Skip to main content

Search the Special Collections and Archives Portal

Transcript of interview with Cathie Millson by Anna Huddleston, June 10, 2014

Document

Information

Narrator

Date

2014-06-10

Description

Cathie and Chris Millson moved to Las Vegas with their one-year-old daughter, Nicole, in 1984 following Chris’s completion of a cardio-thoracic anesthesiology fellowship in Atlanta, Georgia. Their two other children were born in Las Vegas. Shortly after they arrived they purchased the Rancho Bel Air house where they currently reside. Cathie talks about raising her children and living in Rancho Bel Air, a gated neighborhood of custom houses, which grew to maturity after the Millsons moved in. Cathie’s memories chronicle the growth of Las Vegas from small town to large city, how a certain segment of the population lived and entertained, and how downtown revitalization has brought young people back to Rancho Bel Air to raise their families.

Digital ID

OH_02089_book

Physical Identifier

OH-02089
    Details

    Citation

    Millson, Cathie Interview, 2014 June 10. OH-02089. [Transcript.] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections & Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Rights

    This material is made available to facilitate private study, scholarship, or research. It may be protected by copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity rights, or other interests not owned by UNLV. Users are responsible for determining whether permissions are necessary from rights owners for any intended use and for obtaining all required permissions. Acknowledgement of the UNLV University Libraries is requested. For more information, please see the UNLV Special Collections policies on reproduction and use (https://www.library.unlv.edu/speccol/research_and_services/reproductions) or contact us at special.collections@unlv.edu

    Standardized Rights Statement

    Digital Provenance

    Digitized materials: physical originals can be viewed in Special Collections and Archives reading room

    Language

    English

    Geographic Coordinate

    36.17497, -115.13722

    Format

    application/pdf

    AN INTERVIEW WITH CATHIE MILLSON An Oral History Conducted by Anna Huddleston West Charleston Neighborhoods: An Oral History Project of Ward 1 Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ii ©The West Charleston Neighborhoods: An Oral History Project of Ward 1 University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2014 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV – University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Project Managers: Claytee D. White, Barbara Tabach Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Editors: Stefani Evans, Maggie Lopes, Barbara Tabach Interviewers: Claytee D. White, Barbara Tabach, Shirley Emerson, Lois Goodall, Judy Harrell, Anna Huddleston, Linda McSweeney, Wendy Starkweather iii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of Dr. Harold Boyer. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank the university for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Claytee D. White, Project Director Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University Nevada, Las Vegas iv PREFACE Cathie and Chris Millson moved to Las Vegas with their one-year-old daughter, Nicole, in 1984 following Chris’s completion of a cardio-thoracic anesthesiology fellowship in Atlanta, Georgia. Their two other children were born in Las Vegas. Shortly after they arrived they purchased the Rancho Bel Air house where they currently reside. Cathie talks about raising her children and living in Rancho Bel Air, a gated neighborhood of custom houses, which grew to maturity after the Millsons moved in. Cathie’s memories chronicle the growth of Las Vegas from small town to large city, how a certain segment of the population lived and entertained, and how downtown revitalization has brought young people back to Rancho Bel Air to raise their families. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Cathie Millson June 10, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada Conducted by Anna Huddleston Preface…………………………………………………………………………………………..iv Recalls coming to Las Vegas in 1984 from her husband’s fellowship in Atlanta, Georgia, and circumstances that led them to purchase house in Rancho Bel Air; describes the house, the neighborhood in 1984, and how it has changed..………………………………………………1-5 Talks about children’s birthday parties, Halloween, daughter’s lemonade stand, kindly neighbors, extravagant parties and fundraisers, and children’s schools; recalls family and children’s activities………………………………………………………………………………………..6-11 Describes damage from the 1988 PEPCON explosion, how neighborhood casinos have changed the character of the city, and how shopping has changed since 1984. Talks about continuity of her neighborhood, Las Vegas friendships, and parties, and encounters with celebrities..…..11-16 Recalls house being robbed and family holidays; landscaping and rabbits; grocery shopping, opening a banking account, neighbors, new housing areas in Las Vegas, and young people moving back into Rancho Bel Air……………………………………………………………17-23 Index.…………………………………………………………………………………………24-25 vi Now, where do you—you have an accent. This is Anna Huddleston. I'm sitting down with Cathie Millson. It's June tenth and we're at the Millson residence in [Rancho] Bel Air. My accent comes from St. Petersburg, Russia; that's where I moved from in 2012 to UNLV. So anyway, tell me a little bit how you found yourself in this beautiful house. My husband was a physician and he trained in San Diego, and we moved to Atlanta, Georgia for a year. He did cardio-thoracic anesthesia residency—fellowship. He started looking for jobs after that year, and, of course, we were looking in California. Then we just had a great opportunity. Originally we thought we'll move to Las Vegas for five years because it's a place you never really think you're going to live forever. But after five years I just sort of realized he just really enjoyed his practice here and I didn't think we would really be moving. This was the first house we purchased and it's the only house we've lived in here. And you came here in '84? Eighty-four, yes, yes. So what was the reason why you chose this house, because it's close to UMC [University Medical Center]? At the time my husband's office was on Maryland Parkway and it was a really nice location for access to all the hospitals. And we liked the fact at the time that every house was different. Every house was unique. We looked at some other homes in some lovely areas. At that time Spanish Trail was just being developed. But I think coming from California where there are just a history of tract homes or whatever, this home really appealed to us. Part of it, too, was that we came at a time when interest rates were really high, so the 2 builder was having difficulty selling the home. So we actually ended up buying it from the bank. And we liked it. I never thought I would live in an English Tudor home in Las Vegas. It's just all of these things. What? I was expecting Spanish or something. But we bought it and it just turned out to be a great location for us. We never really had any desire to really leave. It just worked for us. So it's an English Tudor home. Do you know what year it was built? I think it was built in 1982, I believe, maybe '81. From what I understand Ed Nigro, who was a builder here, he couldn't sell it and the Primms from Primm, Nevada, they originally rented the home while they were building their house. So when we moved in it was highly upgraded, expensive. The dining room had a cloth padding all around. There were thirteen phone lines in the house. I think from what I understand a decorator had come in and totally decorated it. From what I understand they lived here while they were building a home elsewhere. And then after they moved out I believe the bank took it and then we bought it from the bank. So how big is it? Tell me a little bit more about it. The home is about thirty-six hundred square feet, five bedrooms, three and a half baths. We have three children. So at the time—as they were growing up it seemed small, but now, of course, it seems large. I'm trying to think what else. Did it feel like an English Tudor when you were moving in? Yes. Were the insides—? Yes, it did. It had sort of very traditional type of painting. The entryway was all Italian tile, but different tiling, so we replaced that. We updated the kitchen. What else? It sounds like you still have a lot of furniture that fits that style and you kept up that sense 3 of an English Tudor. Well, we sort of did only because I sort of feel like to see English Tudor and then walk into totally modern would be a little unsettling. So fortunately at the time we were into antiques and we liked that style, so it worked for the house. But that whole wall was a big, huge fireplace, all stone. So we took that out and lightened it up a little bit. Tell me a little bit more about special furniture that you've collected over the years. Well, I'll tell you what happened was when we got married my husband's grandmother gave us a thousand dollars. And so what we did is we thought, okay, what can we buy for a thousand dollars? So the first thing we did was we ended up buying a dining room set, which is in there. Then we were going to buy a wall unit for here. At the time the wall unit that I wanted was quite expensive. I learned that a piece like that was actually less expensive than buying something modern. So that used to house our television. So what started out more as practical considerations for things that it's much more reasonable—I mean we could buy this antique dining room furniture and still have money left over, and so we just sort of starting doing that. We'd go to Los Angeles, because at the time in Las Vegas there was really no place to shop for antiques or really furniture. I mean most people would go to L.A. or San Diego or someplace else. So most of them were acquired in Los Angeles. Then you added the covered patio. Right. Well, what happened is there was already a covered patio and we just decided to go ahead and enclose it and make it more of a sunroom so we could use it more year round. So this is basically where our kids played. They had birthday parties out there. They spent a lot of time out there. There used to be swing sets and play things. There's still some things out there that need to go. 4 So what was it like for you when you first moved here in '84? What were some of your first impressions? It was a very, very small town, very small. It was actually lovely. When we moved into Rancho Bel Air, I could stand from my front yard and see all the way over to the next end of the neighborhood. There weren't a lot of homes being built, just a lot of vacant land. We actually own the lot next to us. We purchased that and we were going to build, but we didn't. My house, the Beckers—this house was built, but basically all down the street there were no homes. It was just vacant lots all the way through to the back of the neighborhood. At first we were a little nervous about moving in because we thought, well, there's really no children in the neighborhood. But then gradually more and more people started moving in. What's nice now is that a family that was actually our very first babysitter, Nicole Wolfram, her sister [Amber] just moved in two houses down with a little one-year-old, which is about the same age my daughter was when we moved in. So it's like now it's recycling. Now there's other families with children. I seem to hear that from several people that this is happening that people are starting to move in. People especially who have history with this place seem to come back later. For us that's the attraction for Rancho Bel Air is that it's always been really nice families and there isn't a lot of pretension here. It's just people who like living in the neighborhood. Yes, they built beautiful homes and a lot of people went on to build even bigger and more beautiful homes. But most of the people who live in Rancho Bel Air like the community and like the area and have an appreciation for it. What I like about it is that there aren't a lot of rules. I mean people are basically—it's that whatever you wanted to build, as long as it was within the measurements of what was legal. So 5 there's all styles here. It's everyone's taste as opposed to just having to be a certain style. Were there any kinds of waves of fashion that you remember? Oh, yeah. Let me think. Not necessarily waves of—but what—Mr. Kublucky, who actually we purchased the lot from, he was a very well-known architect in Los Angeles. He built a house on the outer circle. It's white and modern. He was a lovely man and it was so interesting talking to him because he was an architect and not necessarily a builder. A lot of homes are built by builders or they would find a plan and then modify it, but he was an architect. So his home was just architecturally interesting. Everyone sort of had a unique take on what they were building. The Plasters down at the corner, they had a lot of glass. So it was interesting just to see all the different styles. Like, gee, I wonder what this is going to be? Oh, wow, that turned out pretty nice. So that was always fun because it's all different. Right. Seeing all these things happening around you, did you ever feel like there needs to be things that should be happening to your home or were you happy with it? Well, you know what's interesting is— Was it eclectic enough that it was just right? Maybe—I mean I will never forget my husband and I, we went out to Summerlin. And we looked at each other and we said, “When did this happen?” Like, where have we been? Because our whole life—my daughters swam at UNLV. They were swimmers, so they swam on a swim team. So I'd take them to swimming. I'd take them to school. All of a sudden we had no idea what was going on out at Summerlin, like here's this whole new community. I think we were always just pretty happy living here. We really didn't feel a need to move on. It fit our needs. And I think maybe we just looked at it as like our home. This is our 6 home and this is where—all of our children, except for Nicole because she was one when we moved here, one and a half, but this was their home. They just didn't... So tell me more about things like birthday parties and the things that the kids did. Well, one thing that was really nice is living in the gated area, they could pull their wagon down the street. I never had to worry about them. They could go to Kristi's across the street. They could ride their bikes. People were very cautious of children in the neighborhood. We'd have pool parties. At the time I had gates up. Penny Poo, who had this little pink dog who would dance around, she would come and she was a magician. So we would have birthday parties and all the kids in the neighborhood and the moms would come. Halloween was always really fun because people would come into Rancho Bel Air for Halloween and then I'd invite them in for hot chocolate. So like the parents would stop by and maybe have a glass of wine while the kids went out and trick or treated. Yeah, it was really a nice neighborhood and nice families. It sounds like a lot of that is still here. It is. Like one cute story is my daughter and Brittany Morse—Brittany lived on the street here—they had a lemonade stand, in the neighborhood, of course. So Brittany and Nicole had their lemonade stand. And Bobby Baldwin, who is an executive, he used to live kitty corner from here. He came down and bought lemonade and gave them ten dollars. So Brittany promptly tears it in half to give Nicole her share. So Nicole had her five, her half, because they were sharing the money, which was really nice. I remember when my second daughter, Caitlin, was born. She was probably six weeks old and I had her laying on a blanket here, just on her stomach. I went to do something out in the backyard. The door closed behind me and it locked. I could not get in the house. I couldn't break a window. The windows were really good windows. I was in a panic. I was in such a panic. 7 Of course, there really weren't any neighbors. So I went to the Baldwins' house and I knocked on the door and I said, “Hi, I'm Cathie Millson; I'm your neighbor.” I said, “I'm locked out. My baby is alone in the living room.” I said, “Can I use your phone?” And she said, his wife at the time, a lovely woman said, “Yes, yes.” So I said, “I just need to call my husband.” So I called and he happened to be at UMC. He said, “Just come and I'll have someone get my keys out, to the house.” Well, of course, I couldn't get my car. So she said, “No, no, no, take my car.” I said, “But you don't even know me.” She goes, “No, no, no, don't worry about it.” Well, I get in her car and she has a car phone. And I'm like, oh, my god. In the eighties, huh? I'm like, oh, my gosh, they've got a car phone. So I went and got the keys, returned her car. Caitlin was fine. But she was so nice to do that. But it was like, oh, my gosh. Everyone was just pretty nice and understated in a way. One of the things with living here because it's a gated community is that early on a few houses down there were some people from Texas; they had Texas plates, and they were drug dealers, which was actually, even though they were renting, it was a safe area for them because nobody could get into the neighborhood. So they could— That makes sense. Yeah. So they could do their business, but...yeah. They were here about six months. And you go, oh, there's something going on here. You don't even think about that. How did you know? Well, I think there's just—you just sort of know things. Probably I was friends with their neighbors and there's some comings and goings on here that don't seem to be legitimate. They're 8 not really part of the neighborhood; they're just kind of staying here. Unsavory people coming and going. And then they were gone in about six months. Yeah, they were drug dealers. They were making money doing that. Yeah, yeah. Any other kind of stories, not about drug dealers, but about interesting people that were part of what was going on? Let me see. Dr. [Gregory] Hetter, he built a beautiful home, and then he ended up moving to Paris. He was a plastic surgeon in town. He always had a Valentine's Day party where you had to wear red. It was all desserts and lovely events. Well, tell me more about those events. That sounds like fun. Oh, they were really fun. Of course, they were all catered. I can't remember who catered them, but you always had to wear red. His home, once again, was designed by an architect. His significant other was, I believe, Swedish. So there were a lot of Swedish touches to his house. It wasn't very large, but it was perfect for the two of them, but just architecturally really interesting. He was prominent and he just had a lovely event, champagne and desserts for Valentine's, which was nice. I'm trying to think what else. So the neighbors were invited? Yeah, neighbors and friends, neighbors and friends, yeah, a lot of the medical community. That's the thing about living here; there were a lot of physicians that lived here and a lot of casino executives because it was so close to Strip. Kenny Wynn lived around the corner with Phyllis and their daughter, Ashley. They were all just nice. The kids would play together. What schools did they go to? Well, my children went to Las Vegas Day School, and then most of the children in the neighborhood went to Las Vegas Day School. [The] Meadows [School] was just starting back 9 then when we came in the eighties. That was just the beginning. Maybe they went to [Howard] Wasden [Elementary School]. Then my children ended up—I got a zone variance for Bonanza [High School]. But most of the other children went to Bonanza, [Ed W.] Clark [High School] (because we were zoned for Clark), the Meadows, and [Bishop] Gorman [High School]. Oh, and Faith Lutheran [Middle School and High School], I think, Faith Lutheran. But it's surprising; like, the Ruggerolis have lived here forever. Higgins, Jerry Higgins lived here and now his daughter lives here and she's raising her family in the same house. Yeah, there seems to be this continuity that you can't find in other neighborhoods. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I think people just seem to really like the location. Maybe that's part of it and just the history. So what kinds of things did you do for fun and for entertainment? Well, let me think. What did we do for fun? Well, we would go to the baseball games. My husband was an investor in the hockey team. So we'd go to the hockey games. He was part owner of the Las Vegas Thunder. So that was one of our—our son's birthday was at the Las Vegas Thunder games. So we would do that. We would go to Circus Circus to the amusement park on the inside [Adventuredome Theme Park] and Wet'n'Wild, of course. MGM [Grand Hotel] had an amusement park [MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park]. We were fortunate in that a while ago we bought a second home in California. So a lot of summers we'd be in California. But here, we'd hike at Mount Charleston, go out to Red Rock [Canyon National Conservation Area], hike Red Rock, swim. What else? Just sort of those sorts of things. My life here—my children were in dance. They took music lessons. So my life wasn't really any different than had I lived anyplace else. It was busy just doing kid things. 10 What was it like interacting with other moms? It's interesting because when we moved here we were instantly part of the medical community. It was kind of a big deal. We would go to an event and it was always catered. We weren't used to—if anybody had a party, they catered it. We would go to an event and it would be cotton candy machines and hot dogs. I mean these big, extravagant affairs, which were amazing. I guess at the time a lot of things like birthday parties were big events. My neighbor across the street, one of her birthday parties was she got ponies and did pony rides on our lot, which was fun. The kids all got to take pony rides. And there was always Penny Poo or someone like that to perform. You'd go to Wet'n'Wild for a birthday party. One time I took my kids out to Primm on that roller coaster ride. I took about ten kids out there for a birthday event and so we could all ride the roller coaster. Chuck E. Cheese pizza events. They were always kind of big deals. I mean people made a...at the time for us it was like they were some—kind of what people would think were maybe extravagant. So of all the birthday parties and events that you have been to here, what was the most extravagant one or something that really etched into your memory? I would say probably the most extravagant events were the Sunrise [Hospital] Christmas parties. Those were always just amazing events with entertainment and lovely baskets to take home for breakfast and a Christmas present. The hospital parties were pretty extravagant and Sunrise was always the one event that everybody wanted to go to. Are you going to Sunrise? Then the other nice event was An Evening to Treasure with Assistance League of Las Vegas where I volunteered for years and years. That event was with Neiman Marcus. We would have access—it was like a scavenger hunt at Neiman Marcus. You'd go to different departments and a lovely dinner and then you'd win prizes. So that was really lovely. I mean that was really 11 nice. Most of the parties in the—most of the events here—what's the uncle who owns the Palms? Oh, the Maloof, Mr. Maloof. So he lives on the outer circle. He's always had like a really nice Christmas event in the past, not that it was extravagant or anything like that. But his home is just amazing. He has this huge pipe organ that's incredible and all these sculptures. So that was always a nice event. Nothing really extravagant here in the neighborhood, though. There have been fundraising events that people have hosted for various things, but not really—or if there are great big parties, I wasn't invited to them, so... [Laughing] Sounds like you've been to a great deal of really wonderful events. Yeah, yeah. Las Vegas was, I think, just a good place back then. It was a small community. It was. It turned out well for us living here. Sometimes I just wonder what it's like to have been here through historic events, or at least historic (27:47). Well, we were here for the PEPCON [Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada] blast. We did have some foundation problems. I was actually at the Sporting House, which was the real popular gym at the time, and the whole building shook. I think a pane of their glass cracked. We came home. There was a crack in our foundation just from the blast. I'm trying to think what else. One thing that's been really nice about living here is just historically the casinos, how it's just changed the face of Las Vegas. That's been pretty remarkable. One of my disappointments is that when we moved here the gaming was really confined to the Strip and all of those casinos and then they started doing the neighborhood casinos, and I think that that changed the face of the community. Like, for example, we used to go to a bowling alley. Well, now the bowling 12 alleys are in casinos. Or you'd go to Red Rock Movie Theater on Charleston, but it wasn't...and now a lot of movie theaters are in casinos. That started to sort of bother me a little bit, was that to take your kids to a lot of places we were just going into a casino. What they would want to do is they would want to go to Treasure Island and play the games or whatever. So just because of the heat and all that you were a little limited in what was really available. Like they used to go bowling, like the bowling alleys and things like that. Then when you have to go to a casino all the time, it just—that sort of change just kind of bothered me a little bit. What about shopping, how has that changed? Well, shopping has—this is amazing. I'm always so amazed what Las Vegas has to offer because, as I said, we'd have to go to Los Angeles. Most everything we purchased for our house, we would go to L.A. or we'd be at a meeting in San Francisco and I'd go to Macy's in San Francisco and, oh, look at this; I'll buy this. The mall was the Fashion Show, and that was just the very beginning, and Meadows Mall. And Meadows Mall would have like antique shows where everybody would come. It had antique shows, huh? Yeah. I mean that's it. People would bring in antiques and set it up in the mall. That's hard to imagine now. It is hard to imagine, but that's basically what—it was really, really limited. The other thing, too, is like a good friend of mine, when our children were really young and it was so hot, we'd just take them to the mall because it was air-conditioned and just push them in their strollers in the mall and just window shop or whatever. There wasn't a lot to do. There was a Bullock's and there were some department stores, but not really a lot of great shopping. Most everyone would go to L.A. or if they were traveling. There may be one or two 13 furniture stores. It was really just a little town, which I miss. It sounds like you're still in contact with a lot of people that were your neighbors. I am. I am. You're still pretty much a part of that community. Exactly, yeah, yeah. Elaine across the street, I've known her forever. The Beckers have lived across the street ever since I've lived here. I used to know a lot of people when my kids would go around the neighborhood; they'd be playing. But now, because my kids are all grown, I just don't really go around the neighborhood very much. Is your feeling that—and I understand you probably wouldn't know, but what is your sense percentagewise as to how many people here are new and how many people have been here for at least ten, 15 years? I think probably 50 percent have been here for really a long time. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Or could be even more. I mean I know people had financial difficulties and some people moved and all of that. But I think a lot of people—I can think of probably ten people right offhand that I know have been here. My neighbor, he's been my neighbor for a really long time. Actually, Amber Wolfram, the young girl that moved in whose older sister baby-sat for us, the woman who lived there lived there forever. Lauren lived there for a number of years before she moved. And Amber grew up in the neighborhood. And so most of the people—I think several. So being part of the community for such a long time and also being connected to what's happening on the Strip and events in general, who would you say maybe had the most influence on you or maybe made a really big impression on you or somebody who maybe was an inspiration for you here in terms of personalities? Oh, my gosh. I'm trying to think offhand. 14 Maybe somebody who was your neighbor, not necessarily somebody who was a celebrity person, but just somebody who was— Right. No, no, no. That's what I'm trying to think. I would have to say that I think it was most likely a close group of friends when we very first moved here and they were mostly physicians and physician wives because we established really strong friendships and I think that was really helpful. I don't think I can really name one person, but I think that those friendships were just a sense of community that made me happy to still want to stay in Las Vegas. A lot of faces come into play, but not one person in particular. Do you still have those friends? Yeah, I still see them. I mean that's what I mean. It's after 30 years. That's incredible. It's incredible. We were just at a wedding. Katie was married to an orthopedic surgeon. And we dressed up as the Flinstones for one of our parties. I was Wilma and my husband was Fred and she was—Barney and what's the other one's name? It was a big Halloween event. Was that for the Assistance League? No, no, no. This was just one of those parties. It was a Halloween party. And we thought, oh, we'll go as Fred and Wilma. What's the other person's name? Anyway, the Flinstones. Was that at a neighbor's house? No. It was a general surgeon's party. That's when he had cotton candy machines, just anything you could want, hot dogs and pretzels, all set up at his home. I hadn't seen her and we just reconnected at a wedding. So that's what I really like is that I've lived here for such awhile that I see people I've known all these years. They lived out in Quail Ridge. They moved out. They built a home there when it was first being developed. It was a big deal to go all the way over 15 there to visit someone. But surprisingly, we are still acquainted with a lot of the physicians from 30 years ago. Do people still do fun parties like that? They do, but not so much. Not so much. I think it was just a really special time in a way. Oh, like Super Bowl parties were really a big deal. We'd go to a Super Bowl party. And I remember the first year. I didn't even think about getting a babysitter. It just didn't enter my mind. We're invited to a Super Bowl party. It didn't enter my mind that I just couldn't bring Nicole with me. She was one and a half. And we arrive at this party and they've rented TVs for every room. So it doesn't matter where you are. And it's all catered. And I walk in and it's like, oh, my goodness, oh. So then every year I had to get a babysitter after that. Then I knew. I mean it just never entered my mind. That's what I'm saying is that every party I went to was sort of like that, a catered event, a big deal, lovely, really, really lovely. But we went to visit some friends in Seattle and I'm at their home and looking down. I go, “Oh, they're having a party down there.” And my friend goes, “Yeah, yeah.” And I go, “They have a keg?” “Yeah, yeah.” “It's not catered?” And I thought—we laughed because I said, “It's just so crazy where I live. Everything's just like this, really, really”—and everyone was really generous. Like, my husband's partners at Christmas would bring lovely presents, just a very generous community. But yeah, that was one of my situations. Were there any fun, say, entertainers or any fun encounters like that at those parties? Anybody that became maybe a legend later or anything like that? I'm trying to think. One of the things that was really fun to do was to take everyone by Siegfried and Roy's house, which was over here. And they were at this boarding house. So we'd always see Roy, because he would work out there. 16 Oh, Diana Ross had a house here. She had a house on the inner circle. I always wondered, okay, so if you were Diana Ross, what kind of car would she drive? One day I'm pulling in the neighborhood and there's Diana Ross in a Rolls-Royce. And I thought, that's the kind of car Diana Ross would drive, exactly. But once again, her house wasn't pretentious at all. It was close to the Strip. Then I saw Suzanne Somers' house because she had like an estate out in the northwest. She had a beauty salon and dance area and all that. That must have been pretty incredible, too. That was. She had like trails around. That was nice. Kind of an adobe, Spanish sort of. I thought somebody else...oh, the other person who's actually, really, really nice who's actually related to Amber Wolfram was Elvis Presley's big bandleader. We became friends with them. So we would go over to their house. Guercio I think is the last name. I can't remember now. Ed Gercio? But yeah, so they were nice. I'm trying to think of any other entertainers when we moved here. Just mostly Diana Ross. Gaming executives—the Schorrs, Bobby Baldwin, Kenny Wynn. Did they ever share at events their views on life? No, no, no. The only thing is, though, that I used to go, “Oh,” because all these limousines would come in. So if they ever had to go to the airport or whatever, the limousine would come in and take them to the airport. Or if they came back from a trip, a limousine would come