James (Jim) Allison Oral History
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Churchill County Oral History Project
an interview with
JAMES (JIM) ALLISON
Fallon, Nevada
conducted by
Eleanor Ahern
April 26, 1995
This interview was transcribed by Glenda Price; edited by Norma Morgan; final by Pat Boden; index by Gracie Viera; supervised by Myrl Nygren, Director of Oral History Project, Churchill County Museum.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewer and interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Churchill County Museum or any of its employees.
Preface
James (Jim) Allison is a native son of Fallon and Churchill County and except for short absences, once to live with his mother and another time to attend business college in Sacramento, has lived in the community all his life. He recalls his early life living on a farm with his foster family, doing daily chores, attending Harmon School and his farm life in general before automobiles became commonplace.
Jim's early experiences and remembrances first in keeping books for a bar, later becoming a partner in a club (bar and gaming) gives a colorful description of Fallon and its bars and casinos in the 1940's and 1950's. Later he became a partner in a car dealership. He describes his introduction in that field of business and his experiences, and at the same time of being a volunteer fireman.
Clearly, from his comments, Mr. Allison has been a thoughtful and productive citizen of Fallon. His pride in Fallon and Churchill County and its citizens is obvious and, at the same time, commendable.
Interview with James Allison
AHERN: This is Eleanor Ahern of the Churchill County Museum Oral History Project interviewing James D. Allison at the Churchill County Library at 553 South Maine Street, Fallon, Nevada. The date is Wednesday, April 26, 1995. Good morning, Mr. Allison. How are you?
ALLISON: Good.
AHERN: Good. For the record could you please give me your full name?
ALLISON: James Donald Allison.
AHERN: When and where were you born?
ALLISON: I was born in Fallon, 1921.
AHERN: Could you tell me the names of your parents and where they had originally come from?
ALLISON: Well, my father was Ralph Allison, and he was sent out here because he had tuberculosis, and in those days the only cure for it was a high dry altitude, so consequently they sent him to Nevada. He in turn worked for T.C.I.D. [Truckee-Carson Irrigation District] as a draftsman, accountant, or something like that nature, but his health was not that great. He passed away when I was very young.
AHERN: You said that he was sent down here. From where?
ALLISON: From Illinois. Lincoln, Illinois where he was raised and his family. I know very little about that family because I was never back there.
AHERN: What about your mother?
ALLISON: Well, my mother came here out of Oregon. Her father was hired as the plant manager for the sugar beet factory here and all the family moved down here to Fallon. He managed the sugar beet plant out here for a few years. I don't know how many. And when it closed down, why, she's the only one that stayed. All the rest of the family moved back to Oregon or somewhere else, but she stayed.
AHERN: What was her name?
ALLISON: Her name was Gladys Bramwell. I have to think about that because I don't think of that name that often. (laughing)
AHERN: (laughing) Now, you said that she was the only one who stayed here. I assumed that when she stayed here she was already an adult, and she decided to stay in Fallon.
ALLISON: Well, they came here here in 1917, and think the sugar beet factory closed in 1927. I'm not sure about that, but after that, they left. In fact, the Blair house out here, they rented that. She had a pretty good sized family. I think there was about five brothers and a couple of girls.
AHERN: Where was the Blair house located? Could you give me an address?
ALLISON: It's the big white two-story house right next door to where the Cock'N Bull Restaurant is now.
AHERN: That's on South Taylor Street?
ALLISON: That's on [1350] South Taylor Street. Yeah. They rented that for a long time. They must have been here at least ten years. All the family. Of course, when the factory closed, they all left. But, I guess, in the meantime, she must have married. I really don't know that much about it, to be honest with you.
AHERN: Do you recall how many members were there in the family?
ALLISON: Well, I think there was two girls and five boys as recall. I know that her sister ended up in Quincy, California because we used to go over there quite often in the old days. We visited them about once a year.
AHERN: Do you recall your parents talking about their youth as to how they met, perhaps?
ALLISON: No, I just barely remember my father. Just barely. I think he died when I was about three years old. I was farmed out to a farm in Harmon because my mother was unable to take care of me. So, I lived out there in Harmon District next to the Nygrens out there for seven, eight years. Started school out there in fact.
AHERN: When your father died were there any brothers or sisters?
ALLISON: On his side?
AHERN: did you have any brothers and sisters?
ALLISON: No.
AHERN: You were the only child?
ALLISON: Only one.
AHERN: When your mother had to, as you say, farm you out, who were you living with then in the Harmon District?
ALLISON: Leo Ayers’ family.
AHERN: Were there any kids in that family?
ALLISON: Well, yes, but they were older. There was a girl, Naomi, and at that time I went out there, I think she was in college. They had lost a boy about my age, so they took me in just like one of their family.
AHERN: So in essence you had a foster family, and this is when you were about three?
ALLISON: No, I think I went out there when I was about one year old, and I think I left there when I was seven or eight. I can't remember just--because my mother came and got me and we left here temporarily. She married somebody in California and we were over there for a while. I don't know the dates.
AHERN: Do you remember where in California that you had gone?
ALLISON: Yeah, we were at Sebastapol. He owned a grocery store over there.
AHERN: Tell me something about when you were with the foster family, the Ayers. Were you afraid of being separated? Lonely?
ALLISON: I didn't know any different. I thought they were my family. Of course, my mother would come and see me once in a while, but between my father's health and her health wasn't that great, why she couldn't take care of me, and I just grew up figuring this is my family. I didn't know any different. She would come and, of course, they would tell me, "Your mother's coming out today," or something of that nature. Now that I think about it, I don't recall any animosity whatsoever. The Ayers treated me just like one of their own. It was a sad day when I left for both of us. I know I can remember that. I kept in contact with them in all the years that they were around. I'd go out there in the summertime. Work in the haying fields. Basically, it was my home. The way I looked at it, you know. They were great people to take somebody like that, and there was just the two of them then. Ranching in those days was lots of hard work.
AHERN: I imagine you had some chores on the ranch there.
ALLISON: Oh, you bet! We had our share. (laughing) Had mine just like the rest of them.
AHERN: Tell me, how did your day start on that ranch?
ALLISON: Well, I was allowed to sleep in. I didn't have to get up till about six o'clock.
AHERN: (laughing) That's lucky.
ALLISON: But, they were up, oh, four thirty, five o'clock, and they generally had the milking done before they got me up, and generally what I did when I was old enough, I fed the chickens. They had a lot of chickens, and maybe fed the calves. I don't know. Sometimes you have to hand feed those calves when they're real young, and that takes time. Gee, I don't know. (laughing) Hadn't thought about that for a lot of years. (laughing) But then, we always had big breakfasts. and then we went to the fields or do whatever had to be done. And you were speaking of poultry, you know. Boy! we had lots of chickens. Big chicken houses.
AHERN: What did you do with all the chickens and the eggs?
ALLISON: Well, 'course we gathered eggs everyday. I can't remember what they did with them. There were lots of eggs. We packed them in egg crates and candled them. You run them by a light to see if there's anything wrong with the egg.
AHERN: Oh, I see.
ALLISON: I think they call that candling. Oh, I'm going back a long time. They haven't done that for years I'm sure. But, anyhow, we put them in the egg cases, and I guess they must have hauled them to town. I don't remember anybody picking them up. I know we had a fellow come in once a week and picked up the cream. That type of thing, but I don't recall anyone picking up eggs. We did up a lot of eggs, and, of course, they had to be fed twice a day. Clean the chicken houses, big gardens. I'm sure you're familiar with that. You raised everything you could raise, basically, because money was pretty short. I started school out there on horseback.
AHERN: Now, you said this was in the Harmon District. Describe the schoolhouse, Jimmy.
ALLISON: Well, I think we were about approximately two miles from the schoolhouse. The Ayers had two saddle horses, an older one and a younger one. Well, they didn't want to put me on the younger one because they didn't think I couldn't handle him which I agree now as I look back on it. There was Nygrens down the way and Ericksons and across the road was a family by the name of Franchi, they were Italians. All the families had kids. Most of us started out--in the good weather we rode horseback but when the weather got bad I jumped in with the Nygrens 'cause they had a buggy. There was three of us in the buggy and we would kind of cover up and get away from the cold some. The school was about two miles away and my first-grade teacher was Theo Wightman, and Theo taught most of her life. Well, Theo Morgan, actually, but she married Wayne Wightman. In fact, he was out there every Friday night to pick her up after school. The teachers in those days lived right on the grounds. They had accommodations for them right there. They didn't have automobiles in those times. We tied the horses out there, and she'd come out and tighten up the cinches for us, and we weren't big enough to get on the horse by ourselves so she boosted us on. Well, of course, the horse knew the way home. There was no problem going home. A little trouble getting there 'cause the horse didn't want to go. But she always did that for us little guys. We weren't big enough to do it for ourselves. There was a lot of kids around there in those days because the ranches were smaller and, oh, I would say within an area of five or six miles there were probably thirty, forty kids. No buses at that time. It was all by horses or buggies.
AHERN: Was it a large schoolhouse?
ALLISON: It had two rooms. Had four grades in each room, and they had a kind of small auditorium, and we did exercises in there. Believe it or not, in those days we had an exercise class. Each row in the room was a class. One, two, three, four. You had one teacher. And then the other side they went five, six, seven, eight. One teacher. I think there was about four in my first-grade class. Hazel Maupin and Dorothy Dooley were in my class. Hazel's still around, but I think Dorothy passed away. Oh, there are quite a few of them that I can think of but they weren't in my first-grade class. In fact, I've got a picture of them.
AHERN: So, there's one teacher for four grades. How did she handle teaching four grades?
ALLISON: Good question. I guess each row took its turn. I don't really recall how she did that. I know we had a little blackboard work once in a while, but we'd go to the back of the room, not up to the front. We'd go to the back and she could see what we're doing but the rest of the kids unless they were turned around they couldn't see what we were doing. Even if we were just drawing a picture or whatever, that didn't disturb the rest of them too much. But, we were out to recess and that type of thing all the same time.
AHERN: Was it the normal school hours from eight to three?
ALLISON: I don't remember.
AHERN: Did she have any problems controlling the class?
ALLISON: I don't recall any.
AHERN: The kids really didn't act up then, huh?
ALLISON: Well, they probably did, but I sure don't recall any of them. I think probably more than anything else sometimes you were late getting to school 'cause we'd take little side trips, you know. Do something on the way or something like that. Particularly in the springtime there was a place there they called the Sears Ranch that grew wild licorice and when that was in season we all detoured around there to fill our pockets with that. In fact, we could sell that. Actually, it was just roots, but it had a kind of a sweet taste and we called it wild licorice. We could sell that for a penny a stick or wherever the roots broke off.
AHERN: Who would you sell it to?
ALLISON: The other kids. They couldn't go that way, or they didn't go that way. Maybe they come from the other side. Well, it don't grow over there, so when we'd come around this way, we had to detour a little bit, and we'd stop and fill our pockets with that. And then we'd get to school.
AHERN: (laughing)
ALLISON: We knew another family that lived out there too. Frank Gomes, and I don't know if they worked for the Nygrens, but he had a pretty good-sized family then. Marie and Frank are still alive. They're my age. Lot of changes out there. I drive by there once in a while.
AHERN: Were there picnic tables outside where you could have lunch at school?
ALLISON: Not tables, but there were a lot of trees. I don't recall any tables. They had a little ball field there that the older kids played baseball on. In front of the Harmon School there was an area, well, I guess you'd consider it a small park nowadays. It was nothing fancy, but it was kind of pie shaped and had a lot of trees in it. Lot of shade. It was pretty nice there. It was a good school. I mean, it was well built. I think most of the schools in those days were built by the little communities around there. If they wanted a school, they had to build it. And it's one of the better ones because it was made out of block.
AHERN: Was there a wood stove for when winter came around to help heat the room?
ALLISON: No, I can't remember. Must have been, because I know where we lived at the ranch house we had a big potbellied stove heating everything. The best you could do in those days. The school must have been the same way. Had to be.
AHERN: During the summer when school was out, what did you do for recreation? Did you go off with some of the other kids to do things?
ALLISON: No. It wasn't that easy getting around unless you walked or took the horse or something like that. And then, the other thing, too, most of the kids when they were able to work, they worked, and they all had their jobs to do even in the summertime. Sunday was about the only time that they had any time off you might say, but when you're milking cows you've got about three or four hours in there that you can kind of goof around. Otherwise you got to be around. You can't be off chasing around or going to town. Big event to come to town! That was a big event. Because we only did it about once a month. Maybe twice a month. Just depends.
AHERN: You'd look forward coming into town?
ALLISON: No, it didn't impress me much. I was happy out there. Go swimming anytime we wanted when they were irrigating, you know. Jump in the ditches and didn't worry about all the diseases they talk about nowadays and all that. Basically, I can remember I had a four-wheel wagon. Little pull wagon, you know. Frankie Gomes had a scooter, two wheeled, so we traded. We lived about a quarter of a mile apart, and once in a while we'd get together and play out on the road there. So we traded. He liked my wagon and I liked that scooter, so we traded. Boy, we had to trade back the next day when everybody found about it. They didn't go for that. I don't know why. But it was just an incident I remember. The family across that was across the street, the Franchis, moved to Sparks and I don't know whatever happened to them. I know there was one boy in my class, Geno. The thing that I really enjoyed about going over there was, in those days, the Italians made all their own sausages and all. Oh! Man! it smelled so good. Oh! Boy! But they made all that stuff and they put it down in the cellar. It was great. (laughing)
AHERN: (laughing) Did you ever help with the slaughtering of the animals?
ALLISON: No, no, I wasn't old enough in those days, to do any of that. They did some. What did they do? I think they kind of went together. Like Mr. Ayers would probably get somebody in to help him slaughter maybe that day.
AHERN: Um-Hmmm.
ALLISON: They'd help each other, you know. I can remember them doing it but I wasn't involved. Of course everything was done with teams. I was too small to harness and all of that but I could drive wagon and things like that. And when I went back in the summers, of course I was getting older then, I would run mowing machines and rakes and all that kind of stuff. And a lot of it was still handwork.
AHERN: What did you do with your free time, when you had free time, how did you spend it?
ALLISON: I can't remember much free time. Really, there was always something going on. I can remember in haying season we'd find a nest of rabbits, maybe just hatched, and I could bring those in and try to raise them. We didn't have rabbits, per se, but I tried to raise them but I never had too much luck. I can remember that, and of course, in those days we had lots of pheasants. But I can't remember much free time. One time I remember we were invited to the Daltons over on Stillwater Road for a fourth of July celebration. Well that was the first time I ever had ice cream. It was homemade ice cream, because in those days you had to make your own and you had to come to town to get ice. There was no refrigerators then. So you had to buy a big block of ice and then I can remember protecting it with burlap sacks, canvas, and putting it in the cellar to keep it. Then when the celebration come why then they used a big, big container probably two to three gallons. It was all cranked by hand. And then about once a year they had a big celebration in Stillwater, I recall that. They had two swimming pools down there in Stillwater and a lot of cottonwood trees. I can remember going down there one time.
AHERN: The swimming pools in Stillwater were they actually little ponds?
ALLISON: No, no. They were concrete, fed by thermal water. In fact, one's still there. The outside one was filled in later on. I don't know what happened. I think the earthquake broke it up pretty bad. Of course, when they poured concrete in those days, it was all hand mixed. The inside one I believe is still good. I was down there about two or three months ago a and it seemed to me like that building was still there. But they always had a big celebration once a year. I can't remember what time of year it was. I know it was in the summer time that's all I know. A lot of people used the thermal water. Some of them heated their barns. In fact the Stillwater school is still heated that way.
AHERN: The celebration, who came to it?
ALLISON: Well, it's one of those kind of things where everybody was invited but it generally it’s just the locals. Oh, they might have somebody visiting them or probably within, if you're talking about Stillwater, you probably talking about, oh, I'd say probably about a ten-mile circle around there.
AHERN: So people from town, from Fallon came to that?
ALLISON: Oh, yeah, they'd come too, most of them were related someway or another, just like they are today. The Kents.
AHERN: Uh-huh.
ALLISON: The people, they get- got people that live in town, some of them live on the ranches, some of them don't like to ranch, some of them love it.
AHERN: Is this an all-day celebration?
ALLISON: Well, if you want to call four or five hours all day. You know, everybody had chores to do, cows to milk. As I remember we used to leave about three o'clock. By the time we got home, changed clothes. Time to milk, time to feed, whatever. So there wasn't much free time that I recall.
AHERN: When you left the ranch to go with your mother to California, did you stay very long in California?
ALLISON: No. If I remember right we were only down there… [paper rustles] I’m trying to think. when we came back I think I was in the third grade.
AHERN: When you came back from California?
ALLISON: When I came back, yeah. I went to school down there, that must have been about the second grade. I don't know. The only thing I remember about it is when I came back here.
AHERN: Uh -huh.
ALLISON: The old West End school, of course it’s gone now, it was a big two-story building. So, in those days why wherever you lived why that's the school you went to. In fact, they were just starting the bus system. If you went to school in town why you came by buggy or horse. A lot of the kids that went to high school, that lived out of town, had to provide their own transportation. I don't think they started the bus system until about 1928, 1929 somewhere around there. But I was a "townie" then so I didn't ride the buses.
AHERN: Do you recall where you lived in town then?
ALLISON: Oh yeah! We lived on Richards St. Is that what you mean?
AHERN: Yeah.
ALLISON: I lived on Richards St. I can't give you an address. Right next to Taylor Street. My mother went to work for Churchill County Telephone Company as an operator. Then we moved down on Stillwater Avenue, we rented one of Mrs. Flood's homes. She had three rentals down there, we rented one of those and I recall she was making ninety dollars a month.
AHERN: Your mother?
ALLISON: Yeah, and she got ten dollars more a month because she was the chief operator. There were only two other operators.
AHERN: Uh-huh.
ALLISON: And we rented a one-bedroom house, had a 1935 Chevrolet. We got along fine on ninety dollars a month. But she worked for the phone company for a long time. In fact even after she married Mr. Stewart why they'd bring her back once in a while to help out.
AHERN: You're talking about the phone company would call your mother back, now and then?
ALLISON: Yeah, they'd call her back when they needed some extra help, and she was good help. She was somebody they could use once in a while a couple weeks, or a month. She didn't want to work steady. At that particular time Mr. Stewart was developing his own business and she was involved in that. [End of tape 1 side A]
AHERN: This is tape 1, side 2. You were talking about- now after she married Mr. Stewart, she quit work at the telephone company.
ALLISON: Pretty much.
AHERN: Could you tell me what type of business Mr. Stewart was in?
ALLISON: He was a mechanic by trade and he was able to get the Pontiac car franchise before World War II. When World War II come along why there was no cars and they moved to Hawthorne. Hawthorne was developing then, and he went down and was a carpenter. He worked down there for a couple of years I guess. I didn't go with them. I was pretty much on my own. I worked construction.
AHERN: Okay, let me back-track a bit, when your mother remarried. Could you tell me Mr. Stewart's full name, please?
ALLISON: Howard Royal Stewart.
AHERN: When she remarried you were more or less out of high school?
ALLISON: Just about. I got out of high school in 1940 and I think they were married in '40, maybe 1939. I guess it was 39. But I was going to tell you, I can remember her coming home from work one day. She went to work at seven and got home at four or something like that. But she came in and told me, said "Did you know that the banks closed today?" That's when they closed the banks around here. And I said "What's closing the banks mean?" I didn't have any money. She had a few dollars and was pretty upset. My father-in-law lost quite a bit of money. But its one of those things that happens when you have those times, I guess. It was pretty tough around this community as I understand it. She was really fortunate she had a job with the county.
AHERN: Now, the banks had closed because of the Depression. Were the banks closed very long?
ALLISON: I can't tell you. I don't know. I know that a lot of the farmers around here lost their ranches. They had a representative in here from--oh, at that time I think it was the California Land Bank. They had a representative up here and he repossessed a lot of these ranches, and some of the bigger ones. I know of two or three of them. And then he'd turn around and find somebody to buy them. About the only people that had any money was the Italian people because they're very, very conservative. And they were able to pick up some of those ranches at a very good price. 'Course they're hard workers. Of course, things started to change too.
AHERN: Uh-humm.
ALLISON: After the Depression, things got better. I can remember my mother saying, "Boy, am I lucky." You know, to be working. She's not going to be out of a job. There was a lot of people in trouble financially. places closed down, hard times.
AHERN: Do you remember that time, here in Churchill County, when they closed down, where everybody tried to help each other or were there any programs set up for those that had lost their jobs?
ALLISON: Really, I can't tell you. I'm not familiar with that at all. I hear little bits and pieces but I don't know.
AHERN: Now, you said about that time--
ALLISON: I know they developed the CC camps, the Depression of course, was nationwide. And a lot of those kids that were raised in those other areas joined the Conservation Corps and they had two big camps out here. One where the Stockman's is at now, there was a big camp in there and then where Kennametal's plant is, north of the tracks on Taylor Street, there was a big camp in there. And they did a lot of the work around here. And those were all young folks. High school, or just out of high school.
AHERN: Were you ever in it?
ALLISON: No.
AHERN: What types of jobs did the people in the Conservation Corps do?
ALLISON: Mainly they did structure work for the T.C.I.D., they did a lot of developing of water sources for the cattlemen out east. Structures again, set up tanks. They always had something for them to do. In fact, you still see some of their structures around if you look at some of those concrete structures they'll have CC 1939, whatever it happens to be.
AHERN: Um-humm.
ALLISON: And a lot of those kids stayed. Of course, the war broke out in 1941 and that did away with the camps. But a lot of those kids stayed here. Great, great kids. But where they came from there was nothing. Coming out of Missouri and those places that there was absolutely no jobs. It was an opportunity for them to do something.
AHERN: After you graduated from high school, where did you go?
ALLISON: Well, I went to business college in Sacramento. Let's see, I went down there in the fall of 1940, went-one semester down there and then I started again in 1941. Then the war broke out and then I figured, "Well, I'm going to be drafted, or do something so I think I'll come home." So I came home after mid semester and everyone was in the draft in those days. I was called up but I didn't make it into the service. I had punctured eardrums, so consequently they didn't take me. Then I tried to enlist, another fellow and I tried to--we tried the army and the marines, we didn't try the navy as I recall, but it didn't make any difference. He got in, but I didn't. In fact, they got me to Salt Lake twice, turned me down both times. So then I just followed construction. In fact, this base out here, I was the second man on that job. I started in with Dodge Construction who was the initial contractor and I was the second employee on that. Then they built one in Tonopah and I was in Tonopah six or eight months, then went down to Inyo Kern, California. Construction business was good, naturally, because anybody that could build something had a job.
AHERN: Um-humm.
ALLISON: And it was good employment and good pay in those days.
AHERN: What was considered good pay?
ALLISON: Well, I'm trying to think, I think we got--when I first started we got fifty-seven and a half cents an hour. And most the jobs that I had before that, like service stations, paid twenty-five, thirty cents an hour. But, look at the difference in living conditions. You know, you could buy a loaf of bread for a dime.
AHERN: Um-humm.
ALLISON: And you could go downtown and get a milkshake and a hamburger for twenty-five cents. So its all correlated. Nowadays it would take you a five dollar bill to do that. But look at the difference in the wages too. But fifty-seven and a half cents was truck drivers wages. Catskinner, dirt stiffs, they called them, they were making a dollar and a half. And of course that was everybody's goal. I finally got up there into that. I quit in 1946, I guess. We got laid off because of a tough winter. We were out in Smokey Valley and I came back to Fallon to spend the winter.
AHERN: Going back to the time you were in California, going to business school, had you saved up the money to go to business school?
ALLISON: No. My father had an insurance policy and when he passed away, my mother was made the administrator but the money was to go to me. And it was five thousand dollars. And she administrated it, through a local attorney here because she had to account for it to the court. And the court awarded me thirty dollars a month to go to school. And I think it paid my board and room, if I remember right. Then I worked while I was down there too, trimming trees, whatever I could find for my own money. But at that time, it come out of that account that he had left. When I was twenty-one I got what was left but it was mostly used up by then.
AHERN: What made you decide on business school?
ALLISON: Well, I didn't know what I wanted to do, to be honest with you. I was a pretty good athlete. But I didn't know if I could really--a couple of my friends went to UNR [University of Nevada Reno]. I really didn't have the money to go to UNR and I didn't know if I could hack it or not. I would say I was a little above average student. There's some things I excelled in some things I didn't. So I decided, if I take a business course, I can always use it somewhere for something. And through the years I think it was a good decision. In the respect that when I came back to Fallon--for one thing I learned how to type if nothing else, and the other thing is, I learned how to keep a set of books on a small scale. And I got a job right off the bat when I came back, keeping books for one of the local clubs here. They tried to get me to set up an office but I said, "No, I don't want to get that involved, I want to be a little bit more freer than that."
AHERN: What type of club was this?
ALLISON: This was the Esquire Club and it was owned by one of my former basketball referees out of Carson--[Ken] Johnson. He owned a big club in Carson City.
AHERN: What was his name?
ALLISON: I'm trying to think of his first name--Johnson was his last name.
AHERN: Tell me a little bit about this Esquire Club, what was it, what did they do?
ALLISON: Well, it was just a bar really. But it was probably the nicest one in town at the time. And of course, when they knew this base was coming everybody was hunting for a place to get into business. He happened to be one of them. Mr. Anderson, formerly owned the Esquire Club. I think maybe he leased it, I don't know. Anyhow, Mr. Johnson got it, just a bar, but it had a nice place for the ladies if they wanted to come in they had booths and I don't recall any gambling. But it was a nice place, one of the better ones. And of course with the influx of the Navy personnel and all that, why the bars did pretty well.
AHERN: Were there quite a few bars then?
ALLISON: Quite a few.
AHERN: Where were they? In what general location?
ALLISON: Well, if you start at Center Street and go to Williams Avenue on Maine Street you'd just about cover it. Just go right down the line.
AHERN: Do you recall how many there were?
ALLISON: Well, I could count them. Let's see, one-two-three four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten-eleven. There's eleven. You see, when the Nugget developed, they took in five.
AHERN: What year was this, do you recall?
ALLISON: Well, it had to be about--you're making me think back there. I haven't thought about those things for a long time. (laughing)
AHERN: (laughing) Now, of all the clubs that were there back then, can you recall the ones that have survived until today, or they've changed?
ALLISON: They've all either been incorporated, well like I said five and then the others have dropped by the wayside. Where Jeff's Office Supply is, there were three of them in the building he's in. Then on the corner where the bank [Interstate West drive through window] is now, there was one right on that corner called the Corner Bar and right behind it was the newspaper office. The building the Esquire Club was in was on the corner of Maine and Williams Avenue. Big two storey rock house and they decided that it was unstable after the earthquake in 1954. They tried to tear it down and they should have left it. Boy! that was real solid--but the Esquire Club was in there, along with a restaurant also. There isn't any that were there in those years-they're all gone.
AHERN: Were there any problems with that many bars around?
ALLISON: No, they all had their clientele. People drank a lot more in those days. One thing good about it, all the bars were on the west side of the street and the women and the kids and the show house, were on the other side. So if you didn't want to be bothered with the drunks and so forth why you went down the other side of the street. One time there was a bar across the street and its where that Mexican place right in the middle of town. La Cocina or whatever it is. That used to be what they called the Hub.
AHERN: Is that the one next to the Theater?
ALLISON: No, its next to the old bank building. That old bank building? That big two storey? Okay, sits right on the north side of that. That at one time was a bar-the Hub they called it. They made it into an ice cream parlor and a gathering place for the kids. That's one of the hot spots the kids used to go to. That's where you could get a hamburger and a milkshake for twenty-five cents. That was the only bar I know of on that side of the street. Well, you know, in those days there was no television at all. People drank a lot more in those days. Also that was kind of a gathering place particularly for the men. Most of those bars had restaurants in them. Small scale, nothing fancy, but it was a working man's restaurant, or most of them did. When you look back now, you'd never make it with something like that.
AHERN: So they were bar cafes?
ALLISON: Yeah, but they were separated you know, like if you and I went in to have dinner or something why you didn't have to put up with all the bums out in the bar. They had quite a bit of gambling. In those days, there was a roulette wheel, twenty-one game, keno and slot machines. The slot machines in those days weren't near as popular as those today. Basically that was the only place in those days that there were many bars. There wasn't anything out--I can't remember anything being out until during the war, they developed one out where the AM/PM Market is now. They developed the Roadside Inn and it was board and bat, but you couldn't buy a lot of things in those days--so whatever you could scrounge and put together and they put together a night club out there. Well, the family that did that was a musical family. So they could provide the music. Well, it was about the only place they could have any dancing and that type of thing.
AHERN: You said it was a board and ...
ALLISON: Well, board and bat I called it.
AHERN: Board and bat, b-a-t?
ALLISON: Yeah.
AHERN: What is that?
ALLISON: Well it means that they put two one by twelve boards together like this and it leaves a crack right?
AHERN: Uh-huh.
ALLISON: Okay, then they put a bat over the top of that, about a four inch piece to cover up that crack. They call it board and bat. (laughing) A lot of houses were built like that in the old days. It was easy to do and economical, worked fine. A lot of the houses in the old days were not painted. You know they just weathered with the weather. Where I was raised out in Harmon, the one that we lived in was an old two storey, board and bat again, but they didn't have the materials that they have today. When you talk about sheetrock and plywood, they didn't have any of that. So consequently you did, you know, I don't see any here but--instead of putting up sheetrock they put up what they call tongue and groove. But anyhow, it was a thin material that was tongue and grooved so, if like they were going to put this ceiling in they would just start cutting these boards and putting them together. In lieu of something like this, they had fancy grooves in, you've probably seen them around, there's still a lot of places around where you see that. Well, that's what they used to fill in rather than sheetrock or plywood.
AHERN: Now, after your construction job had ended and you moved back to Fallon, what did you do then?
ALLISON: I bought into a club (laughing). Well, my father-in-law had a club they called the Barrel House [138 South Maine].
AHERN: Now, you're talking about your father-in-law, so, when were you married?
ALLISON: 1946.
AHERN: And were you, is this when you . .
ALLISON: Out of a job? Yeah. (laughing) That's the time to get married isn't it?
AHERN: (laughing) So you had married after your construction job had ended and you moved back to Fallon?
ALLISON: Yeah, well, we got laid off because it was getting twenty-five below zero, we couldn't do dirt work and that kind of thing. So I came back. 'Course I had gone with my wife all through high school and she had done other jobs too, and then she came back here because her mother was alone. So she moved back here. My father-in-law, along with two other men, had this bar, casino, restaurant, whatever--in those days.
AHERN: What was the name of that?
ALLISON: Barrel House. The old Barrel House. And anyhow, one of the partners wanted to get out. He asked me if I'd be interested. Well, I had a few bucks, so I bought that partner out, and then, I didn't know nothing about the gambling but they taught me the gambling part of it. So then later on I went to work down there. My brother-in-law worked there, and my father-in-law worked there and I worked there. Well, I only had it three years. Then I got into the car business with my step-father.
AHERN: You got into what?
ALLISON: Car business.
AHERN: What's that?
ALLISON: Franchised automobile dealer. Remember I told you he had the Pontiac franchise, well, after the war he was able to get it back. He built a facility over there on Williams Avenue and I had built my house [395 S. Russell]. Because I was working nights at the Barrel House why I had all day, so I built my house, in fact, the one I'm living in right now. And, he came over one time about 1950 and wanted to know if I'd be interested in coming over. I said, "Well, here I am again, I know nothing about the car business." He and my mother wanted to get away. Well, I'll tell you how I got in the car business. I went down, the first day I went to work, he took me over to the bank and signed so I could borrow money. The next day he was gone. He and my mother took off for six weeks. And I'm sitting there, "What do I do?" (laughing) They were gone for six weeks. No contact, no nothing. It was still open when he got back, but just barely (laughing).
AHERN: (laughing).
ALLISON: But I stayed there twenty-one years.
AHERN: Did they take off on a long vacation?
ALLISON: Yeah.
AHERN: And going back to your wife, you said that you had met her in high school. Tell me a little about her, her name and about her family.
ALLISON: Well, Molly was the youngest of that family. There was an older sister and an older brother and she was from Art and Madge Downs. And that Downs was one of the settlers in this valley. Downs clan, I guess you'd call it. They were one of the settlers, here and Lovelock both.
AHERN: Where did they settle in Fallon?
ALLISON: Well mostly in what they called the Beach District. Island District, in fact both brothers had ranches down there. And she was one year behind me in school. So I graduated in 1940 and she graduated in 1941. But, we'd gone together in high school. We were married in 1946, so we're going to have our fiftieth-year next year. Fiftieth anniversary. But, I don't know how that happened. (laughing)
AHERN: When you had gone into the family business with her father and brother. Was she still working?
ALLISON: Oh, yeah, well, she supported me for about six months.
AHERN: Well, what was she doing?
ALLISON: She was a secretary for the Employment Security I think it was, and they had an office in the City Hall. There was just two of them. A manager, and the secretary, that was the only two, now they have, God I don't know how many they have. And she worked there, had a good job there. In fact, she worked there after we were married quite awhile.
AHERN: Did you find when you'd gotten into the family business with your in-laws and the car business with your stepfather, did any of your business school training come in handy?
ALLISON: Yeah, typing. And bookkeeping. Yeah, because when I was in there they said, "Okay, you know how to do this so you do it." So I did the reports and that type of thing which I was familiar with. It did work out. Small scale, nothing big. We had, oh, I think in the bar we had about ten employees, I guess. And then in the garage business we had five. And you got to make your quarterly reports and all that type of thing, so. I did all that for a long time until we got up to the point where I didn't have time to do that and we hired bookkeepers. But it did pay off. It did, I'm not sorry about it at all. In fact, a friend that I roomed with down there--we lived together down there in Sacramento--he stayed in Sacramento. When he got back from the service he went back and he ended up running several businesses from a comptroller's standpoint. And, in the last ten or fifteen years he ended up in his own business in electric wholesale parts. But he's retired now. I've been in contact with him all these years, stay in contact with him. Made some real nice friends down there that I enjoy. But he was from Gardnerville. There was several of them from Gardnerville went to that same school. Western Business College was the name of the school. They had representatives out in the field, hustling these high school kids to come to their school and there was-well, my wife went down there, too. She came down and if I remember right there was a couple of other girls. Yeah, I know there was. There was a couple of other girls that went down there too, same school. In fact, one of them lives here in town now. We'd pool our money to buy gas to come back with, we'd come back about every third or fourth weekend and I had an old car, you see. All chip in and come back to Fallon for the weekend and then go back. [long pause] No, I think I had great aspirations, maybe I'd be a CPA. In those days that was quite unique to be a CPA. Now they're pretty common. This friend of mine that I was telling you about that stayed down there, that was his goal too, to be a CPA. He never did.
AHERN: During the time that you worked with your in-laws in the bar, Fallon had grown pretty much then, right?
ALLISON: Not really. It was pretty small. Well, what made it grow actually was the commission of the base out here. In those days, the biggest part of the base work was done by military personnel and they lived out there. They didn't live in town much. Most of their maintenance and that kind of thing were military personnel, now it's the reverse. They have civilians [End of tape 1. original transcript continues “doing those things.”]
AHERN: You were saying that on the military base now it was just reversed, that now the civilians are doing the jobs, but, at that time, did a lot of the military personnel come into town?
ALLISON: You bet. That's what made the bars and the casinos so popular because they were here, always had a lot of leave it seemed like.
AHERN: Uh-huh.
ALLISON: Of course, when you've seen one sailor you've probably seen them all because they all dressed alike so you think, "Well, its the same one" It was probably a different bunch. I'm sure they don't let them off all at the same time.
AHERN: Were there any problems with them being a bit on the rowdy side?
ALLISON: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We got farmers here and Navy there. And of course the Navy they think they're pretty tough sometimes and vice versa. So, oh yeah, there was problems. Nothing serious. Not like you'd have today probably. (laughing). A few fights and that kind of stuff that was just about all.
AHERN: Were there quite a few of the military families here also?
ALLISON: Well, I think most of the ones out here were fairly young. There were some families, yes, but I think most of them were from the officers standpoint and at that particular time, why, they had no place for them to stay like they do out there now. They had no housing so they had to stay in town. They had quarters there for the lower personnel, but not for the officers their families and wives, and it naturally made an impact on the schools and that type of thing. But back in those days it was pretty small compared to what it is today, naturally. I can remember talking about "Well, the Navy's not paying their share" and all that to the school district. And they got all that straightened out.
AHERN: You stayed for quite some time with your father-in-law in the car business then?
ALLISON: Yeah, I stayed there twenty-one years.
AHERN: What was your job, were you a salesman?
ALLISON: Well, I went over there as a salesman and… he took me in as a partner and I did most of the selling. And he was a mechanic by trade, so consequently he understood that part of it. And then, he passed away in 1955 and, of course, I'd had five years in there then and I was pretty well acquainted with our suppliers and people that you deal with all the time. And the way it was set up my mother got his part, which is fine. So I took her in and put her to work, because she was alone, and it made a good job for her. It was good for me, too from the standpoint that I didn't have to watch my backside all the time. She was right there taking care of the financial end and so it worked all really well.
AHERN: What was the name of the company?
ALLISON: Stewart Pontiac-Buick.
AHERN: Were you a good salesman?
ALLISON: Oh, sometimes. As time went on I got more involved in the other end of it. I hired the salesmen. In fact, we hired salesmen, oh, after about three or four years after I was in there. Because we were growing and so we hired different salesmen. Most salesmen are lazy. If something comes to them, fine, but to go out and hustle--they don't do much of that. Any of them! So I was involved in taking care of the shop and that part of it so I took in another salesman. I got involved in some of the sales naturally, being one of the owners why you're bound to--because a lot of times that's the only one they want to talk to. So consequently you have to be involved in it. I had several pretty good salesmen and we tried to hand pick 'em. People who'd maybe never been around the car business turned out to be good salesmen. So we kind of, nowadays you'd call it training--training in your way of doing things. Oh, it's a pretty interesting business.
AHERN: Were there other car dealerships in town besides that?
ALLISON: One right across the street from me, the Dodge Plymouth dealer and there were several of 'em on Center Street. Chevrolet was over there, Packard, DeSoto, Plymouths they were right there where Janess Chevrolet was at-well, that used to be the Fallon Garage. Owned and run by the Coverston family. Right across the street they had Packard, DeSoto, Plymouths, International trucks.
AHERN: Was Fallon able to support all these car dealerships?
ALLISON: Well, yeah, take a farming community like this, it doesn't fluctuate that much with the economy. And consequently your car sales are pretty stable, year in and year out. Even though maybe the car business is off or way up--it don't change too much in these smaller areas. Because the farming made it stable. You know, you got a certain amount of business every year with the farmers. You got a certain amount of business every year with the business people because they're able to do those type of things. The dollar just keeps going around and around in the community. It works out fine. But through the years, with the studies that are done by, in my case, the factories, I think at that particular time Fallon absorbed about three hundred and twenty-five cars a year. It ran pretty steady like that. Until it starts to grow and you're going to have a certain amount of outside business coming in too. People didn't shop as much as they do now. You know, it's nothing to run to Reno or Carson someplace and look for a car or vice versa. But they didn't do that as much. 'Cause most of your people you dealt with you've known most of your life. Maybe you went to school with them whatever.
AHERN: Do you remember some of the major industries that were in Fallon back when you were growing up? Since the time you were in high school, do you remember those?
ALLISON: There really hasn't been that much that I can think of, they did that exploration for the atomic explosion out here.
AHERN: And when was that?
ALLISON: I think that was in the 1960's.
AHERN: Where was that at?
ALLISON: That was at Sand Springs Summit out here. There's a big chunk of granite out there that they drilled and set her off an explosion there. I don't recall now how long the atomic energy people were in here, but they were in here quite awhile. Till they got that thing .
AHERN: Do you remember anything about the gas and oil explorations?
ALLISON: Not too much, no. The only thing I know about, it seemed like it was a big farce. And everybody that was involved in it, they'd go around and sell stocks and try to promote the money and all that. And there was one lady here that really got involved in that --Hannah--Gosh! she owned an apartment house here, what the devil's her last name? Anyhow, I think they bled her for everything that she had. There's some, yeah, but it's pretty minor.
AHERN: And then there's poultry--for a while Fallon had a bit of a poultry industry?
ALLISON: But it fell by the wayside, too. Times change, the cost of feed got too high to make it profitable to raise birds.
AHERN: Is this just chicken and turkeys?
ALLISON: Primarily turkeys. Gee, lots of turkeys.
AHERN: Where was the largest turkey operation here?
ALLISON: I don't know. Probably Mrs. Blair. I'm guessing, probably Minnie Blair was the largest producer, but I can remember if you went to ranches you could see some turkeys around. Maybe fifty, hundred and fifty something like that. It's a one crop a year and they had a market for it. It worked out great. You know, the I. H. Kent Company where the, what do they call the shopping center across the street now? Shoppers Square or something like that. That thing would be plumb full of turkeys. Dressed and ready to go. Turkeys are hard to raise.
AHERN: Why is that?
ALLISON: Well, evidently, you practically have to live with 'em twenty-four hours a day for the first month. They cuddle together and lay on top of each other, smother, it's a constant battle. They lose lots of 'em unless they're really right on 'em.
AHERN: So if they cuddle and smother each other you have to go and separate them?
ALLISON: You bet. Yeah, if you're not accustomed to that you could lose half your herd in one night. But, you understand, they're not very big when you get 'em.
AHERN: Um-hmm. Yeah.
ALLISON: Chickens don't do that.
AHERN: No, they don't.
ALLISON: Just turkeys. But the cost of feed, I think, drove most of them out. They used to raise lots of grain here in the valley, and they had a, they called it the flour mill down here. But actually it was a grain mill and they bought all the grain, the local people raised. Then there was a market for the grain, too.
AHERN: Where was this flour mill located?
ALLISON: Well, you know where the Kent's Supply is now, there by the railroad tracks, well, just on the other side of the road where that big concrete building is, that was the Fallon Flour Mill, they called it. In fact Fallon Saw and Tool just bought that building here a while back, remodeled it into a different type of business. Right across the street, that other cement building was what we called a creamery. We didn't sell whole milk in those days you separated it and took the cream--you sold the cream and that's where it went. They made butter, and the milk was fed to the pigs or wherever they could use it. Nowadays, or later on, they sold whole milk and got away from separation.
AHERN: After your business with the car company where did you go from there?
ALLISON: Well, I sold out in 1970 and I had accumulated a little property. I worked on that for a year or two, updating that. And then, all these years I was in the car business I was also in the fire department as a volunteer. And in 1967 I was elected the Fire Chief by the volunteers. I gave that up in 1990, the volunteers. But I was employed in 1973 as a Fire Marshal and I still hold that position today, it was a combination, I was a fire chief and fire marshal. The fire marshal job was a paid position. Fire Chief was strictly volunteer. And I've stayed with that.
AHERN: You started off as a volunteer fireman. Well, when a fire occurred how did they bring all the volunteers together? What method. did they use to let them know that they were needed?
ALLISON: Well, you know, that siren you hear every day? We had that set up on what they call a cycle and the City fires were cycled at three blows, three up and down. The County was five. So, that was our alerting system until about 1971 and we used that for a long time. In fact, that tower at the City Hall now was about twenty to thirty feet higher than it is now. That's where the siren used to be, up in there. Now they have it setting on a pole outside. But they used the brick out of that tower to add on to the jail and so forth at the City Hall because they couldn't buy those type of brick anymore. So they took some of that tower down.
AHERN: Tell me some of you experiences as a volunteer fireman, were there a lot of fires, and if so, what were they caused mostly by, or were there any patterns?
ALLISON: Well, I think probably the biggest cause we have here in the valley is the fact that they burn in the summertime to clean up. The farmers are burning their ditches, which is only natural. Burning their fields, only natural. And we get crazy air currents once in a while and it changes the direction of the fire run and they get in trouble. Basically, that's probably our biggest problem. In fact, this time of year is our busy time. Everybody's trying to get cleaned up and get ready for irrigation system and they're burning their ditches and so forth. And this is the time when we get those crazy winds, too. If it's blowing real hard they won't set a fire, but, they'll start a fire, like in a ditch and got a nice little breeze going say, west, gets down there a little ways and all of a sudden it changes and goes somewhere else. It's crazy. That's probably the most calls we have is on that type of thing. And that will end probably some time in June, we'll be pretty well through, what we call, our heavy season. Then, of course, when winter comes you've got your stoves. That type of thing. Not too bad. Since most everybody has some kind of furnace or something like that that's controlled or has controls on it. You don't have the problems that you used to have on a lot of these old oil stoves and that that used to be around.
AHERN: When you were a volunteer fireman is there any really bad fire, that had occurred?
ALLISON: Well, I could tell you what got me into being a volunteer.
AHERN: Tell me.
ALLISON: You know, I mentioned the fact that they had a turkey growers association down there in the big warehouse right across from the I. H. Kent Company. Well, there was also a construction company there. Dodge Construction Company had a huge building there, they had a shop, an office. Well, Fallon was their home base. And that burned in 1937 or 1938 [1936], and I can remember, I was scared to death. I was living over here on Richards Street and I could hear that damn truck running, screaming, it was the only truck they had. A five hundred gallon per minute pumper and that thing pumped for twenty-four hours. I could hear it, you could hear it all over town. Just scared the hell out of me. And I decided--that fear stayed with me-and here I am what, sixteen, fifteen years old whatever and--I made up my mind one time, well, I guess the only way I could get over this fear is to get involved in it and find out what's going on. And that's exactly what I did. I joined the department in 1950 and that was the basic reason for that is to get over this fear of fire. Of course, in the interim I've learned a lot. I've been there a long time now.
AHERN: Other than the burning of the Dodge Construction---
ALLISON: Well, we've had some others too. But fortunately they don't come that often. We had the Standard Oil bulk plant down there on Williams Avenue, probably was the most serious--it could have been the most serious in the community. If we'd had an explosion down there, God only knows what would have happened. Because we had a tremendous--we had a hundred thousand gallons of fuel sitting there. Most of that that was lost was going up in the air but that fuel is stored in horizontal tanks so its going to go horizontal. And then we had another fire--well, it used to be Richfield Oil Company down there on the tracks and the end of Laverne Street. We had a fire in there, a bad fire, at the bulk plant. I've been through several bulk plant fires. And the potential is so much there that everybody's running scared. You got a building, there's only so much there that can happen, but you get into an area where you have all this fuel, it's scary because you don't know what might happen. So you try to keep it contained in that particular area. Do what you can not to let it get out of hand. A building is going to burn and go down, but once it gets going it isn't going to get much worse than that. But these things, once they get going they can get a hell of a lot worse if you have an explosion or a leak, whatever it is. And we haven't had anything downtown, seriously, for a long time. We had one there right down town, a case where a fellow set the place on fire, but fortunately somebody saw it--right away. It was in one of the old Kent buildings, it would have gone up real quick if we hadn't got an early jump on it. Outside of that, downtown has been pretty good through the years. Very good, very fortunate in fact. You know, most small communities have a big scenario sometime right in the downtown area and we haven't had that for many, many years.
AHERN: Is there anything else that you might have forgotten or can think of?
ALLISON: (laughing) I'm talking too much now. Oh, I don't know, it's kind of fun thinking back on some of these things you haven't thought about it for years. And it also makes you realize some of the people that you remember--God, I haven't thought of in years. And there's others that I see occasionally, in fact, a friend of mine, well, we went all through school together, we see each other all the time. But there are other people that have come to the front, that I haven't seen. I know they're here. In fact we are having our fifty-fifth school reunion here this September and they've been in touch with me a couple of times. We had our fiftieth and it doesn't seem possible that another five years has gone by already. Fifty-fifth. And it's amazing, there's quite a few around. Not many of the ones I run with. The ones that was on my ball team for example. I think there's only three of four of us left, and that type of thing. But those are the people that you are probably closer to in school time. Because you played ball and all that kind of thing. One of my real good friends, God he passed away ten years ago. I guess you sit around and wait your time, I guess. Whatever. But I have been very fortunate I thank my lucky stars, I've always had real good health. Had a little nose problems, just had surgery on my nose, cancer, but that's been ongoing for years because I'm light skinned and prone to that type of thing. So, outside of that, just great.
AHERN: Looking back on your life, would there have been anything that you might have changed, done differently?
ALLISON: Oh, I don't know. I don't think I'd want to go back, not even do it again. I've never had a big goal or anything that I've looked forward to. I just kind of muddled through day-to-day and thanked my lucky stars that I'm here and I have good health and I've done pretty much what I always wanted to do, and hadn't any great goals that I was after.
AHERN: Please share your feelings on watching, seeing how Fallon has grown. Is there anything that you think might have been better for Fallon or worse for Fallon?
ALLISON: I think Fallon is kind of unique. Probably just my thinking, but I think Fallon has been conservative in a lot of ways, but they've had some opportunities too, to do some things. I think the older people that put this community together should be patted on the back for that because there was a lot of forward thinking there, somewhere along the line. I don't know who did it--I'm not that familiar with the past history but I can think about different things in the community that reflect that thinking back then, in the 1920's and '30's.
AHERN: What are these things?
ALLISON: A good example of that is the City Hall, fine example, you got a beautiful building. Okay, you go in and look at the plaque on it. That was built in 1933 for about a hundred and thirty four thousand dollars. Do you know, that building is just like it was when they built it--back in those days. The only thing they've had to do is to put a roof on it. But the interior, the exterior, there's no maintenance. And back in those days--in fact, I can remember before they built that there--and I'll bet you those city fathers took a lot of flack over that because, "They're spending a hundred and twenty thousand dollars on that damn building!" Sixty some years later it's still a good solid building. But that's what I'm saying--those people had a lot of push. And the fire department. There's another example. The fire department that was developed. The by-laws were developed in 1916, we still follow those by-laws pretty close. Some minor changes, for one thing, we took on an ambulance service that they never had, so we had to provide how to do that. A couple of other things have come along through the years but the basic structure is still there 'cause it works. That's the nice thing. And I think about Fallon being accountable. Fallon is unique in their. . . . The City has an income besides your taxes and stuff like that. In other words, they sell electric power. How many communities do that? The county's got their own telephone system that develops a certain amount of money for them. It's a profitable thing--how many communities have that? Somewhere along the line somebody was pretty smart, in my estimation. I don't know who it was, one of these days maybe I'll have time to go look but, Boy! I marvel about that a lot of times. You know, here a few years back, when all the communities around the state got hard pressed for money because of the sales situation--everybody was biting the bullet. And I can remember that particularly because I'm very friendly with people in Lovelock and Winnemucca, and Boy! they struggled to get by. Churchill County was sitting here paying their bills and doing everything they had to do. They didn't feel it near as much as as lot of these other communities. They were smart. And I marvel at that. I think the community's been great and the people that have run it, like I say, have been conservative but yet they have pretty much what they want. You never get everything you want, never. But at least they're working toward the right--look at our new hospital for instance. Somebody has to put all this together and do the thinking, it's great. I think they've been very fortunate in the type of people that they've had as commissioners and councilmen. They've made it go. A lot of these communities are in the red. But not Fallon. They're not well off either, but they're not in the red. They're getting things done. It's a good community.
AHERN: Okay. Well, Mr. Allison, thank you.
ALLISON: Okay. [to someone else] come on in!
UNKNOWN: Sorry.
AHERN: That’s okay, we’re done. Well, Behalf of the Churchill County Museum Oral History Project, I’d like to thank you for allowing me to interview you. This is the end of the interview.
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