Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

learned he was coming to Seattle to promote his new documentary about national parks, we
were very pleased because the people who knew him said he’s so generous with his time.
You set up a horrendous schedule and he’ll say, “Sure, I’ll do that.” And that’s just exactly
what he had and what he did. He and his co-producer, Dayton Duncan, both came. We had
a National Parks Foundation dinner. Dan’s nephew – his brother’s son – is president of that
organization, so we went to that as a fundraiser. Then the next night, KCTS sponsored a
presentation at Benaroya Hall. There were 2,000 people there. At the reception beforehand,
Ken and I were introduced. We started chatting about funny things – like how do you
remember people when you’ve met them in Seattle and then you see them in New York.
Hughes: Psychiatrists tell us that that’s called cognitive dislocation – that you could know
Nancy and Dan Evans here in Seattle, but all of a sudden you see them in Los Angeles and
you can’t remember their names!
Evans: Exactly.
Hughes: How embarrassing is that? You’re standing there with your wife and your kids
and you frantically ask yourself, “Who are these people?”
Evans: It’s hard. Well, Ken brought it up, so we all have that happen. This happens to me
a lot. People will come up and say, “Hi. Do you remember me?” And people do that to Ken
all the time, too. I told him I just say, “No, I’m sorry I don’t.” But I didn’t used to say that.
I’m smarter now that I’m older. But I told him that’s a terrible thing to do to a person – to
say, “Do you remember me?” Now, when I just tell the truth, people invariably say, “You’re
right” and “I’m sorry.” They don’t do it to be unkind or mean; they just do it being sort of
funny. But I just tell them, “No, I don’t remember,” and “Please don’t do that to people.
It’s not nice.” Well, Ken Burns was saying the same thing: “How am I going to remember
this person I met in Hoboken?” And I said, “Well, what you do is what Nelson Rockefeller
used to do. Even if he knew you, he’d say, ‘Hiya fella!’ and everybody would think, ‘Oh, he
knows me!’ ” So they were ringing the bell and we had to go down to the auditorium to do
the show. And I said, “Bye fella.” And Ken said, “Bye gal!”
Hughes: When I’m in the car, I’ve got NPR to keep me company. I love the NPR
commercials where somebody pulls into the driveway but doesn’t open the garage door.
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