“Before that when I was in high school in the '60s, '70s, probably the later '70s and early '80s when they [town residents] started leaving. Well, I think if I remember right, I was a junior in high school when they closed the cat house, so that would've been probably '67, '68 because I graduated in '69, and the sheriff was elected from Star Valley and he promised to close it down. That's how he got elected.” -MK
“Supposedly the madam had a a sundial in her yard. ”
“She [my grandmother] worked at a restaurant down in Kemmerer. She recently walked around town like a bunch of ducklings. She’s the madam and she walked first, ladies walk behind her. And they walked in a straight line like a duck and her ducklings. She gave the command and they went to the back room. That’s where they would eat, in the back room. It was setup for them to come in once a week and get a nice dinner. She [my grandmother] loved waiting on them because they were nice. She says that they tipped well, they were so polite. And then she says you only seen them out twice a week. They’d walk up from the house, up to go eat and then they’d walk up to the clinic for checkups. That’s the only time you’ve seen them out in public”
“She told my grandfather [that he] was the next in line, Lorenzo, that this is a place to work. Coal mines of all things. They come from Italy, which is fantastic. I guess, where they’re at with the orchards and everything and beautiful country. I never did make it back, but I have relatives that did said it’s unreal, why they come to Diamondville, Wyoming is unreal. [chuckles] They did come over here to work in the coal mine.”
“They could make [some] wine legally for the family. They made all they could just like anybody else, and sell a little bit of it, it was a good deal to make wine… If you didn’t have wine with the meal, you didn’t have much.”
