Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

Heffernan: The other question I have is on the mom front. How do you raise three boys
and instill confidence in them? It’s so important, especially in today’s world.
Hughes: Trova has a nearly 4-year-old who is pretty amazing.
Evans: That’s great.
Heffernan: But to not feel that they are just Dan Evans’ sons.
Hughes: It was hard with our oldest son, and I’m sure he would agree with that, being a
junior, and also being the oldest. The other boys came by it a little more easily because they
had different names to begin with – not Daniel J. Evans Jr. Dan Jr. had the most struggles
with it. Nothing horrendous, but just did. People would point him out, classmates, and
friends and what have you. That’s hard on a kid. You want to be part of the group.
Heffernan: It just struck me when you were talking about your son that he got a grade on
a paper that you felt that he didn’t deserve. And as a mother I would want my son to —
Evans: He was in junior high at the time. That’s why we sent him to Charles Wright (for
more rigorous academic expectations). Along that line, Bruce, who went to Yale, was
very young. His birthday is August 21 st , so he had just turned 17 when he went to college
because he had skipped a grade in grade school. I can still remember he was not driving
because he wasn’t 16, and he was going to the prom. I think it was the Senior Prom and
some senior had asked him to go. And Dan said to him, “Well, how are you getting there?
Do you need a ride?” And he said, “No. She’s picking me up.” (laughing)
Hughes: That’s great. This kid’s an operator.
Evans: He’s always just fine. And most boys wouldn’t like that, but he thought it was great
to be driven around by a girl. But he went back there to school and he called us one time.
There’s a time when you go East to school – six weeks, two months, at least these two – and
suddenly they realized they’re a little homesick. And I can remember Mark called from
Massachusetts: “Hi, mom.” You know, it was one of those. “Hi, how are things going?” And
I said, “How’s school?” And he said, “Well, people are really different back here.” They both
said the same thing. I said, “Well, of course they’re different.” He said, “And they speak
so fast.” Well, it’s true, Easterners speak fast. And I said, “Remember they think you’re
different, too. They might think you speak differently.” Well, that sort of helped. But then
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