Page 9 - 2005 DT 12 Issues

In This Issue

Featured Article
Growing up in Las Vegas.................1

Special
Training Schedule...........................6

Departments
February 2005 News & Notes.............................2
Programs & Hikes.......................4
Desk Schedule...........................6
Bulletin Board.............................8

Growing up in Las Vegas . . . way back when as it is today. Then kids
would do chores in the mornings (most
the early years. A Centennial Reflection. families had vegetable gardens and
chicken coops that needed tending) and,
by Jack Ryan little town (pop. 2,000) boasted a two- after the main meal, nap during the heat
story Spanish style school. Some 40 of the afternoon. Mom would cover the
rowing up in Las Vegas has al- years later, the
ways been a lot of fun. Even pupils —now
Gback 100 years when our city grandfathers and
was born. Kids then had no Pokemon or grandmothers—
motorized scooters as they do today. But recollected those Courtesy, UNLV Sp.
they had just as much fun playing Kick days for the Junior
the Can (something of a combination of League of Las
hide-and-seek and tag) and Red Rover, Vegas. They re-
Red Rover, Let Johnny (or Jane) Come membered the
Over—one team of boys and girls try- broad stairway to
ing to break through a human chain the second floor
formed by another team. for grades 5 to 8;
In the old days, Mom or Dad didn’t the first floor had Las Vegas Creek, 1905-1910
pick up the kids from school in a Hum- grades 1 to 4 and the central coal fur-
mer. But if you wanted a ride, the town nace. The old-timers’ most pungent remi- open windows and doorways with bur-
burros were always ready to oblige. Kids niscence: the oily smell of the brightly lap towels dowsed in cold water; that
would hop on them (the burros didn’t polished wooden floors. would make the desert breezes blowing
like that at first) and ride them home or Until the Twenties, school girls through the house refreshingly cool.
explore the desert or have burro races. wore long ribbed black stockings, ankle When electricity became common, an
Olive Lake was one of nine siblings high-button shoes, and below-the-knees ordinary fan blowing over a block of ice
who arrived here in 1904, even before skirts. The boys wore corduroy knickers, cooled one room of a home. In the
Las Vegas became an official town. She high-top shoes, clip-on neckties, and jaunty evening after a cold supper, playtime
was a champion burro rider. On a dare caps—worn with peaks facing forward. began. Ada Lake, Olive’s sister, said al-
she rode a burro through the first school They would get to school early to most 50 years later, “I remember it was
built in Las Vegas. Her father, the town’s gossip and play marbles or jacks. But too hot to sleep at night, and the chil-
first barber, had helped build the all- when classes began, there was no run- dren would stay out and play until about
frame building, and he must have given ning about and shouting like today. The 11 o’clock. Games like Run, Sheep, Run.
Olive stern words for using the new pupils would fall into military formation It was a wonder that nobody got snake
school as a riding academy. and tramp silently to their rooms under bite running around in the dark.”
Education was always a top prior- the watchful eyes of their teachers, some In those days, many children were
ity of Las Vegas. The first schoolhouse of whom might clap a marching rhythm called “summer babies.” That meant that
was built when most residents still lived to keep everybody in step.
in homes with dirt floors, wooden walls Of course, there was no school in
and tent roofs. By its second decade, the the summer. Las Vegas was just as hot Growing Up, continued on p 7