Transcript of interview with Barbara Agonia by Suzanne Becker, September 17, 2007, September 25, 2010, & October 2, 2007

This oral history has been made possible by a generous gift from Emilie N. Wanderer for the Nevada Women Oral History Program F ill LIS Mb An Interview with Barbara Agonia An Oral History Conducted by Suzanne Becker Las Vegas Women Oral History Project University of Nevada, Las Vegas 2008 © NSHE, Women's Research Institute of Nevada, 2008 Produced by: Las Vegas Women Oral History Project Women's Research Institute of Nevada, UNLV Dr. Joanne L. Goodwin, Director Suzanne Becker, Interviewer Annette Amdal, Transcription This interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of a gift from Emilie Wanderer through the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Foundation. The College of Liberal Arts provides a home for the Women's Research Institute of Nevada as well as a wide variety of in-kind services. The History Department provided necessary reassignment for the director as well as graduate assistants for the project. The department, as well as the college and university administration, enabled students and faculty to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank the university for its support that gave an idea the chance to flourish. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Las Vegas Women Oral History Project. Additional transcripts may be found under that series title. Joanne Goodwin, Project Director Associate Professor, Department of History University of Nevada, Las Vegas iv List of Illustrations All photographs, with the exception of the frontispiece, may be found following page 75 in the order listed below. All photographs are courtesy of Barbara Agonia. 1. Barbara Agonia with Harry Reid in his Las Vegas office, 1987. 2. Catching Dinner at Duck Pond, Utah. 3. Agonia family photo at Soroptimist Plant-a-Pine, 1998. 4. Barbara Agonia at NEW Leadership Nevada, 2003. 5. Attending Breast Cancer Awareness Fundraiser, 1997. 6. Barbara Agonia, District 1 Director, Sierra Nevada Region Soroptimist International, 1995. 7. Always the cheerleader, District 1 Director, Regional Conference, 1996. 8. Playing the role of a Suffragette, 1996. 9. Having fun on Halloween. 10. Soroptimist International Convention, Glasgow Scotland, 2007. Preface When Barbara Agonia arrived in Las Vegas in 1969 to pursue a Master's Degree in English, the University of Nevada Las Vegas was barely ten years old and the population of Las Vegas was just approaching 160,000 residents. At the time, she was 35 years-old and it was a decision and move that would forever change her life and higher education in Clark County. Barbara Agonia was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1934 to Robert Lewis Klinefelter and Suzanne Carter Klinefelter. At the time of Barbara's birth, her father worked for Brown Shoe Company in St. Louis. The family moved to Bunker Hill, Illinois when Barbara was still an infant. This was Mr. Klinefelter's hometown where a portion of the extended family still resided. In the late 1930s, Mr. Klinefelter got a job in a brass mill near Alton, Illinois, and he commuted there daily. When the United States entered World War II, Mr. Klinefelter tried to enlist in the army, but was rejected because he had two small children and because he worked in an essential industry. He decided to work in a non-essential industry and took a job at Montgomery Ward in Oak Park, Illinois. Barbara was in the third grade that year. Still unable to enlist, Mr. Klinefelter moved the family to Wabash, Indiana, and began working for General Tire in 1943. They moved to Logansport, Indiana in 1947. Agonia recounts that education has always been a significant part of her life, with the importance of a good education stressed in her life from early childhood forward. After graduating from high school in Logansport, Indiana, she attended Hanover College in southern Indiana, enrolling in 1952. Her educational experience at Hanover included a VI year studying abroad at the University of Exeter in Devonshire, England—an experience which Agonia credits as further cementing her commitment to education and her love of literature and language. She graduated from Hanover in 1957 with a double major in English and speech/ theater. Agonia spent her first years out of college teaching high school English, speech, and theater in west central Illinois and the next eight in northern Illinois. A little over ten years into her career, at the age of 35, she decided to pursue a Master's degree in English. Her sister, Martha, who at the time lived in Las Vegas, suggested checking into programs offered at the city's newly formed university. In 1969, Barbara moved to Las Vegas and enrolled in the English Department at UNLV. As Agonia was completing her degree in 1971, the community college system in Nevada was emerging and seeking faculty for the up and coming institution. Curious to know more about the new system, Agonia scheduled a meeting with the person in charge of hiring. Two hours later, she walked out with a contract in her hand, one of eight new faculty members at Clark County Community College, now known as College of Southern Nevada. In her early years with the college, Agonia did a great deal of public speaking on behalf on the newly formed system, promoting the new institution and reaching out to potential students. At the same time, she taught full course loads in composition and literature, and eventually became chair of the English department. Her new position and public speaking work on behalf of the college not only provided her contact with the local Las Vegas community, it ultimately became the catalyst in spurring her passion for community involvement, particularly working on behalf of women within the community. • • Vll As the 1980s approached, Agonia became actively involved in rape crisis education, at the urging of Florence McClure. Then, in 1980, Agonia was again in on the ground floor of community programming, when she and Beverly Funk, at the urging of Judith Eaton, the president of Clark County Community College, established a Women's Center on campus. The Center was initially set up to help women in a variety of life circumstances, including women who were wanting to return to school or who were new to the process of school altogether. The center eventually became the Re-Entry Center offering skill development, tutoring programs, and other forms of assistance for anyone interested in returning to school. In addition to her involvement in and commitment to public education, Agonia has also been involved in the Soroptimist International organization for business and professional women who work to improve the lives of women and girls in local and international communities. In the Las Vegas area, Soroptimist International of Greater Las Vegas worked to establish the Rape Crisis Center and the Center for Domestic Violence, which later became SafeNest. Agonia has been working with the organization since 1982. Through Soroptimist International, she also became involved in Friends of the Nevada Wilderness, an organization devoted to designation and long-term protection of Nevada's wilderness areas. As the representative for Soroptimist International, she traveled to Washington to lobby and testify in front of the senate for the establishment of Great Basin National Park. Agonia's work in the Las Vegas community over the past forty years has been significant. She counts Florence McClure, Geneva Douglas, and Jean Ford amongst her greatest influences. As she notes in her oral history, "I learned how to be radical from those women." She happily embraces the label of radical. This attitude surfaces throughout Agonia's experiences and recollections, and underscores her work and dedication to the interplay of local education and women's issues within Nevada. ix Barbara Agonia in her office at Clark County Community College A An Interview with Barbara Agonia An Oral History Conducted by Suzanne Becker x Interview with Barbara Agonia September 1 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. sitting here with Barbara Agonia and, Barbara, ifyou wouldn 7 telling us, to begin, where you were born and when? P Well, like T.S. Eliot, I was born in St. Louis, Missouri. 1934. I think he got there a little before I did. It was the hottest day in June of that year. It was 110 in the shade and, of course, in 1934, there was no air conditioning, so my mom said no wonder I had red hair. And then we didn't live in St. Louis at the time; we lived in Bunker Hill, Illinois, which is about forty miles across the river and up a bit. So you were literally born in St. Louis but your family lived... In Illinois. And did you grow up there in Bunker Hill, Illinois? Grew up there until I was eight years old. And [of] course I was born during the Depression. And my, my dad actually had a job. He worked for Brown Shoe Company and so we were not hungry which was really good and of course most of our family lived on a farm. So we didn't, we had food but we did certainly grow up with the sense that you needed to be frugal. And then along came World War II in 1941. My sister had been born in March before that. My dad wanted to be a, a soldier. He wanted to go to war. And, and be a patriot. But they wouldn't take him because he had two little kids. And so he quit his job. He was then working in a brass mill making weaponry, of course. And so he quit his job and went to work for Montgomery Wards [in Oak Park, Illinois], thinking that that was so non-essential that they would take him in the military. But they wouldn't. And so at, at that time, he, we moved to the Chicago area. Okay. 1 Oak Park, Illinois. Where? Oak Park. Oak Park? Okay. A little bit on the outskirts of the city, is that right? Right. Right. And they wouldn't take my dad so after about six months there he said, well, he might as well go back into some productive industry and so he began working for a company that was making rubber products and, and parachutes. And so we moved to Wabash, Indiana. Now where is... Which, Wabash, Indiana, is on that northern route that goes through Fort Wayne. Okay. And I think it's Route 80 now but then it was just a road. And, and it's, Wabash is sort of central and, and it's located on the Wabash River. And so I went through fourth, fifth, sixth grades and seventh grades there. And that was a pretty wonderful time, actually. Yeah. In spite of, you know, we had rationing. And my mom was very creative and learned how to, to manage things so that we could live within our rationed budget and so you know, we, we actually thought that hot chocolate and cinnamon toast was a great treat for Sunday night dinner. See? That way the leftovers from Sunday, the main dinner, could be used on Monday. Yes. Very good. 2 And so, and she was very clever. You know, it took me, like forty years to figure out how manipulative she was. I mean, she actually had me convinced that tuna fish and noodles was a delicacy. And I still like it, by the way. That impirse ssive. Yeah. That was good. So we lived there and my, my mom became pregnant while we there and we moved to, to Logansport, Indiana, which was about fifty miles west. And so I went through eighth grade and all of high school there. Okay. Now can I just ask do you have siblings? I do. My sister, Martha. Okay. And my brother Bob was born when I was in the eighth grade, so we're... So you' the orlde est. I'm the oldest. We're spread out over fourteen years. There's almost, almost seven years between each of us. Wow! Yeah. And what are your folks' names? Oh! My, my dad was Robert Lewis Klinefelter. And my mother was Suzanne Carter Klinefelter. Okay. My mother came from the east. Her dad was a naval officer and then worked for U.S. Steel. My dad was from Illinois. Grew up as a farm kid. And then my sister's name is Martha Elizabeth Klinefelter Roberson and she lives here in Las Vegas now. My 3 brother's name is Robert Bauer Klinefelter. He, his middle name is after my step-grandfather. Okay. Him I'll tell you about a little bit later because he was a great influence in my life. And my brother and his wife live here in Las Vegas as well. [Also, my niece Karen and her husband and son are here. She's my brother's daughter.] So your family is... We're all here now. .. .pretty much here. That 'sgreat. We're small but we're mighty! And, as I said, I went through high school in Logansport, graduated in 1952. During the time that I was in high school, I was very, very, very fortunate to have teachers who really encouraged preparing for college and independence, and I was very active in high school. What kind of things, what sorts of things did you do in high school? What kinds of activities and such? Well, I was athletic. So I, I, we didn't have girls' teams in those days. We played half-court basketball. But I was active in the Girls Athletic Association, played basketball, volleyball, tennis, badminton, and swimming. And was there a lot of participation from girls at that point? Yes. Yes there was. We had a large group. Our high school had about twelve hundred students, I think. Well, that's pretty significant. 4 And it drew from all of the rural areas around the town. Logansport was about 35,000 people then. So until I moved to Las Vegas that was the biggest city I ever lived in. And then I also participated in theater and got an itch for directing in those days. And I was active in, well, I danced. I love to dance, went to all the school stuff. Wow. You know, and went to games. And, and I was very active also in the, my church youth group. I was a Presbyterian at the time and we had some real good fun. And as a matter of fact, I went, my church was on a place called Holy Hill. Because there was a Methodist Church, a Catholic Church, a Presbyterian Church and a Baptist Church on the four corners. And so all the kids participated in each other's youth activities and that was a great social opportunity and, and a great ecumenical opportunity as well. You know, so it was nothing to, on Christmas Eve for example, to go to a service at the Presbyterian Church and then go to Midnight Mass. So it was, it was pretty neat. So it sounds like there was a lot of, even though there were many different communities that fed into say, the area or the churches and the activities that you were involved in; it sounds like it was fairly tight-knit or cohesive. It was. It was a, a fairly cohesive community and, and it was a community that, in spite of being, you know, 35,000, was still very involved in all of its parts so that it, it felt like a small town. And you know, we walked to school, a mile and a half for me, it was no big deal, you know, because you just picked up friends along the way. Right. 5 That was, that was kind of needed. The lady next door to my best friend had two really big chow dogs, and they didn't like anybody so I used to go down my street, go across the street, go down a, part of a block, go back across the street... To avoid the... ...and pick up my friend. Yeah. ...the house? So that the dogs wouldn't come. And everybody had pets and, and the parents were really manipulative again, like my mom. They would all get together. So we all had hours, you know, you had to be in at a certain time on weekdays and Friday night and Saturday night and Sunday and, and all of our activities were approved. They just conspired to keep the kids on the straight and narrow and we had great fun but we alw[ays], we knew that our parents were keeping track of us. You knew your boundaries. We knew our boundaries and I think that was a very secure feeling. There was a lot of trust involved and at the same time, there were boundaries. And, and so it sounds like you had a lot of inspiration school, a lot of support [and] it sounds like your family was, was very involved... Oh yeah. ...and so, what waiyns , I mean, do you think that this sort of shaped your ambitions and, and you know, maybe the paths that you took for yourself? Well, if we go back in history a little bit, to when I was quite young, my step-grandfather, whom I called "Poppy," was a great influence in my life. From before I can remember, he was, he was always there. He talked to me. He took me with him. When 1 was a very 6 little girl, my nickname in Bunker Hill was "Shadow" because everywhere Poppy went, little Barbara Ann went. And, and I followed him. We went to the Post Office every day. We stopped at the bakery every day. We stopped at the drugstore every day. We knew everybody in town and they all knew Mr. Bauer and little Shadow. So Poppy read to me and then he taught me to read when I was really small. 1 think three and a half, four years old. Wow. I was picking words out of the newspaper because we read from the newspaper. And he always did the crossword puzzles so I was fascinated with words. And he told me bedtime stories. So, and he taught me, I always said I led a dual life as a child because I was Poppy's all day long till four o'clock. Four o'clock I had to come in, take a bath and put on a dress and then I was grandma's. Now mom and dad were around but somehow those grandparent memories really stick, you know. And so I, I learned about gardening. I learned about the magnificence of the earth and the care we need to take with it. Which affected some other activities later in my life, I'm sure. And so, you know it was— The first toy I really remember was a sled that my grandpa made for me. And we didn't have a lot of snow. And we didn't have any hills. But we went on that sled, you know, when it did snow and at that time we didn't have any family pets, and we weren't living on the farm then but we were at the farm a lot. So... Now the farm was in your family, was that your grandparents? Farm, yes. Yes. The farm was in the family but my grandpa had retired and his nephew was—because my dad didn't want to farm. What kind of farming was it? 1 Just general Midwestern farming. They, they had soybeans and corn and they had some cattle, not just, basically for eating. Yeah. a hIatr'ds life. And a few sheep and a few pigs and lots of chickens. And of course, cats and dogs. It was a hard life but, you know, it was a very good life, and because most of the people we knew were either farmers or ex-fanners.. .you know, who, who lived in town, it was "the life." So nobody really thought about it being that hard. Right. Right. And of course, back in those days, if you owned a hundred and sixty acres, you had a lot of property. It's still a lot of property. Well, yeah, except now of course, most of the farms are conglomerates. Right. So it's... Well, now the whole face of... ...kind of different. ...the whole industry of farming has changed. Right, everything has changed. A great deal. But at any rate, learning was just a part of my life. It sounds like it. Now my grandpa, we played cards. What kind of cards? 8 We played, well he called it "Casino," but it was really 21. So I could, I could count to 52. You know, I'd do, "50, 51, 52, Joker, Joker." That was the way I counted. And, and I could add or subtract up and down from 21. So when I started to school, you know, I could tie my shoes, I could read, and I could do some numbers. Yeah. And so I was, it was really an advantage to do that. But I, I was just, you know, I can't remember a time when I didn't think I was going to college. And after first grade, I can't remember when I didn't think I was going to be a teacher. And that's pretty remarkable. I mean, I think it's great that— it sounds like education was very much stressed in your house. Mmmm hmmm. And I, I know from a conversation we had before, you mentioned that your mom was very, very adamant about... Right. ...getting an education. Girls could do anything boys could do as far as my mom was concerned. And we, we just grew up that way. And was that different from a lot of the ways that your friends grew up or the values that were instilled in them? Do you think? I suppose it was but, but 1 don't recall that. I mean, when I got to junior high and high school, almost all the kids that I ran around with were also planning to go to college so we, I don't know, maybe we kind of started the trend in a way in that early fifties era, of, of saying, you know, girls can do a lot. 'Course there were lots of things we didn't know we could do. No, we kind of had options, you, as a girl you could be a housewife. 9 Graduate from high school, get married. That didn't appeal. You could be a nurse. And that was like cleaning up after everybody else. You could be a secretary, which was still serving somebody, or you could be a teacher. And those were kind of the four big career opportunities. Or you could work in a store or a factory. Right. I don't remember feeling any social distinctions among the girls who made different choices. I mean we all just kind of respected each other. The ones who didn't try in school were the ones who kind of didn't get everybody's respect. Okay. But other than that, it didn't matter. I mean, whether you made straight A's or C's and B's or, or what you planned to do afterwards, it was just sort of "We're all here together now." But we were encouraged to do the best that we could with what we had. And that was from our families and from our teachers and there was still, in those days, a good bit of racial discrimination. 1 had a good friend who sat next to me in school who was black and my dad would not even think about letting me go out with him. Really? Yeah. That was just a, that was a "no-no" in those days. At that time were you kind of conscious that there types of discrimination that, that were done? Just a little bit. Yes. That this was discrimination? Not, not fully conscious but a little bit because I thought my dad was totally unreasonable. Absolutely unreasonable. But then he also wouldn't let me date the cutest 10 guy in high school whose brother was a bandleader and had a narcotics problem and so, you know. I mean, dad was looking out for me. Right. And so it was, and of course, my friend would never have asked me out, either. But we would have gone places as a group together. But he was excluded and I think that was the beginning of my awareness. Okay. Yeah. It's interesting. So... Oh, sIo'mrr y, go on. Well, I was just going to say, so from there I did the expected thing and went to college. And where did you go to college? I went to Hanover College which is in southern Indiana about forty miles upriver from Louisville, Kentucky. Across the river, of course. What year did you go, what year were you in college? I went in 1956 or 1952, I'm sorry. I went in 1952 right after I graduated from high school. And I had a choice. I was very lucky. I did make good grades in school and so I had a choice. 1 had scholarship offers to the University of Indiana and also to Hanover and a couple of other places. And I really had to decide if I was going to be a big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond and I chose to be a big fish. And I went to Hanover for which I am very grateful. Because I had an incredibly fine education there. 1 1 So what, what was it? Talk a little bit about some of the experiences you had in college. First of all, what did you study? Well, I studied English and I was a PE minor. That changed a little bit later and I'll kind of work that in. I, of course, started with just a general liberal arts program and knew that I was an English major, and worked in that direction. By the way, the worst grade I got in college was in an English Lit class. I have to tell you that because that's what I taught later. But I—and it was a small campus so literally everyone belonged to a sorority or fraternity so I pledged a sorority after the... Which sorority were you in? It was Alpha Delta Pi. Okay. How big of a student population? You mentioned it was a small campus. We had about eight hundred students. So there was—all the classes were small. It was a very well trained, excellent, outstanding faculty, and, and we all had lots of advisers. So it was, it was a, a good educational experience. And a good social experience as well. And it was a kind of in loco parentis atmosphere. The college assumed that our parents expected them to take care of us. And so we had closing hours, and we had a no booze on campus and that kind of thing. [Y]ou know, rules got broken from time to time but basically it was a pretty sheltered kind of college life and yet, we had lots of social activities and, and each year you gained a few more privileges. Sure. Freshman, you know, you were in jail. It's still I think like that. 12 And of course it's, it's an adjustment. My parents were really funny. They took me down of course, and got me in my dorm and got me all settled and my mom had made all my clothes and then they said, "Now we'll see you Thanksgiving." You don't come home and we don't come down. You can call, you know, and we'll write back and forth but, but you're grown up now and you're on your own. And so I was amazed when they showed up for, for Family Day for one of the football games. They came and surprised me but didn't tell me they were coming either. And then I did go home at Thanksgiving. My mom had made the room, my room into something different. So, you know, that was to say, "You're always welcome home but you can't come home and stay because you're grown up." And so what did you think about that? At first, well, it kind of scared me and at the same time I was really proud of myself for being considered an adult. So that was really cool. And 1 dated a lot, went to a lot of social things, but I did do well. And the nice thing about the college was that we knew all the professors and the college president knew the name of every student. That is nice. It was really nice because I remember walking down the hall one day, my sophomore year, and Dr. Parker was sitting in his office and he said, "Miss Klinefelter" and beckoned me. And I went into his office with my knees shaking and he said, "I understand you got a C on your last English test. I think you should do better. And it's, if s nice talking with you. Goodbye." And I left. I did better. Believe me, I did better. But it was an 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning class for heaven's sakes. Oh my gosh! 13 It was inhuman. You know. But anyway, I did better, and had marvelous teachers. During my sophomore year, 1 was working in the English department 'cause I, I needed extra jobs. I had a full ride scholarship, but I, I needed extra jobs for spending money so 1 swept the gym, the men's gym, as one job and then I worked in the English department. And I was sorting slides one day and said, "Oh, these things are a mess. Somebody needs to go take some new pictures." And Dr. Miles, who was my advisor and mentor said, "Well, why don't you go?" I said, "Okay, fine." And went back to my sorority house. And a few weeks later I got a letter from the University of Exeter saying that I had been accepted. Exeter in... In England. In Devonshire, England. In Exeter. Okay. And.. .so I just, I ran out of the door of my house and I ran across campus and went down faculty row, knocked on Dr. Miles' door, and said to his wife, "I've got to see Dr. Miles right now!" And she said, "He's in his office." And so I went in and I said, "What have you done to me?" And he said, "You said you were going. Okay, now you're accepted, so go." So you'd, you'd expressed interest in wanting to go... To England. ...to do some work, do some studying in England... And, and take some pictures! And take pictures of what? You know, all the literary sites. 14 Okay. Okay. And, so he decided that I was a candidate for overseas study. We, we did not have one on campus at that time. It was a fairly new thing except for the Ivy Leagues. And so I said, well...okay. I hat must have been—how did you I feel], what were you thinking? 1 was just stunned. I, I don't remember that I could, was even capable of thought at that point. So I didn't tell my parents. I thought it over, I thought, "What am I going to do? I don't have any money." And I just let it go. You know, I, going to England. And then another student, who was actually a freshman, decided that he wanted to go with me. His name was Kent Thompson and Kent is now a professor at the University of New Brunswick. And so they finally agreed they would let him go 'cause well, it kinda helped for me to have a chaperone. So finally at Easter, I told my folks that I was going to England and, and you know my mom and dad said, "Well, that's great honey but how are you going to pay for it?" I said, "I don't know. But Em going." So you just decided, you thought, I'm going to do this? And you 7/ figure out how to— Yeah. So I saved all my money that I could and, and along came summer and I got a full-time job teaching in the parks system, teaching things to little boys. First time I ever held a golf club was the evening before I taught them how to hit a golf ball. And, and so it was coming up on July and I needed to start paying some money here and there. For your trip? For my trip. Had to, you know, pay for the ship. I had my reservation. I got that. I was sailing on the Mauretania. Which was a Cunard lines ship and, and I didn't—now Kent didn't have that problem 'cause his folks had a nice productive farm and they had some 15 money and so he was okay, but I didn't have anything. And then I went to the mailbox and we were on the farm by then in a little town called Royal Center, Indiana, and I went out to the mailbox and there was an envelope from, from Maude Henricks, who lived in Litchfield, Illinois, who was a distant cousin of my grandpa. Okay. And she had\ she had somehow heard that you were wanting to go? She had somehow heard that I wanted to go to England and so she said she was so proud of me because none of the other girls in the family were doing anything with their brains, and so she sent me a check for a thousand dollars that was a loan and a hundred and twenty-five dollars that I was to buy clothes with. And I was to make up my own form for her that said 1 would pay it back. So I did that and I sent it back to her right away and so I went to England on Maude's money. That9s amazing. It s amazing. And she was a wonderful woman. She never married—had a lot of nieces and nephews but I don't know, I guess she just had some faith that I would do something with my education and so, I always felt a responsibility], I still feel a responsibility to Maude, you know. And so I went. So was a, that was a key, it sounds like that was a really, a key moment. Oh, that was huge! It was huge! And, and you know, my grandpa never mentioned anything about it so, you know, I don't know, I don't know how it all came about. I just said, "It's a miracle!" You know and, and so we, we went to England. We sailed, it, it was a seven day sail. 'Course you didn't fly in those days. And we arrived in early September. Well, what was a week on a ship like? 16 'Lking ar|d rolling! It's not a good time to cross the Atlantic on a ship but it gieat fun. We didn't get seasick, either one of us. My roommate was seasick ume, she was an older lady from Greece, I think. And so I didn't spend much time 1 • abin. Course you know, we went the lowest class possible so we were, the - ot being in the lower classes, there's not as much movement on the ship. / JiJ not know that. • -'t .ow, as you get on the top, you just look at the fulcrum and see that happen. But •s. c played a lot of ping-pong, we ate, we danced and, and just met people. We met a "i r oup of young men who were going to Ireland to become priests. One of them •v.i really adorable and 1 got a crush on him. But he went on anyway. His name was Mill I remember that. I hope he did well. I hope he did well. He was a nice guy. And en A e landed and it was amazing. Landing in Southampton and it was so quiet. It was net in bngland. You know, it's still quiet there. I 17» compared to living Indiana? in A el u was more like that. But we had left New York, remember? Night. Yes. A In. ii was, was so loud and so rude. And it was kind o