, not a dark green. (Unintelligible). It's got pretty green needles. Is it a bush or a tree? It's a bush. It's a bush. (Unintelligible) and you strip the needles and you boil 'em, and it makes squaw tea. Could have been nettles for all I know. Anyway, you go out to the fields and you UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 19 collect the stuff and it makes an excellent tea. It's really fantastic. And I think it is something totally native to Nevada, squaw tea. (Unintelligible) and pine nuts. That's another (unintelligible)? No, I haven't. You go out, and you have to wait until after the (unintelligible) and you take 'em back, and you dry roast and salt them. They're excellent. They're really, really good. That was a staple for the Indians for a long, long time. (Unintelligible)? Yes. They had no other luck in Nevada. We lived by Pyramid Lake, see. (Unintelligible) Okay. (Unintelligible) besides fishing, what do you have? There's not much. So that clearly is what kept them from starving. It's quite good. You find squaw tea, you find (unintelligible). Other than that, I find that the majority of the issues are common to the west, you know, very easy, compact dishes which (unintelligible) or miners or anyone can take with them. (Unintelligible) omelet. (Laughs) You know, when you had to pack the eggs in from San Francisco or something. I was gonna ask you about Nevadans dress as a whole. Do they dress differently? But I guess you can't really include the younger people. I guess we could zone in on, say, the older people. The old timers. Well, yes and no you can't zone in on the common young folks. What you can say, is that Nevadans have just such a wide array of experiences. If you're talking about Reno, which is the original city, or Las Vegas, being as they have city life and being as it's a cultural center for the entire world practically, you have touch with all the (unintelligible). I mean, it's just you see UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 20 every day, you're in constant, (unintelligible) so Nevadans are more than capable of outshining anyone when it comes to dressing up and going out at night. (Unintelligible), but at the same time, being as it is, closer to (unintelligible) and being that this is a very western, outdoors kind of atmosphere, you'll find casual dress in more often than not (unintelligible) more often than not. But it doesn't mean that Nevadans are hicks and not capable of dressing up. (Laughs) Because I—when Nevadans want to dress up, like I said, they have all new opportunity (unintelligible) is there. The cultural life is there, the social life is there, the exposure, (unintelligible). But not to mention the older folks, the diehards, and that, the characters. The characters? Mm. They still dress like Nevada. And by Nevada, I'm not talking about the tourists conception of Nevada. You know, the ten gallon wide hat and chaps and spurs. I'm talking about your fifteen year old Levi's and shoes, you couldn't really tell what kind of shoes they are because they're so patched up and beat up. Their hats had been through (unintelligible) three, two, one with you and just, you'd have to see 'em. (Laughs) You would definitely have to see 'em. What's the major difference between them and public people from other states or other countries (unintelligible) their attitudes or? Hm. You know, I've traveled extensively (unintelligible), I've been overseas, and everyone likes to make the claim of hospitality. You know, the southerners are the most hospitable, the Texans have the biggest hearts in the world, and just, you know, the Frenchman has room for everyone in (unintelligible). But there's no place that exhibits that as much as (unintelligible) Nevada. I would have to say in Utah, Nevada, where people have to depend on other people. They're as— That's the way it was at one time. UNLV University Libraries Elissa Miller 21 Yes. That's the way it was, and to an extent, if you live in an extremely rural area, that's the way it has to be now. You have to depend on your neighbor. And I'm not saying people are gullible and they're gonna get stepped on, but at the same time, they're more likely to open up their homes and what they have to a stranger. And I think that is what distinguishes Nevada from everyone else. They are very open people. They don't—they're not on the defensive all the time. And I'm not saying that's good or bad, but that's the first thing that I notice about a Nevadan, plus the fact that (unintelligible) by my rambling on here, but most Nevadans don't say too much unless they have a reason. That's something I've noticed too from just different lifestyles. (Unintelligible) Nevadans generally, you can't qualify every Nevadan of course with this statement, but as a rule, we generally say something when we've got something to say. Okay. What are your likes or major likes or dislikes about Nevada? Major dislikes, well, Lord that's a biggie. My major likes are (unintelligible) (laughs). (Laughs) I like the variety. I like the opportunity to do anything that I want to do that I have here. (Unintelligible) in the desert. (Unintelligible) it's really not. You have Lake Tahoe, you have (unintelligible). I enjoy skiing, I go skiing. It's fun. I don't like to fish. I like to ride motorcycles in the desert. I like to have a nightlife. I like to go see Sammy Davis Jr. or Elvis Presley when he was around, or I like to sit in the house and listen to coyote's howling, hear the birds, you know, just your average wilderness type situation. It's like, I guess you could say variety of old and new. Total variety. So (unintelligible) variety. What I don't like about Nevada is honestly, I'm not trying to butter you up, I cannot think about one thing that I don't like about Nevada that I UNLV University Libraries Elissa