Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

I remember I was standing in the front hall just sort of looking around, trying to plant it in
my memory, that I would always remember what it looked like.
Hughes: You spent 12 of the most memorable years of your life —
Evans: To that point.
Hughes: You were 31 years old when you arrived, and left with three pretty well grown up
sons.
Evans: It was a wonderful life, and I always say that to people. As difficult as it could be at
times, and as busy as it could be at times, and Dan was often times stretched thin, and on
and on and on, I still thought it was just a great existence for us.
But we had a hiatus of six months before Evergreen.
Hughes: What did you do for six months?
Evans: Well, we did what we had done shortly after we were married. We took a trip to
Europe. Dan said, “Why don’t repeat our trip?” So we did with the three boys. And that
was great. We went all around, skied for several weeks again, and drove around. We went
down into Kenya, too. We’ve been back several times.
Hughes: To Kenya?
Evans: Well, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. It’s amazing country. The lighting there is
just very different. And you can understand why artists like it so much.
Hughes: What a treat. You and your family really deserved that trip.
Evans: Well, we did. And we have wonderful films that we took and we put those on movies
for the kids. It was a good age because they were 10, 13, and 16. So Dan, our oldest son,
could drive, and that helped. We picked up a Volvo station wagon after skiing and we drove
all over. We rented a house in Surrey, south of London, for six weeks. And my mother came
over to stay with us. And we toured around Wales where the Evans came from. And, as I
mentioned earlier, we went to Haltwhistle, where the Bells came from in north England.
Hughes: Right up on the Scotland border. Was it a little bit warmer this time?
Evans: No, it was cold. But it was really a wonderful trip. When Mother was with us
there were six of us. So Bruce got stuck in the back of the station wagon, at age 10,
with the luggage. I think our son Dan had finally had enough of being with the family,
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