HomeMy Public PortalAboutArmstrong, Blair
RELEASE OF TAPES TO IDAHO BICENTENNIAL COMMISSION'S ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
I, Blair Armstrong on this day, March 16, 1976
hereby give and grant to the Idaho State Historical Society and the Idaho
Bicentennial Commission as a donation for such scholarly and educational
purposes as the Idaho Historical Society and the Idaho Bicentennial
Commission shall determine, the tape recordings made today, and all
literary rights therein.
PAYETTE LAKES
PROGRESSIVE CLUB
Blair Armstrong
with Joe Bennett
and Doug Jones
March 16, 1976
Page 1
DOUG "Today's date is March 16, 1976. ?e are conducting an interview between
Mr. Blair Armstrong and Mr. Joe Bennett for the purpose of recording oral
history. This interview is being taped at Mr. Armstrong's residence in
McCall and the time now is approximately 10:45."
"Well Blair, the first thing we want to know is your date of birth."
"May 23, 1902."
"And where?"
BLAIR "Ado, Minnisota"
JOE "What?"
BLAIR "Ada, Minnisota"'
"Can you tell us what your folks did? Where they were from?"
BLAIR "Well, my mother was from Scotland. She was born and raised in Scotland. And
my father was born in Iowa."
JOE "What did your father do for a living?"
BLAIR "He was in the real estate business there. Then when he moved to Boise,
I was only a year or so old, he was with the General Land Office."
JOE "You went to school then in Boise?"
BLAIR "In Boise, yeah"
JOB "Went to grade school, high school. Did you go to college, too?"
BLAIR "Yeah, one year at the University of Idaho in Movcow."
Page 2
JOE "What did you say your dad did there in Boise?"
BLAIR "With the General Land Office he was a draftsman."
JOE `When did you first start to work? After you got out of college, I suppose."
"Right"
"What was your first job that you did?"
BLAIR "Well, after I went to work for the bank in Boise."
JOE "What bank did you work for?"
BLAIR "Idaho First National"
JOE "Who was the president of the bank at that time?"
BLAIR "Crawford Moore."
JOE "After Crawford Moore left who was the next president?"
BLAIR "Raymond Moore was there. As cashier or something."
JOE "Then he was next. How long did you work there at the bank?"
BLAIR "About four. years."
JOE "Can you tell us anything about it. Anything exciting about it? Did you
have any bank hold up or anything?"
BLAIR "No"
JOE "Well, when did you come to Long Valley?"
BLAIR "That was in 1928."
JOE "Just before the depression started."
BLAIR "Right"
JOE "Maybe we better get something on Bert, your uncle. Tell us about him.
When he came to Long Valley. Where he was from."
Page 3
BLAIR "I don't know. Seems to me it was around July, 1912. I don't really know,
Joe."
"Do you remee,er what he first did when he came to Long Valley?"
BLAIR "Well, he worked as a laud appraiser and it was what they called Armetrong
Loan and Investment Compsry. Also for a time he worked for Marshall Lewis in
the seed business. Then he went into the bank, along I suppose about 1915
or '12 or eomewbere along in there."
JOE "Can you tell me about the first bank? That was there at Roseberry."
BLAIR "No, I don't. Just hearsay on that. It was in Roseberry then they moved
it to Donnelly."
"I think Lukas he had a bank in Meadows. I think he started it, because his
son was ceshier, Ynrker V. Lukas. Then I believe he sold out to Cruisin
didn't he?"
BLAIR "Yeah, about the time I come up there was some kind of a confusion .there with
the bank at Emmett. There Was a connection between them. Just prior to
that, I think Burt and the Halferty'a and the Cook's bought Cruisin out."
JOE "I know Pete was the cashier for a while."
BLAIR "Well, it we after that. When Raymond Moore was working there and I guess
he was about to cuft . That's when Burt came to Boise and invited me to come
up and help him, in Donnelly. They were stockholders and I bought McGregors'
interest."
JOE "That was Gordon McGregora' dad."
BLAIR "Yeah, his father and the father, what we his name? keyway, McGregor was
named after him."
JOE "Yeah, he was superintendent of logging at the Boise-Payette Lumber Company.
Page 4
JOE "And Burt I believe, he told me he owned 517: of the stock in the bank."
BLAIR "Hell, that's about right."
JOE "Mrs. Cook was the post master at McCall. And McGregor was the logging
cuprefntendant and Bob Helferty wes both our Representative and eve
&clutter. Could you tell us something about the loans you made? I went to
get the depression in here pretty quick, too."
BLAIR "They were practically all agricultural teens, just for the farmers around."
JOE "I remember Carl Brown fussing because Burt wouldn't lend him all the money
and loaned it all to us farmers instead."
BLAIR "At the time the mill burned ue loaned Carl a little money I remember. But
the trouble there was that out loan limit was not high enough to help him
any. We helped him out on one or two things there. He needed a lot of money
and our loan limit was United so we couldn't loam him all he needed."
"Can you tell us something about the banks during the depression when they
all started to go broke? What ;happened?"
BLAIR "We were one of the few banks in Idaho that didn't go broke."
JOE "Why was that? Did Burt send you to Boise after a bunch or money?"
BLAIR "Well, yes, we never did have a run. But we did have considerable with-
holding, you might say. A fella that got some money who would normally
have deposited it, he just put it in his pocket. Deposits went down to
pretty small. But that one time, that was when the First National Bank went
broke in Boise. All the banks practically in the Byte had gone broke.
First Security went broke before that but then it was Pacific National. Later
First Security took it over. Then later Boise State Bank went broke. First
PAGE 5
BLAIR "NationaI Bank was re-organized, they were down there for a while. It was
at that time that, you referred to calling down for mercy, we were a little
worried so we decided we'd better have some money. So I went down to DCASC
and got about forty or fifty thousand dollars. Mostly in five and ten dollar_
bills. Then we stacked it out on the counter so people could look at it and
thing, 'Well, they've got money."
JOE "I stopped there one night and I think Burt kept the bank open late so they
could draw their money out."
"Yeah, we opened at 8:00 and didn't close till '6:00 and durl:g the bank
holiday when all banks were closed we just propped the door open and stayed
there. We didn't do any business. There was one transaction at that time.
Do you remember, was it Charlie Pratt that w al old bachelor who lived
down on Gold Fork? He come in one day, during the bank holiday, and he pulled
a revolver out of his pocket and laid it down on the counter. And .he Gays,
'I've never asked for credit in my lie. And I need a few groceries. I
want ten dollars. ' I gave him the ten dollars!"
JOE "that's the closest you ever ceye to being held up."
BLAIR "Well, he didn't really point it at me, he just put it on the counter and
says, 'I want ten buck ' He got his ten bucks and went over and bought some
groceries."
JOE "I stopped there one evening and some guy was in there just walking back and
forth and some woman come in and started to draw her money out. She said,
Burt got the money for her and she said, 'Well, what am I going to do with
Page 6
JOE "this money if I take it home?' he said, 'You put it in your sock. ' and she
said, 'I'm net going to do that, ' he said, 'Why don't you leave it where it
is? What's the matter with you anyhow?' 'Well , everybody's drawing their
money out. ' That was before the holiday. This other guy, the bank had went
broke in Cascade, and he'd drawed his money out. he said, 'It's been in here
a long time it might as well stay now. ' I don't know who the woman was, I
can't remember. This fella come over there and he caid, 'Are you going to
leave your money here?' she said, 'Well, I'm not going to take it home, the
kids will get a hold of it. ' he said, 'I've got three thousand dollars I've
been packing in my pocket. I've been up with it every night and I'm afraid
somebody's gonna take it away from me. If you're gonna leave yours here I'll
cave it here. ' When they went out Burt said, 'Boy, that was getting close.
I was getting awful low on money."
BLAIR "Actually, to my recollection and that was when the bank in New Meadows
closed. One individual, I will not mention his name came in and drew his
money. The rest of them just neglected to deposit it and if they Lad a few
buck a there when they bought groceries they'd make a check for twenty-five
and spend five of it. So our deposits were pretty well depleted. Was it
the Small Business Administration that come in there and was making loans
to banks? I can't remember what they called it. It was a government agency."
JOE "Yeah, I can't think of it right now. I know it reel well, too."
BLAIR "Anyway, at about that time we were running a little short of money and
there was several good farmers that had a ranch or a farm or was well stocked
Page 7
BLAIR "and equipped and they owed us a little money and we didn't l'ant to ask them
to sell at that time to sacrifice their cattle so we picked out, oh I don't
remember, six or eight good loans. And I went down to Boise to borrow some
money on them from this government agency."
JOE "Well, that was the Reconstruction Finance Corporation."
'LAIR "Yeah, anyway they dilly, dallied along and I made one or two trips to
Boise to try to get it through the mill. Never did get it through the mill
and after about a month we didn't need the money. So I went down and says,
oive the back those notce. ' That was that, we didn't have to borrow any
money. Those loans we took out we didn't have mortgages on them. They was
just open, they guy was responsible. I. bet I went to at least a dozen offices
dove there. This guy'd send me here and here and here and here and then I'd
go home when that was donee That went on for a time ard then we didn't need
the money anymore."
JOE "The reason I was interested you tee, I was County Cowalinsioncr at the time.
We had county funds in the banks, in your bank and then in the Intermountain
Bank, too. Tom Worthington had invested in those Sento Dominion bonds and he
used the banks' money to do it with but Burt had four thousand dollars
worth of them, but that was his own money. They pressured the banks into
buying these bends someway he said. I don't know whether you know about
that or not."
BLAIR "I don't recall ."
JOE "He said he bought his. But anyhow, the county money that we had in the First
Page 8
JOE "State Lank was backed by Liberty Bonds."
FLAIR "At that time, I guess it's still true, you have to, on public funds, put
up collateral. I know we had a few of those Buenea Lires or Chiiiean Bonds
or somethit(1 because we'd been pressured into buying them by the exadaver
who said we should have our money making a bigger, hiher yield. Then they
started down and he says you got to set up a reserve to take care of these
losses. We set up a reserve and then the Internal Revenue people come along
and seid, 'You can't charge those off until you make a said. ' So walwere
losing money and still had to pay an income tax. 7 cried and the Internal
man cried with me but we still had to pay. What happened in the long run
that...Anyway, had to sell them in order to charge off."
END OF SIDE ONE
BLAIR "Which wts quite painful at the time. We just charged them off and. stuck
them back in the vault. Then as the years passed and the Inccne Tax rate
increased, at the end of each year we'd take a look at our cernIngs and we'd
charge off some more South American Bonds. To cut the tax down so actually
I think when it was all figured out we never lost any money. We gained a
little by selling them at various years. So we came out all right."
JOE "I wonder, did Tom do the same on his?"
BLAIR "I don't know. This is my wife. This is Mr. Jones, this is Mr. Bennett.'
Do you know him?"
WIFE "Are you the Jones? You didn't teach here did you?"
Page 9
DOUG "No"
WIFE "Sure I know Joe."
JOE "Anyhow, you finally got rid of most of your bonds that way."
BLAIR "Yell, end weecame out all right in the long run. It was a little painful
at the time but it worked out eventually."
JOE "Can you tell us same more experiences as a banker? Did you lose quite
e bit of money on these loans or did most of the loans pay in?"
BLAIR "Our loan loss, the ratio was very small. It was usually the small loans
of a hundred or two that somebody talked you into or out of that were diffi-
eult to get back The people that were established here, we never had any
problem."
"Was Roseberry pretty well moved over to Donnelly when you come up here?"
BLAIR "Yeah, it was pretty well moved over. Right at that time there was a big
fight going on about moving the school from Poseberry to Donnelly. . Which
caused a lot of feelings."
JOE "But they did moved it to Donnelly."
BLAIR "Yeah, long about I guess '29 or '30."
JOE "What did they do with that schoolhouse there at Roseberry, that brick school-
house? Did they tear that down or did it fall down or what happened to it?"
BLAIR "It stayed there for a Long while. They used it as a grade school then
eventually I think they just tore it down."
JOE 'Yeah, Curtis built it. It was built shortly before I started school there."
BLAIR "But feelings an pretty high on moving that school, I remember that."
. •
Page 10
JOE "Maybe you can tell us something about the school when they were consolidating,
too."
BLAIR "Well, at that time it was rural high school and it embraced about six I
think. All districts."
JOE "It came up to the lower end of our district I think Heinrichs' Lane was the
north boundary."
BLAIR "I was on the school board, I was the clerk of the board there for about ten
or twelve years, I think. At rural high school. At that tine McCall got
into trouble and they had a lot of kids eLd not much of a building and so
they consolidated with Dannelly. • -SE.mt the kids to Donnelly."
"Did they consolidate with Donnelly or just pay tuition there?"
BLAIR "I don't remember just exactly what the arrangements were. I think it was
consolidation cause I know the people in Donnelly felt, if we ever got them
down we'd have them. But as the years went on the population grew.up here
and it became uneconomical to transport the kids. Then they built the school
up here. Yeah, .I think that's right. Feelings were running pretty high.
Nobody wanted to love the school. It was about that time that the bank moved
from Donnelly to McCall. That was in '48. Which caused some rather ill
feelings,amongst the people around the Donnelly area. That's when Donnelly
kind of started down. The school moved, the bank moved, the store burned
down."
JOE "Who built that store building that set right across from the bank? Was that
moved, from Roseberry I mean?
Page 11
BLAIR "I don't know. Jim Harris had it when it burnt."
JOE "I was just wondering if that was the Culkpepper store that set north of the
hotel in Roseberry."
BLAIR "Io, I don't know."
JOE "It was in '48 ya say that you moved to McCall."
BLAIR "lt other words that was the first state bank. ..We sold to the Idaho First
National in about June and then they cone up here and built the bank here and
then in December we branched. All the operations from Donnelly to McCall,"
JOE "And Eert uas manager and you were cashier?"
BLAIR "Assistant menager at that time."
"What year was it you becol,e manager of it? %Then did Bert ouit?"
"Golly, I don't remember. He was on kind of a part time basis you might say
from the time we moved the bank up here. He'd come to work about 10:00
or so Gud then leave at 2:00 or 3:00. It wase't as active as he tuj.d been."
JOE "Ve wesn't at interested lc waht it was."
BLAIR "Yeah, that bank in Donnelly was Nis. And hereally took care of it. It was
evidence of the fact that it never closed. When we moved up here he ems
a manager but he was more or lore an advisory man. I was kinda a guy that
was going the work."
JOE "If you was his nephew he ohoulda been boss! Do you know where he was born
or raised?"
BLAIR "In Iowa"
JOE "Then he come west to Boise. Did he come before your dad did?"
BLAIR "I don't really know. I think about the same time."
JOE "Well Bert and your ded were brothers."
Page 12
BLAIR "Yeah"
JOE "And didn't they have another brother there in Boise, too?"
BLAIR "Well, there was five brothers and one girl."
JOE "And they all lived there in Boise."
BLAIR "Yeah"
JOE "Seems like I remember one of the Armstrongs acted an an announcer at one
of the dog races one time. That vas one of your uncles wasn't it?"
BLAIR "Not to my knowledge."
JOE "Seemed like he was Bert's brother, I'm not sure. T. don't know what his busin-
ess uas."
"Clark was in the banking business in Iowa, Frank was in the insurance
business in Spokane, Ray he was a school professor, Bert was here cs a
banker, my father was in noise."
JOE "Seemed like somebody said it was Bert's brother." •
BLAIR "There was a . .What was his name? Was there a Raymond Armstrong that was
the manager of the mill at Cascade?"
JOE "Yeah"
BLAIR "But he was no relation."
JOE "No this man was from Boise. I think somebody said he was Bert's brother, but
I don't know if he was."
BLAIR "Well, it's possible but I rather doubt it."
JOE "Anyhow, he announced the races 'cause he had a good Voice or something. That
was long about '26 or along in there, whenever thny had the dog races up here.
Page 13
JOE "That was before you came up here."
BLAIR they had dog races I remember. That first winter I was here I came
up for the dog races."
JOE "I think the deoression hit and that must have stooped it."
BLAIR "They used to run a special train from Boise at that time. I think they
quit the train and it kind of went down hill ."
JOE "I've got some pictures of Warren Brown. he had a team. Fred Prince, and
Smokey Gaston from Ashton."
BLAIR "I know the first winter I was here they didn't plow the roads. The only
way to get up here was by sled or with the train. Then it was about the next
year. I don't remember whether they were closed one year or two years, Dave
Koakie to prove that it could be done he did it on his own. Had a tractor
and a 'V' plow pulled it between Donnelly and McCall. The road was
narrow. First year I came up here I came up here from Donnelly on the train."
JOE "I think the winter of '32 was the first tisae there really, . .The state got
in and plowed it."
BLAIR "That sounds about right."
JOE "I Know the first snow plow in the county, I had Jerry Logue take. . .We
had a five ton cat, the aunty did. And he'd come by Roseberry for some
reason or another and I had him plow the road between Donnelly and Roseberry
and to keep track of the fuel and the time and everything to see what it would
cost. Because Patterson said if we plowed the road we'd break the county.
It cost so little they couldn't believe it. So we had him go plow the road
Page 14
JOE "out to Bob Dunn's and back to just see how much it'd cost. And that's the
start of the plowing of the roads in Valley County."
EUD OF SIDE TWO
JOE "Blair, about your own family, give us a little history about the boys and
how many children did you have?"
BLAIR "Well, I have three boys."
•
JOE "Before you go any further let's get When did you get married and who you
married."
BLAIR "I married Teckla Jarvis in 1934."
"And you hind three boys. What arc they doing?" -
"Bert the oldest boy is manager of the capital office in the Idaho First
National Bank in Boise, and John the middle boy, so to speak, is in Seattle.
De's with property management,"
JOE "For a bank?"
BLAIR "No, he's working for Tamarack Construction Company that are building houses.
He supervises the building and selling and so forth."
JOE "And he's in Seattle. Is he married?"
BLAIR "No"
JOE "Is the oldest boy married?"
BLAIR "Yeah, Bert's married and has two sons. Tim the youngest boys, he's married
and has two kids. A boy and a girl. He's the assistant manager of the
Caldwell office of the Idaho First National Bank."
JOE "So you got two bankers in the family anyhow."
Page 15
BLAIR "Yeah, I don't know whether they were mart or not but that's the business
they're in!"
JOE "The banking business had quite a lot of worries to it. Isn't it sorta hard
of you, mentally? Or is it? Did it pressure you?"
BLAIR "Ho, I don't think it did me. I think if I was in it now it would. Every-
think is so automated and so forth and so on. Everything is comouteri7ed.
I was in the bank not too long ago and. Jerry says, 'Do you want to look at
our statement?' and I said, 'Yea" and I looked at it and I had no more of
a ides what it was all about than the who never. . .I couldn't understand it!
All this computer business has come in since I retired."
"What year did you retire?"
BLAIR "I retired in '67,"
JOE "And who took your place hero at the bank?"
BLAIR "John Braden. You see, the bank has a mandatory retirement at sixty-five."
JOE "Well, now what do you so?"
BLAIR "I don't think I'll answer that!"
JOE "You pi ry a little golf don't you?"
BLAIR "Yeah, I play a bit of golf in the summer time and •I kept reasonably active.
I was treasurer or about half a dozen outfits. The Chamber of Commerce,
the Lodge."
JOE "You've been treasurer of the Lodge I think since I can remember!"
BLAIR "Then I was finance chairman for when they built the new church. So I've
remained reasonably active because it takes me longer to do anything than
Page 16
BLAIR "it used to. We try to get out in the winter and head south."
JOE "And yotrwife, she's taught lots of school hasn't she?"
BLAIR "Yes, whe was teaching at the time we were married. And then she quit and
we raised a family and then she went back into the teaching for a while."
JOE "She taught remedial reading didn't she?"
BLAIR "That was just in the last two or three years. That was voluntary."
JOE "Can you tell us something about when the Masons formed their lodge here?
Were you one of the charter members?"
BLAIR "My name is on the charter but there was four candidates there whose names
were on the charter when the thing was organized. We were the first group
of candidates and that was in the '30's sometime. There was Bert and Carl
i;rown and A.M. Schaffer was the one that really started it."
"They kind of pulled off from the Cabarton Lodge, didn't they?"
BLAIR "They formed the lodge here, yeah. They remodeled the upstairs of,the old
city hall. And that's where the lodge was until they built this one."
"Who was the guy that done the most pushing on this lodge over here?"
"Well, John Jasper was the builder, so to speak. - If I remember rightly
Ralph Paris was the master it the time and we'd been talking about it for
some time and I believe we'd acquired a lot over there but nothing happened.
So Ralph said let's stirt, and we just started and it was mostly voluntary
labor to build it. We did buy the timber over there toward the penninsula and
logged it."
JOE "To get the lumber."
Page 17
BLAIR "No, to make some teoney! We had some loggers that belonged to the lodge
and they knocked the trees down and somebody hauled them in and we sold
them to the mill. We picked up, I think, about eighteen, twenty thousand
bucks."
JOE "To help start the building."
BLAIR "Yeah"
J0E "What did that building ev:e.tually cot? Do you have any idea?"
BLAIR "No, there was so much volunteer labor and contributions. There was a
couple of fellas said we'll put the roof on. And of course nobody charged
anything. We had work details so to speak. After the think got going every
night of the week there was about six feller that would go over and work
for four hours, There was always a carpenter showing us how to do it.
That is for people like myself who didn't know anything about it, Joe
Bayok and Heek Knowles would stay all night with a crew over there. And they
just kind of put the thing up."
JOE "John Jasper, was he a carpenter?"
BLAIR "Yeah, he was the builder. Hewes the buy that drew the plans, he was the
master of thy works so to speak."
JOE "Did you have to pay hiat or did he do that on his own?"
BLAIR "I think he did it on his own. I don't remember paying anybody. For instance,
when they went to dig the basement, Warren Brown had a drag line and we
just used it. And on down the line. So it was built with not too great an
out-lay of cash. We borrowed some money from the members of the lodge.
Notes, hundred dollar note thct were due in ten years with no inLereet till
Page 18
BLAIR "maturity. We paid off in about five years. I don't remember the amount
that was borrowed. I know the Grand Lodge gave us a bad time, they didn't
think we could ever do it. We didn't ask them for any money but they didn't
even want us to put up our own money."
JOB "Do they own this building now? Does the Grand Lodge own the building, Blair?"
BLAIR "That's a good question. I think we do. And I think is long as the lodge
operates we'll continue to. Should it fold up I don't know what would
•
happen to the building."
JOE "I helird somebody say the Grand Lodge owns it or will."
BLAIR "I think that could be right but we'd have to give them an argument about
that. The deed is in the name of the Payette Lakes Lodge."
JOE "Of course you don't have to pay any taxes on it."
BLAIR "No"
JOE "Can you tell me something else? Who owns the Payette Lake Club or Tayette
Lakes Inn?"
BLAIR "I think some church group has it."
JOE "Do you know who it is?"
BLAIR "I'm not sure."
JOE "I was just asked that question a while ago and I thought maybe you could
answer it. Was it the same outfit that had Quaker Rill? That bought that?"
BLAIR "I believe so."
JOE "It wasn't a Quaker group was it?"
BLAIR "I don't think so but it is a church group."
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Page 19
JOE "Do you know anything about the financing of the Fayette Lake club house?
That was done before your time, when that started. Before you come in."
BLAIR "Yes, it was kind of an aerociation, wasn't it?"
JOE "Yeah, I think you could give a hundred dollars for a lot. Cottinghcm built
it and he was the contractor. They didn't have any money to pay him so I
think he finally acquired it."
BLAIR "I know when I first cere up here it was quite a vice place. People used to
come up on their vacatieue. They had a nice dining room. Then it kind
of slipped and at one time it was kind of a gambling joint!"
"That was something else I wanted to eel: you about. I heard one time there
as thirteen clubs up here. Can you name some of them? One time I was in
the bank and you got a bunch of money in. I don't remember whether it was
the Fourth of July or some holiday. It was a bunch of a thousand dollars
in a sack and you and I took and weighed it to see how much it welshed."
BLAIR "That was silver dollars?"
JOE "Yeah, and do you remember how much a thousand dollars weighs?"
BLAIR "No, I don't:"
JOE "I know we weighed it. You and I weighed it and decided that if we held up
a bank we wouldn't take the silver dollars!"
BLAIR "That was when there was slot machines."
JOE "Yeah, that's when there was gambling."
BLAIR "In it must have been about '49 when the state cracked down on it. And we
had so much silver in the vault there that we couldn't get rid of it. The
express wouldn't take it and if you mailed it you had to have it in about
Page 20
BLAIR "fi -e hundred bags. So we finally wound up by just carrying it to Boise.
Two trips in a car. 1:e had all this extra silver because when they cleaned
out the slot machines there was bags and bags of silver dollars. I wish
we'd hung on to them. So in order to ship it back to the Federal Reserve
we had to take it back to Boise. And the first load I know the car was
standing about an inch off the pavement so we had to make two trins."
JOE "Can you name some of them clube, Blair? Did you trade with them?"
BLAIR "I don't know. There was the Yacht Club of wurae and who were the fellas
that had the club there where the drug store is? Did they call that the Lake
Club? The Dog House, the Oregon Trail."
JOE "The Sundown Club. Brad Carey run it. I remember being in there one night
and it come l:00 and we started to leave and he said, 'You don't have to
leave. I'll just lock the door. There's no law against me giving away
whiskey. ' So we stayed till morning."
BLAIR "Then there was Brundage and Phil Remaklas run it. It was a hotel and club
and bar. But at that time it was wide open. There was poker and black
jack and rolette and craps and the whole ball of wax."
JOE "I know when MGM was here I was talking to Roy Stover when he run the Dog
House. I said, 'Some of these guys are pretty high rollers. ' and he said,
'Yeah, and I wished they'd stay out of here. ' and I said, 'Why?' he said,
'They come in here and maybe one of them leaves six hundred dollars or a
thousand dollars and the next night he comes back in and wins it out and even
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JOE "twice as much. An ordinary man, when I win a hundred dollars off of him,
he ain't got any more money for Quite a while. These big shots come right
back and take it away from me."
END OF SIDE THREE AND INTERVIEW
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