Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

just all the time because we were living in this cold old house. And then at one point in
time something happened to the plumbing and when you would sit on a toilet the water
was warm.
Hughes: Well, at least that had to be pleasant! (laughing)
Evans: You could warm your bottom! (laughing) So there were a lot of maintenance
issues that had not been taken care of either, over the years.
Hughes: Looking back, in 1974 you were telling the AP, “The first two winters we literally
froze.”
Evans: Well, that’s a little dramatic. But it was cold.
Hughes: Then you recalled Dan climbing onto the roof on Christmas Day 1973. Is that a
true story?
Evans: That’s a true story. Water is pouring into the ballroom. All our families are there.
We have lots of kids and lots of people, and it’s just pouring in. He was telling someone
about that not too long ago. And as he said, dumb him, he went up there and was looking
around, trying to figure out where it was coming in. But then he thought later, “It doesn’t
come in this way, it travels.” It was actually coming in from the dining room area and then
over into the ballroom. We had buckets all over. It was just pouring down. And of course
this is Christmas and nobody is around that you can call.
Hughes: You’ve got a leaky roof, a creaky staircase and the threadbare carpet. Did you
ever grab some legislators and legislators’ spouses and say, “For Pete’s sake, we need to do
something here.”
Evans: A little later I did.
Hughes: But early in the going you made do.
Evans: You go with what you have.
Hughes: What was it like working with Jean Jongeward?
Evans: We got along very well. But we had our fights – not fights, but disagreements
about things. She was not always practical, as designers can be very easily. It’s
understandable. And I kept saying, “Jean, we’ve got thousands of people who are
coming through here every day. We’ve got to be practical about fabrics and treatments
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