Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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good day Las Vegas, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, I have a few announcements and I got two wonderful guests that I had the pleasure of working with when I was serving as fire chief. In fact, I came under the leadership of Mayor Oscar Goodman and his wife Carolyn goodness, I'm giving it away right now. I have two weeks citing guests that we will be talking with in just a moment. In the meantime, I want to announce that fade duck and Daniel is hosting a family gospel and fish fry featuring local performing artists and poets. This will be in Helena, Arkansas on Saturday, July 27. At the pavilion I know we have people listen to this show from all over the country. In fact all over the world it can be heard. So the performing arts show that the youth over at the Westside Art Center they will have their final performance the last Saturday, and I don't have all that information but we will have another show where I can properly announce their timeframe but that will be going on. Again at the end of the month end of July 20 Marshall, our service officer can be reached at 301-537-9465. Again, if you have any need for veterans benefits. He is now a certified service officers. Birthdays. I have my son grandson, I should say. Little David and Mayor Carolyn and Mayor Oscar. You guys know you guys remember seeing David when he was a little we call him little baby. He's about almost six feet now. And he's a big big boy. So his birthday is this wow. Yeah, he's

Unknown Speaker 2:24
like all I can tell you cheap. I remember little David when we used to be on big red, which was the fire truck that the city had. And we used to be in all the parades. And that's the proud fire chief and his uniform on. That little fella with him and a little fellas eyes or bolje got it. So proud of his grandpa. Grandpa was so proud of little David. So that's a great thing to hear about. All right.

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Couple more quick things I attended last week, US vets, they have what they call a veteran stand down I had never attended before. But next year, I hope they'll give me information about them. So I can announce it several times on this show. Because again, this is Veterans Affairs. And we try to talk about things that's going to assist and help veterans. And then finally, I want to express condolences to the families a pastor Daniels who lost his wife, Sandy, and to Christopher David who lost his dad. These are family friends in Cape Town, South Africa. So our prayers are with them at this difficult time. Now, ladies and gentlemen, drumroll. I got Cherylin and Oscar Goodman. These are our mayors of our city that have done such a tremendous job. And I want to say belatedly Happy Anniversary I believe march them your your anniversary is on June 6, if I'm not mistaken, somewhere around, right. Yeah. See, see. Mr. Mayor, Oscar Goodman. The women show keep track of things because I didn't have a clue. She said yeah, they're there. Their anniversary is on the on the sixth of June. And me and Marcia celebrate our this is our 770 our 52nd was June 10. So ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased and honored to have these two people to join our show today. How are you guys doing?

Unknown Speaker 4:21
We got 10 years I knew I needed 62 years. And my parents begged me not to marry him. You

Unknown Speaker 4:30
know, that's interesting. Miss Carolyn Marsh's mom didn't want her to marry me. And you know, it's really interesting how we, in fact, we got married in in the living room of my mother's home down on civic center. How are you guys doing though overall?

Unknown Speaker 4:49
I gotta say that I can't think of a happier couple and in the history of the world, I really mean that I know that you are Marsha are still madly in love with us with with each other. Our marriage is something very, very special. Each morning, we give ourselves the time to have a little bit of a cup of coffee and maybe a bagel with some cream cheese. And then Carolyn goes off to city hall and I give her a kiss and we wish each other carve a diem, seize the day. And we each do our thing during the day, but the time of day that I liked the most. And I hope she feels the same as when she comes home from work. And we have a chance to sit down and have a nice little drink together and talk about our children talk about her job, talk about what's happening with the city, talk about our friends, and I can't think of a better a better marriage in the world. So I have to say, I'm so happy that you asked that question. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 6:00
absolutely. So I have to add to it, that every morning while he's still sleeping, I get up at a bed, go around to his side of the bed and applaud. Applaud working together every day, and be the happiest, most beloved husband, absolutely. Mom spoiled him run.

Unknown Speaker 6:28
So how are your children and grandchildren doing?

Unknown Speaker 6:31
Well, let Carolyn answer that, although I love bragging about my children and my grandchildren. But she's the one who basically put them on the right path and made sure that they didn't foul up their lives that so many people have done in our society since since we got married whether children run amok. She's kept them in order. And they're all great professional people in our community. And the one thing that they do that pleases me so much is they they serve the public eye, they inherited that from Carolyn, they tried to make a difference. They're a decent, and they tried to make sure that everybody is treated with dignity and, and great respect. So with that, I left everything out and my wife will pick it up, I'm sure.

Unknown Speaker 7:26
My chief has asked for Ted, they all live here. They're adults. And do we have six grandchildren. Two, one has finished college, two are in college and three are still in high school.

Unknown Speaker 7:41
Well, let me say this, you guys have done a great job. Because I can tell you, and we've marched and I feel the same with our children. They all have college degrees, and they're all doing well. And they never never really cause us any issues. And I can tell you that it is important for for folks to properly raised their children to the best of their ability, who will see the world to be a better place. So it's just something that we need to be working on. So I admire what you guys have done and wish you continued success with it. Now tell me this. So tell our listening audience. When and why did you guys decide to move here to Las Vegas? And from where?

Unknown Speaker 8:22
Okay, Carolyn, why don't you start?

Unknown Speaker 8:25
Well, we met in college, and it was just happenstance. And because we met and that at some point fell in love. Oscar's father had been an attorney in Philadelphia. And law was changing back east it was going from single practitioners to these very large law firms. And when we went ahead and got married, his desire was to go somewhere where he could be an attorney on his own. So I typed the old fashioned way on typewriters and did research and libraries and made phone call and I typed with carbon paper doesn't even know what that is. 200 letters around the country. And we ended up coming out here in 1964 when there were less than 100,000 people here and with only $87 in our combined pocket

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Yeah, we came out and didn't know a soul. And I I was so anxious to bring Carolyn to a new friend here that I didn't even check to see when the bar exam or the or the the exam that you take in order to be a lawyer was being given it was only given once a year. And we got right here right at the wrong time. I spent a year and the DHS office here as a clerk in the civil division under Ted Marshall, and I hope some people remember Ted because I thought he's a very good guy. Very controversial, but very good. And then I passed the bar the first time around, hung up a shingle, basically, and as I said, didn't know us all. But the people kept on coming in. It was a town that was different than right. From my perspective, it was a town that was a friendly town. And people came from other places, and we were all looking to make our home here. I think Carolyn had a different experience because she was more of a social worker type person. And she was out there trying to help people from the moment that we got here. And our experiences were different. But we met everybody who met rich people and poor people, black people, white people, green people, stripy, it didn't matter. We were all over at the commercial center. That was the center of our universe. Overall, the Sahara every Saturday or Sunday, you went there to do your shopping and you run into United States senators, right into the judges, other lawyers, doctors, couple mobsters to achieve. I don't want to I don't want to Mabi up chief but

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no, no, that's fine.

Unknown Speaker 11:29
We all felt like we're part of a family. You went to a boxing match your United States Senator Paul Oxo was sitting behind us that everybody was shaking hands. And we talked to one another. It was a much more genteel, kinder community in those days.

Unknown Speaker 11:47
Well, I agree with the smallness of of it all. We came in 1954. I was only three and a half. But this city has grown and while I was buying cars, may I should have been buying some of this doggone. Property is what I tell people today. But let me say this mayor, you let me say this. And Mayor Carolyn Goodman, I know you will take no offense to this because I know you allowed it to happen. Mayor Oscar Goodman on behalf of all the people of the city of Las Vegas, and Clark County in that as a whole. You get a so much publicity. And I know Carolyn, because she mentioned that she approved of you with them, showgirls on your shoulders, but you got to so much free publicity man. And I'm talking about in my man, and I'm not an accountant, but you got us million millions of dollars of free publicity with just some of the things that you did. And I want to thank you for that.

Unknown Speaker 12:41
Well, thank you. I was just myself, right. I've always loved beautiful women and married the most beautiful of them all, as they say, and Snow White. And it was just, I was very, very, very fortunate that our marriage was a word that was firm and secure. We just, we were able to do whatever we wanted to do. And I loved being around the show girls, I love having my gin in my hands. I love going to ballgame, ballgames and, you know, showing you off and telling people that I represent the greatest city in the history of the world, and it's just in its infancy and will even become greater as time goes by. And I have wonderful people around me and not only as a lawyer, I colorful people around me then, like these Bellagio and Frank roses, all the people in the movie Casino. They're all my clients in real life. So I had that. And then a couple of things happened where we had that kid with a graffiti where I said I wanted to talk to the public love that for a minute graffiti committee, and remember, graffiti was all over the place. And it's really sort of sagely we use every time. You're talking about Las Vegas. Everybody in the world knows who we are what we are. The whole world would like to live here, maybe not today, right? Because degrees outside the other day. This is the place to live because we have the nicest people. Like there's like larger family living here. And we're so fortunate that Carolyn and I do have us decided that we could come out here and she never gave me a hard time about it. People made fun of us right father, he was so ashamed that his side of them that his new wife went to Las Vegas, he told people we want to Phoenix.

Unknown Speaker 15:00
Oh, wow. Look, Mayor after, you know, out to our community has had soon to be over 24 going on 25 years as the Goodmans leading, leading our city government, starting with you, Mayor Oscar, what was one or two of the greatest achievement you feel you did as mayor? And then the same question would be do you care? I,

Unknown Speaker 15:24
I know it sounds trite, cliche ish. But running around the country and Dubai, think of working hard, as you know, Chief, vote count on myself as yourself. We all work very, very hard to make the city a better place. And you only have so much time in a day. And I think the thing I'm proudest of is that what Carolyn was able when I was the mayor, to raise our children to be real nice, good people. And I think that's our greatest achievement. The second greatest achievement is people don't understand what I'm saying here. But I understand that that is, I was able to make people happy. Wherever I went, people were happy because I smiled. I got an email today from somebody last 40 years. The thing that we remember most most about Oscar is when we saw them. He was always happy. And that was the nice thing.

Unknown Speaker 16:28
Very true. Let me say this before you enter Miss Carolyn, you know, me and a mayor did a commercial down on Fremont Street. And it was for the Metro chiefs, which is the fire chiefs from the major cities around the world. And I kept messing up. And the mayor asked, he just busted me say, oh, man, I can't believe we didn't have a fire chief that can't even read can't even talk. And the crowd went crazy laughing.

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They were embarrassed.

Unknown Speaker 17:00
couldn't read. That was so funny, man. Because and the reason why I bring it up, I was just watching it a couple of nights ago, I was looking through some some old videos. Miss Carolyn, what's your thoughts in regards to top achievements? And you don't want her to? Just your thoughts? No, I

Unknown Speaker 17:15
think it really is. I just love our city, I think it is probably boasts one of the most diverse communities in the entire country. We have people that have come here or grew up here who all want to build a tremendous community that has top security that has great health that has culture that shares in the all of the cooking, and there's cultural backgrounds of each family. And we have such a harmonious community. It's only from people outside and then we have problems. Because as you know, we're 4 million people that call is call. And we have 14 plus million coming there said that's our industry. And while we try to diversify, I mean local. We do all the time. We have international air flights that bring people direct from major cities to our community. And an airport that's only 20 minutes from 155,000 hotel rooms. We have great tax structure. And now we've become a home to major league sports officer started his work on making car contacts with every commissioner of every major league sports starting in 19. Nine and while it's been a slow result, we have that common that home and will continue to grow. I think it's just a matter of time where we get our own NBA team here. We're good friends with Adam Silver, and I've had the best of the lives that I agree 100% with Oscar, the only legacy that we really feel has been significant is our children. They are absolutely beautiful people.

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Great, great. Now, was there something that either of you wanted to do the one was unable to do during your tenure as mayor. Mr. Mayor, Oscar, would you

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say this? I wanted us to become a great world class city and I wanted us to have great culture chief and we got that with a Smith Center performing arts I wanted us to have great academic medicine so people could stay in our community and receive first class treatment. So we got the Ruvo Brain Institute and I also wanted to have professional sports. Because coming from back east that we were raised with that and we became fans it was part of Have our fabric of life. And I tried I really did. I tried to with all my heart, my soul and my bite. And I wasn't able to get it on. And I think because Carolyn is so beautiful. She seduced the commissioners of the various leagues and said, Look, how can did that bring a team here, watch better than Las Vegas. We're the entertainment of the capital world. It'll be the sports capital world. And she went out there and she got, you know, she got Bill Foley, she got Mark Davis, we're gonna have the NBA I'm sure. She's talked to Major League Baseball. She's talked to Major League Soccer. And I attribute much to her personality, because they know that she's an honest person in these other cities in order to get a lot of these projects. So there has to be No, I'm not gonna say a bribe, but some untoward activity between the elected people and the various teams and she wouldn't even think of anything happening that way. She she's as honest as the day as long as they saw that. And I think it's a city where they, they know they want to do business, sweetheart.

Unknown Speaker 21:22
Well, let me say this before you jump in, Miss Carolyn.

Unknown Speaker 21:27
To me has been education. Okay, great. And when Oscar and I came here in 1964, our school district was number two in the country, the city and the mayor has no influence or control over the school district. And I think the fact that we have a long way to go to get back to that number. That has been the hardest thing for me to watch. We started the first preschools in the city and seven except that the private but public preschools here so we could influence that we did after school programming as a metropolitan area. And that's something I feel that has been left unresolved at this point. And hopefully at some point, our legislature will allow the municipalities to control the schools within their confines.

Unknown Speaker 22:31
Okay, interesting. Mayor, I was gonna Mayor Oscar, I was gonna say that maybe you didn't make those things happen in regards to the the professional sports teams that came in but you certainly planted the seed because I remember who you were you were really harping on it. In the end for Miss Carolyn to come in and knock the ball out the park. That's great. They did a

Unknown Speaker 22:54
lot of Grand Slam homers on her part a lot. A lot of pick sixes a lot of threes. I mean, yeah, all those kinds of things that that makes sports exciting. She brought it to the table. And I can't think of another mayor in the country that could have done it the way she did it. Because wherever you go, people will say, you know, that beautiful Mayor from Las Vegas, whatever she wants to give it to her. All

Unknown Speaker 23:19
right, sounds good. Now, another question I have for you guys. What did you do to keep that balance? And you talked about how your kids have grown up to be good citizens, etc? How do you keep that balance between your home life and your roles as mayors, each of you, please?

Unknown Speaker 23:38
Well, I from my perspective, women are very lucky because they can both have the home life that raised the children and watch them grow up as well as become professionals. And I spent in those early years when our four children were the innocence and growing up until I had them all in school. I was 24/7, a mother on top of each one of those children and keeping them involved and talking with them and trying to make them think tank and getting them in the very best public school in Southern Nevada where they had a great education. And then once they were all in school, I went and started a nonprofit, non religious school for all children that started immersion Spanish in kindergarten, because this is a second language in Southern Nevada, if not the country's Spanish right, so children need to grow up with their fluent in both languages. But we wanted 100% of all children and we have scholarship students to go on to college. The most important time is birth to 10 and moms and dads but certainly moms need to be home raising the children. Absolutely. Time for your perfection later.

Unknown Speaker 25:04
Absolutely. You know, considering this is a veterans affairs show, and this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more, and I have the pleasure of having former mayor Oscar Goodman, and current mayor Carolyn Goodman. So considering this is a veterans affairs show, is there anything that you guys have done during your tenure as mayor that was specifically helpful to veterans in our, in our community?

Unknown Speaker 25:30
I'm gonna answer this one because I'm very proud of it. We brought back a Veterans Day Parade. The vets were never recognized for the service that they gave for this country and made the ultimate sacrifice every place but particularly as far as being recognized. When they got back from Vietnam, they were treated like trash to by the American public. And that parade was I thought, one of the most significant things that happened during my administration, and it was a wonderful parade. I don't know what you probably remember stole Jack. Yes, I do was a military guy. And he helped us put it on and we had everything going for us. And I was so proud of the fact that these events were being recognized for the first time for the the service that they gave our country. So from my perspective, that's the best thing we ever did. And, of course, on Veterans Day, we always would go to US vets participate in the wonderful luncheons that they gave there, to the returning vets, and to those who love our country as much as these guys and ladies did. So I think that's the greatest contribution I made, I'm sure that Carolyn will tell you of her contributions

Unknown Speaker 27:03
from day one here. I mean, that was the most important thing is to thank all of those those with us, those who were before us, who helped keep us free. And so with different individuals who started Vegas, veterans villages, which had housing and support services, and of course, a part of the growing homeless population around the nation, to find those veterans, get them the support, get them housing, get them care, get them their social security, and they're absolutely every benefit there do from our federal and state governments. And so they are never out of my mind. And we just had one of our residents and no, Freo No, no, sorry. It was 102 went back to Normandy with support. And Omaha Beach on that on June 6. And so we've just devoted to our veterans, everything they do, they take priority. And we have so many of our investors that believe also the same to support our veterans and everything that they have given. So the we all can remain trait. Great. Well,

Unknown Speaker 28:18
we're about out of time. And I just want to say that how much we appreciate the leadership of both of you guys, in terms of what you did for Las Vegas. Anytime I've seen you guys, whether you were on a platform somewhere, you always show that passion and the need for growth and for people to get along in our city. So we honor you, we applaud you and we wish you good health. And God bless you and keep doing what you're doing. We love you both. This is Veterans Affairs.

Unknown Speaker 28:50
I heard that you might be under the weather unnecessarily. And I want to tell you how much we love you how much we respect to how we think of you as leading our city through its greatest growth time as our fire chief and we pray to God every night that you are well that everything's gonna work out and we're gonna have chief Washington and his beautiful wife, Marcia with us for years to come.

Unknown Speaker 29:23
Thank you, sir. You

Unknown Speaker 29:24
and thank you for inviting us.

Unknown Speaker 29:27
This was just perfect, because to have you both. It's so good for our community to hear from you guys and in the realness that you always speak with. So, once again, it's we love from all of the community and thank you so much for all that you've done to grow the city of Las Vegas. Once again, Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more, and we will talk to you next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai