Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

of the family disciplinarian. She did not want to have him watching TV. My kids are like that
now, but actually we didn’t watch that much. It wasn’t a big thing in those days with our
family. But I remember looking at my family and thinking, “Oh my goodness – here we are
on a week night watching TV,” and Trey went off to his room. But then as we were walking
up the driveway to the Mansion, Trey said something else that I had totally forgotten. He
said, “You and Dan left and went somewhere, and I was alone in this Mansion.” The whole
family left. I guess we went on vacation. “And so I was alone in the Mansion with the help
for a week and a half.”
Hughes: What a great story. So, what kind of a kid was the future Microsoft billionaire?
Evans: He was interesting. A very smart young man. I can remember one night we went
over to Bill and Mary’s. We were all going out to dinner or something. Mary wasn’t quite
ready. And Mary said, “Trey, why don’t you tell Dan and Nancy what you’ve been doing.”
So Trey, Dan and I are in the living room. He was in about the sixth grade, seventh grade
maybe, and he stood up and he said, “Well, my friend and I have decided to form a group
that will get together and discuss issues that are happening in the world today. And each
week we take a subject and read about it, research it, and then discuss it.”
Hughes: Did you turn to Dan that night and say, “Trey is going to be really somebody some
day”?
Evans: Well, you knew that he was. I also have many memories of the wonderful bridge
club we were in. Mary and Bill Gates founded it before I knew them – sort of out-ofcollege,
newlyweds. These were all married people. I think the club started as four
couples, just two tables, and it evolved over a period of years. (Future U.S. Senator) Brock
and Betty Adams were part of that bridge club early on. Then people would move. Brock
went back East, and people moved to California, or whatever. Then they’d bring another
couple in.
Evans: We did not know these people back then in the early years of the club. … But in the
mid-’60s we were up at Crystal Mountain, and they all were up there skiing, the members
of this bridge club. They had rented some condos – very small ones – and they invited us to
join them for dinner. Bill and Mary’s condo bedroom was like ours. It was two bunks and
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