Henderson residents flocked to Lake Mead and driveway sprinklers to keep cool in summers past
The Las Vegas Valley is known for its intense summers with temperatures rising into the triple digits. While some look at the three-month stretch with a sense of dread, some longtime Henderson residents take a trip down memory lane to rehash summers in the desert.
“It’s very timely with how hot it is outside,” said Rick Watson, who has lived in Henderson since the late 1940s, before it was named Henderson in 1953. “It always makes you remember the past summers.”
Watson was 5 when his family moved from California to Nevada. His family lived in Las Vegas briefly before settling in Henderson a few months later.
Watson noticed the climate differences immediately.
“We weren’t far from the ocean, so the sea breeze made the area a lot cooler,” he said of living in California.
It was the tail end of summer when his family settled, but August still provided plenty of sun. Yet, the new environment with its intense heat never stopped him and his friends from going outside.
“Playing in the heat was like an adventure for us,” Watson said.
When they needed a break, Watson added there was nothing more comfortable than a damp patch of grass under a shady tree.
Back then, no amount of heat was going to stop Valerie La Porta-Haynes, a lifelong Henderson resident who grew up in the ’50s and ’60s, from the summer fun she and her friends would find.
“We would ride our bikes or rollerskate as our transportation,” she said. “We would play hopscotch or marbles in our driveway. We never complained.”
In their front yard, the sprinklers were a godsend that provided not only entertainment from water fights but also splashes of cool relief.
“We would always have water wars,” she said.
Inside, they relied on swamp coolers to cool the house.
“I didn’t get a house with air conditioning until after I got married (in 1964),” Watson said. “My wife was a Utah girl and couldn’t handle the heat. At that point, if we could have sold our first born for air conditioning, we would have.”
Though they were happy playing outside, both Watson and La Porta-Haynes have fond memories of other summertime activities.
Before there were pools, residents went to the lake. La Porta-Haynes remembers her family loading up in a car without air conditioning to spend all day at Lake Mead.
“That’s a huge memory for me,” she said. “We would pack picnics and lay out in the sun all day.
Since his parents weren’t swimmers, Watson said they were less inclined to do family trips to Lake Mead. However, his uncles would take him.
“We would actually hitchhike down to the lake,” Watson said.
Though he has fond memories of this, he said he also had the worst sunburns from staying out in the sun.
Beyond Lake Mead, Watson would take a bus to other parts of Las Vegas to go to some of the hidden — now nonexistent — creeks in Las Vegas to swim.
Finally, when the Henderson community pool opened, people had another place to go. “But it was always crowded,” Watson said.
He remembers friends — who would leave their hair long and shaggy during the school year — would don crewcuts so they didn’t have hair in their eyes when they swam.
La Porta-Haynes said it was a new opportunity for her friends.
“Our summer fun just evolved,” she said.
She added that even though the community pool was fun, it had some setbacks.
“We had to obey the laws of the land when we were there,” she said. “When we were in our front yard, there were no laws.”
There were also inside attractions that many residents remembered offered a cool escape. For La Porta-Haynes, she enjoyed trips to the Water Street Library with her mom.
Both Watson and La Porta-Haynes remember the cool comforts of the Victory Theater, which showed a variety of movies.
“We would probably go once a month depending on what my parents had on the agenda for the day,” La Porta-Haynes said.
Watson said he went more frequently, usually once a week. “I went more often once my parents trusted I could get there without getting lost,” he added.
Though the summer heat hasn’t changed, many residents are more content enjoying summers inside a cool room.
“Nowadays, you rarely want to leave the house,” La Porta-Haynes said. “Maybe you just get less (tolerant). But back then, you just never noticed. It was a great time.”
To reach Henderson View reporter Michael Lyle, email mlyle@viewnews.com or call 702-387-5201. Find him on Twitter: @mjlyle.