Lambert VanDerMeer was a 55-year resident of Las Vegas, Nevada. He was born in Holland in November 23, 1899, and was a member of the North Las Vegas, Nevada Host Lions Club. He died October 07, 1983.
A resident of Southern Nevada from the age of three, Susan Watson shares her memories of growing up and living in Las Vegas. After a year in Boulder City, Susan's father bought an old army barrack and converted it to a home in North Las Vegas; Susan remembers playing in the desert with her siblings and attending elementary and middle school before starting at Rancho High. Watching her mother design costumes for Strip performers and beautiful dresses for her own high school dances no doubt helped Susan develop her own sense of taste and style - something that she would put to good use over many years as an interior designer. Before that though, Susan shares her memories of what life was like in the Las Vegas of the 1950s and 1960s: cruising Fremont Street; movie nights; after-school work; favorite teachers; lunches on the lawn; and dance club. All combine to paint a vivid picture of a smaller town and a simpler time in the Las Vegas valley.
Harry Kogan was born March 11, 1916 to poor Russian immigrant parents in the Jewish ghetto of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Kogan sometimes walked to school shoeless, with no hat nor a raincoat. A treat would be his mother handing him ten-cents to go to the theater and enjoy a silent movie. After graduating from high school in 1933, Kogan quickly took one of the rare jobs available in a garment manufacturing company where he worked his way into being a skilled and valued fabric cutter—a job that paid $35 a week.