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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Susan Quant Bianchi 
April 30, 1992 
Cassette 2, Side 1 
 
 
Linda C. Meuter  00:01 
Visit at Susan Quant Bianchi's home, doing her life history. It is April 30, 1992. So before we 
talk about marriage, wondering if you could tell me a little more about your home life and your 
life experience outside of your school experience, things that occurred at home, and outside 
activities. 
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  00:26 
Okay, I think I'm going to tackle it right off. There's something that's real hard for me to talk 
about. It's something that, as I was growing up, none of my friends knew anything about it. I 
never shared it with anyone. My sister, Chris and I talked about, as we would lay in bed at night, 
trying to sleep, and our-- what we considered our problems with it. And it was the, it was the fact 
that my parents drank. And it took me until I was probably close to my 40s, or into my 40s, 
before I could say that my parents were alcoholics, and it hurts me every time I think about it. 
Hurts me for the life they had. I know it started in junior high. I mean, it's obvious. You know, it 
started in junior high school. I'm sure it started way before that. We just weren't aware of it. And 
it was the fact that they were able to hide it so well. You know, I don't know how they hid it so 
well, my friends loved to come to my house. They weren't drunk then. I believe my dad's 
drinking started in the war, you know, when he was in the Navy. And I don't think my mother 
drank then, I think it was something she gradually, you know, stepped into. And then, I don't-- 
none of us know what happened, but we think something bad happened between my parents, 
something, I won't even go into what possible things it could have been, but something happened 
and their marriage, you know, was floundering, and they were having some problems. And still 
on the outside, they-- on the outside, we went to church, and on the outside, my friends came to 
my house, and everything was fine, but underneath all this, were all, were all the tones of the 
drinking and what, you know, what things were caused by that. And I can share two stories that 
really sum it up for junior high school, and that was, let's say, when I was in the ninth grade and 
Chris was in the seventh grade, Mom would come and pick us up after school, and that was at 
Fairhaven. Then we would drive down to the Kulshan Tavern, which was about-- right on the 
main drag of, you know, where all the kids had to walk home or whatever, and my mom would 
park the car right there, and my dad would be there or be coming shortly, and they would meet to 
drink, and they left us in the car. And it terrified us. We were scared to death that any of our 
friends would see us parked outside this tavern, and we would be there an hour. I mean, I want to 
say we were there all, you know, two hours. It seemed like we were there forever, and one of us 
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was always the lookout. Oh, somebody's, you know, so and so is coming. I see so and so. And 
we were in the back seat, and we would duck down and hide, clear down so that no one could see 
us. And then we kind of sneak our heads back up to see if it was safe again. After they'd been in 
there, oh, I don't know, half hour, 45 minutes, hour, whatever, Dad would bring out a couple of 
nickels, because at that time, an ice cream cone was a nickel. And we would walk over to Hazel's 
Cafe, where Chris ended up working later in her life, and we would buy a nickel ice cream cone 
and then, you know, back to the car waiting for him to come. They did this often, often. And then  
another thing that jumps into my mind, I guess, because it was another time we hated so much. 
But they would, we would go to Shakey's. Shakey's Pizza Parlor, and it was on State Street, and 
at that time-- and we'd be talking 1960. This would be 1960 at that time, you couldn't drink. My 
parents couldn't drink, and they drank beer. They couldn't drink in the same place that we would 
eat dinner. So if you had a family eating dinner, there was no drinking. My parents would have 
to go through a door into the bar, which was adjoining the restaurant part. They would leave us 
there in the restaurant. Kathy too. It was all three of us, and they would leave us there so and 
they would go on the other side and drink. Well, we had our pizza. But beyond that, I mean, 
Kathy is the one that remembers this the best, but Shakey's used to have all those signs all the 
way around saying, I don't-- if I can think of one like, you know, we don't pay the-- we make the 
pizzas, we're not the bank or whatever. There were signs like that, so pay cash. There were signs, 
like 100 signs all the way around it, and we would, we would sit there and read those signs. And 
I know, I know we were there. Well, we-- to us, at that age, we were there forever, sitting there 
waiting for our parents to come back. And that in junior high, those two things really stuck out in 
my mind. I'm thankful that it didn't involve my friends, and it didn't involve, you know, the rest 
of our life. But in high school, it probably stayed about the same. Maybe it got-- their drinking at 
home got worse. I can remember it had to be noon, and as soon as it was noon, it was cocktail 
time, and, you know, out came the beers, and we couldn't do anything without them taking beer. 
Even church things, they would put beer in root beer. We would make root beer, homemade root 
beer. And part of the, you know, Dad made homemade brew too. And so the root beer had-- we 
put it all in beer bottles, or in root beer bottles. So some of the root beer bottles were-- had beer 
in them. And so if we would go on a social picnic thing with the church, the beer in the root beer 
bottles would come, you know, would come along. And you know, I just would always hope no 
one, you know, would ever know. And it never seemed like anyone ever knew. My friends never 
suspected. Because I think if they had, I don't know, I'm not sure, but I don't think they ever 
suspected because honestly-- how they did, I guess they just waited until my friends left, and 
then they would start drinking, or they would just have one or two, which didn't, you know, 
didn't affect them if friends were coming or whatever. The thing that maybe got better was I got 
more independent as high school, you know, as I got into high school. I got more independent, 
and so I was working, and I worked, you know, all summer, and I was working weekends during 
school, which I have to throw in my favorite, I have to throw in my favorite memory. For my 
16th birthday, which is my most favorite birthday that I ever had, my parents got me a 1948 
Chrysler New Yorker, and it was-- my friends, that was the highlight. I mean, my car was the 
highlight of all of their lives, because I was the only one that had a car, but that-- we were on the 
road, we were in the-- all the kids went from, we went from Bunk's to A&W on south side and 
back, you know. We had our route, and here was me, you know, me and my Chrysler New 
Yorker. It had a nose that was, you know, forever long. I hit, I don't know how many things I 
ever hit, never, ever dented the car. And one of my favorite stories is I was working at the A&W, 
and I got off of work, and came out to the car, and was getting in. The lights were off. I mean, 
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we were closed. We'd been cleaning up for an hour. So the, you know, the drive-in had been 
closed for an hour, and I looked in the back window, but it had those, you know, those little, tiny 
high windows in those cars? I saw nothing, but there was something back there. It was a 
Volkswagen. And I crashed into this Volkswagen, this girl and her boyfriend were back there 
making out. So to the police station, we went to fill out the, you know, all the papers and why. 
One of the questions was, when did you first see, you know, the fact that you were going to be 
hitting someone or something? And my answer was, I never did, you know and stuff like that. 
And the only funny part of it-- the evening was, was that, as the thing was ending, the guy who 
was out there making out with his girlfriend, asked, asked me out, and I just thought, Oh, this is 
crazy [laughs]. But my car didn't have a dent, and his car was, I think it was totaled. I'm not quite 
sure. I think it was totaled, and that was the only real accident I ever had, but that car got me my 
freedom, and it got me out of the house. I got to go places, and I got to be away from their 
drinking. That's, you know, I think that's why I, you know, when I was just more independent, I 
worked 40 hours a week during the summer, and in school, like I've mentioned, I was busy at all 
the activities, and then working weekends, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays. I was dating Stan, so 
every minute in-between, Stan and I were dating. So I became less at home and less aware of, 
you know, quite what was happening. I know it was very, very hard on my youngest sister, 
because she was younger and she bared, you know, more of the brunt of it for more years, and I 
know she's more bitter about it than I am, and, and I feel like I've, I've-- it got worse. I mean, in 
my college years, it got worse. They got-- it almost got to be where, I'm not sure which brought 
on what. But, you know, things that were like paranoia started happening, and my mom started 
following Chris and I, and... You know, I wish we'd have done something bad in high school. I 
didn't. I was one of those that I just didn't. And if I said I was going to the library, you know, 
downtown Bellingham Public Library, Chris and I were going to study, or whatever. Well, I can 
remember showing up at the library. And from where we lived, it was a, you know, a 30 minute-- 
20 minute at least, drive, and we would be on the steps of the library and turn around and we go, 
there's Mom. She followed us, and that happened numerous times. So I don't know if the 
drinking brought on some of this paranoia or what. Because we were all good kids. None of us 
ever got in trouble. I didn't drink in high school, I didn't do the things that a lot of-- I didn't 
smoke in high school and I didn't drink in high school. I guess I was afraid of what, what 
possibly would happen if I did, because we got in trouble quite a lot, you know, for not doing 
anything. And I'm not sure if, you know, if it was drinking. I do know, in college it got worse, 
and the years got-- it got worse. I mean, it got so that my friends, you know, after I was married, 
that my friends knew my parents were alcoholic. I mean, they had the shakes, and they had the 
whole works. And when my kids were little, they weren't allowed to ride with Mom and Dad in 
the car. I they couldn't stay overnight with them, you know, none of it, and I would want to be 
with them, just as you know, as little as was absolutely possible to be with them, because it was 
so awful. And Kathy, my youngest sister, was four years younger, so I was married a year out of 
high school. Chris was married a year after that, so Kathy still had-- I think Kathy was still at 
home three more years, and when things were bad, it seemed like, as each one of us left home, 
Mom got worse, because all our life, all she wanted was, you know, these daughters and to do all 
these things with us. And I think underneath, she saw that things weren't going right and things 
weren't working, and she was angry. Mom and Dad fought constantly. There was a battle of, you 
know, fighting going on constantly. This affected my marriage totally, you know, and I know 
we're going to talk about that, but it affected it so that my husband and neither one of us like to 
fight, and I married someone who's practically a non-drinker, and I do drink, but it's very rarely 
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now, and I remember in my 30s, drinking a bit more and worrying about it, thinking, Oh, no, am 
I going to be an alcoholic? I don't want to be an alcoholic. I don't want what happened to me-- 
you know, what happened to my parents happen to me, and so consciously cut back, and, you 
know, cut back so that it was-- you know, you drank when you went out with friends and you 
had a few drinks, and it was very, very normal drinking. 
 
Linda C. Meuter  12:13 
This is a rough road. To have not been able to really recall as a young person... 
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  12:17 
Well, you know, when I was in high school, there was no such thing as Al-Anon or Alcoholics 
Anonymous, although I don't think it would have done me any good, because I would have had 
to have hidden going to Al-Anon. My parents would never have stood for it. After all, they didn't 
have a problem. But now it's talked about kids. My husband's a high school teacher at Blaine, 
and you know, the kids talk about it openly with other kids and with their teachers. It's just so 
open now. They talk about going to Al-Anon. So maybe, you know, maybe, if it had been now, 
maybe it would have been different. But I was never able to share this with anyone. The first 
person I shared, you know, this with, particularly other than Chris and I talked about it, was 
Kathy Haggen, and I think she was the only one I did talk to about it. I trusted her, you know, 
you know. I felt such trust of her that I knew-- and she knew, and I felt like I could talk to her 
about it. And it was sometime in my 40s that I think, you know, that I really felt like I've 
forgiven them. I've forgiven them for what happened through all those years, because a lot of 
things happened that I still don't want to talk about, and a lot of things Mom said that were so 
cruel that she would feel horrible if she knew she said. You know, it was all under alcohol, and 
the fights that started under alcohol, and the and the crying, and the fighting with Mom and Dad, 
you know? So, I did have Kathy Haggen I could talk to about it and my forgiveness kind of goes 
to learning that I wasn't-- haven't been the perfect parent either, even though I've tried. And, you 
know, I don't think I have any of the problems like I'm discussing, but just realizing, maybe the-- 
maybe realizing more that this isn't a perfect world, and that some things happened in my 
parents’ life, and I don't know what it is, and I don't know what started it. I think they drank to 
forget some problems that we don't know about. That us kids never were privy to, and then they 
were alcoholics, and they couldn't quit. They couldn't stop. 
 
Linda C. Meuter  14:24 
Was Stan-- was-- did-- when did he? Was he understanding?  
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  14:28 
He was aware of it, but we didn't talk about it. I never shared it with him.  
 
Linda C. Meuter  14:33 
That's interesting. 
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  14:33 
Not in high school, not in high school, not till after we got married, not until I knew I, you know, 
felt that trust of being married and, of course, by then he knew, but in high school, our 
relationship was lighter, you know, lighter probably. 
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Linda C. Meuter  14:50 
Were you aware of it as an alcoholism problem? Or did you, was it something that would just go 
away, or you wanted-- 
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  14:55 
--I hoped it would go away. I thought they were, you know, for a while I thought they were, I 
didn't know what social drinking-- I thought they were drinkers. I wondered why they drank so 
much. I knew we didn't like it, but the word alcoholism didn't-- I didn't know they were 
alcoholics until I was in my, I don't know if I said 40s earlier, but I knew in my 30s, I wouldn't 
admit it. I wouldn't admit it. My parents are alcoholics, and I wouldn't admit it, and because it 
also brings back such awful memories of things that happened to me and happened to Chris. I 
mean, I know that's-- I know that-- maybe not for me. I was really ready to get married. But my 
mother and I had a fight about three months before I got married, and I moved out from home. 
And, you know, it was all same kind of crazy stuff. And I, you know, Chris got married quickly 
after, and Kathy couldn't wait to get married. No, we all felt that just drive to be out of home, be 
out of the home. When we were all gone, it was-- my mom just sat and drank, you know? I 
mean, she drank more. I think the hardest thing I'd like to talk about as far as their drinking goes 
is, do you remember my talking about home? I had one home all my life, and that was home, and 
it was the home on Chuckanut. The home that-- my parents bought the property when I was five 
years old, that all of us helped clear the land, my mom drew up the plans. It was home. Well, my 
dad couldn't meet my mom at three o'clock and go drinking with her. He obviously was taking 
off of work. I don't know how old I was. I think I was in my late 20s when my dad got fired from 
his job for drinking. And because he had worked at Farmers so many years, they were kind 
enough to him to re-establish him in Seattle at the main office where they could watch him. No 
longer did he have the car where he went around and did casework in the different counties. He 
was stuck in this, you know, at this desk in this office at Seattle, but it meant that Mom and Dad 
had to sell their house, and they sold it for nothing, just to get out of there. They moved to 
Seattle, and you know, what they have now is just, really nothing. You know, it just-- I don't 
know if they drank it all away or what they did with it, but you know, home was gone, and that's 
just been something that's just-- it just seems so sad that we couldn't-- our kids should have been 
able to have gone back to my home. They built a total stone patio in the back with a fireplace and 
a salmon barbecue. And there was this shelf that was made all out of rock with all of our names 
in it. And we took, oh, probably 25 trips down to the Skagit River to collect those beautiful green 
rocks, and the gold rocks, and all about this size to build flower beds that were raised about this 
high all around the house. They lost it. They had the chance. They could have rented it out and 
then moved back home when my dad retired, but my mom, having been a very stubborn woman, 
wouldn't-- she wanted Dad to just see how much he had caused, that this was all on his 
shoulders. And so that was part of the suffering, so that she wanted it very clear that Dad had 
caused all this, so they did not rent out the house, so they couldn't move back. And Dad only had 
five more years till he retired, that's the end. 
 
Linda C. Meuter  14:55 
Were you-- were you able to talk to your parents about this?  
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  18:47 
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Never.  
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  18:48 
Never, to this day. I know. I know if-- my parents don't think they were alcoholics. I mean, I 
don't know what they thought-- think, but my mom-- the reason my mom stopped drinking when 
she was about 55, because my boys were four and five or six at the time. Her doctor, she went 
into the doctor. Actually, Kathy had called her doctor, and that's my little sister, and she had told 
my doctor just how bad her drinking was. So he ran for their tests, determined that her liver 
wasn't functioning, brought her in, told her that if she did not quit drinking, she would be dead. 
She quit drinking, just like that. That was the last-- she never had another drink. She simply quit. 
And it was like after she quit, it didn't bother her. I mean, I never-- I never got over that. I can 
remember one time after my grandma, her mom, had a stroke, and we had spent two days at the 
hospital with Grandma, and we went out to dinner. We needed to get away. And we went to the 
Black Angus and mom said, Why don't you have a drink, Sue? It doesn't bother me at all. And I 
had one, and I watched for any signs of her shaking or any signs of her-- nothing. There was 
nothing. It didn't bother her. She was able to totally quit, and not having her-- have it bother her. 
But my dad continued to drink. I mean, he couldn't quit. So my mother made a rule that he wasn't 
able to drink in the house. So my dad would leave work, you know, and go to the taverns, and, 
you know, come home at 11, midnight, whenever he showed up, but no liquor was allowed in the 
house after that. And I don't know why I think this is funny, but this is typical of my mother. 
During the period of my dad's drinking, my mother joined Al-Anon. 
 
Linda C. Meuter  18:48 
It was never?  
 
Linda C. Meuter  20:36 
Which is?  
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  20:37 
Which is for people whose spouses drink. She was able to say, my father was an alcoholic, so 
she joined Al-Anon, and she got in. I mean, she belonged for three years and loved it, and could 
talk to us kids about my dad's drinking, but never, could we ever say a word about the fact that 
she drank too. She actually drank-- I don't know that she drank-- the drinking affected her worse 
than it affected my father. My father continued to eat. My mother stopped eating, so she would 
get totally wiped out, whereas my father would eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And although he 
was very drunk, he would not be like my mother. So, but my mom belonged to Al-Anon for 
three years because of her husband's drinking. 
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  21:41 
At first, I don't really feel like I had many choices. I wasn't allowed to live away from home, and 
part of that was financial. Part of the money had to have been drunk. Well, you know, used for 
drinking, and I was only-- my only choice given to me by my mom was to go to Western, and 
she decided that I was to be a music major. You know, this was the dominant parent coming out 
again, and so I really didn't feel like I had any choices. And kind of what happened to me was I 
stayed away from home a lot then. I had my car still, and I would leave early in the morning, 
earlier than I even had a class, I would leave. I had girlfriends that lived up in the dorms, and I 
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would just go in my ratty clothes and take my hairspray with me, and, you know, and go get 
ready at their place. So I would leave at seven in the morning, and I had to be home by 10 or 
10:30. I would walk in the door at 10, 10:30, and, you know, and go to bed, you know. So I 
really wasn't home. On the weekends. I worked, still. I worked at the Shack Drive-in, which was 
right across from Bellingham High School, and was kind of a waitress. I enjoyed it, but also, I 
think in some ways, it made me closer to girlfriends, in some ways, because you wanted this tie, 
this normal tie, you know, and so I, I was always close to my girlfriends. I was close-- I was 
closer to my sisters. You know? And Chris and I talked about this. I don't know that Chris and I 
would be as close, or Kathy and I be as close, if my parents hadn't had this lifestyle, it brought us 
together. I mean, we cried together. We worried. There are things that I won't talk about that 
happened, but I know what they are, and Chris knows what they are. And we shed many a tear 
over them, but we would sit, you know, on one of our beds and just hug and hold each other, and 
cry, and weep over what was going to happen. We worried. We worried about our parents all the 
time. Were they going to drive off a cliff and kill themselves from drinking? I mean, we had to 
worry about these things, you know. And if they weren't home, and it was a Saturday night late 
and they weren't home, where were they? We worried about that stuff. So that made my sisters 
and I just really close. And I also formed, you know, closer relationships with friends. I know 
during this period in particular, I got extremely close to Stan. I fell in love with Stan during this 
period. It happened in college, that's when-- we had been friends. I had liked him. I was 
borderline probably loving him, but I didn't know what love was yet. But in college, in college, I 
fell in love with Stan. In college, I knew I wanted to marry him, and in college I wanted to be 
with him all the time. And actually, we got engaged that Christmas, and we went and, you know, 
picked out our ring and got engaged, and were together at any moment, you know, any possible 
moments we could be together. And those were-- that was fun times, because he played for 
Western Washington University basketball team, and I followed the team. I went to all their 
turnouts. I knew all the guys, and if they would play at Central, or wherever they would play, I'd 
get a girlfriend to go with me, and we travel over in my bomber and watch their game. I mean, I 
had a ball. I had a really good time, as long as I just, you know, stayed away from home. I 
remember worrying about my sisters, because, you know, when I was home, we would talk, and 
I was very aware that things, you know, still weren't getting any better, and they were getting 
worse. And I felt bad about that. I felt bad that I was gone so much. But this time of my life, I 
was really, was probably the most self-centered time of my life. At that time, I just wanted to be 
with Stan. I wanted to be engaged. I wanted to look at spices, and towels, and, you know, 
nightgowns and black, exciting nightwear and, you know, and we-- I just that was the fun part. I 
had a Hope Chest, and I was busy filling it and planning a date for our marriage. And that was 
fun. That was great fun. And my parents loved Stan. They always loved Stan. He was, they 
always called him their first son. So with Stan and the family, that was never a problem, because 
they truly loved him. They loved him as much as they loved the three of us. And so they were 
excited that Stan and I were getting married. I mean, that was just-- when we were getting 
married that was so exciting. So, so that was a really great-- actually that was a great year. That 
was one of my best years. And, you know, we started setting about planning a wedding date and 
Stan fishes in the summertime. So I knew I didn't want to get married until kind of fishing was 
over. So we picked September 5, 1964, and spent, you know, all of my summer with all the 
wedding plans and bridesmaids, and Chris and Kathy were my bridesmaids, and Andy 
[?Irvecheck?] was Dan's best man, and I think Dan was an usher, and so it was kind of a family. 
It was a small wedding. And again, my mother's dominance played a part in my wedding. She 
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kind of, she kind of did it, you know, picking out what was what. She went out and picked out 
my wedding cake. She went out and picked out, I think she picked out three wedding gowns, and 
I got to, you know, have my choice. But, I mean, she just wanted to really be that, she-- I don't 
know why she wanted to be so, I think she was afraid of not being dominant. If she wasn't 
dominant, what would she be? I think she was afraid that if she wasn't dominant, she would 
shrivel up as a mother. I don't know, you know, I don't know what that was. I never figured it 
out. 
 
Linda C. Meuter  24:55 
Sue, at this point in your life, you are about to enter college, and I just wonder how your parents 
drinking affected your choices and your decisions about your life? 
 
Linda C. Meuter  27:16 
That she was her role. At some point, she thought it was her role. 
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  27:33 
It was her role, because never in her life before-- everything... And I do want to talk about this 
lady, she had a terrible growing up. She was, you know, a pawn. She was, she was taken from 
one place to another. She never knew who was Dad. You know, there's a lot I could say about 
this. So when she became Mom, she wanted to be dominant. She was afraid of that being taken 
away from her. You know, she was afraid of not being loved. And now I can see her childhood, 
and I can see just what it did to her, and I can see what kind of why, you know, why the parent, 
why the dominant parent, why she did a lot of what she did. And she sees it as, as having loved 
us, you know. So it's hard. Like I said, I think earlier, you know, the whole, whole life seemed to 
be a duality of, you know, of one kind-- of two different, totally different, different kinds of 
parents. My mom was this loving mother who did so much for us, and on the other hand, she 
was, you know, a drinker who was dominant to if you didn't go along with what she what she 
thought, she was angry with you. You had, you had to believe what she believed. That's why, 
from the time Scott was, you know, three and I was going, which outfit do you like? You can 
pick out your own outfit. I didn't do that till after I got married. So..  
 
Linda C. Meuter  28:55 
Pretty amazing.  
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  28:55 
It was amazing. 
 
Linda C. Meuter  29:00 
But she didn't go on the honeymoon with you, right?  
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  29:03 
No [laughs]. And our honeymoon was kind of a crazy honeymoon too. We had two nights 
because-- we ended up, even though I tried to plan this all so that it wasn't around fishing-- they 
opened fishing, and so we had exactly two nights before fishing started again. We went up to the 
Vancouver Hotel and checked into the wrong hotel. Rice is falling out of your hair, and I was 
embarrassed. I was 19, I was young, and I was kind of embarrassed. I tried to walk in looking so 
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cool and suave, you know, that they wouldn't know I had just gotten married. Went over to sign 
the thing, and, you know, rice is all over it. Then they tell us we don't have a room there. We're 
in the wrong hotel. We were supposed to be in the Georgia Hotel, so off we go to the Georgia 
Hotel, and we had the honeymoon suite. And that should be quite exciting, right?  
 
Linda C. Meuter  29:49 
Right.  
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  29:49 
Except they-- it was Labor Day weekend, and it was very busy, so they rented out the master 
bedroom to the-- to the honeymoon suite to someone else.  
 
Linda C. Meuter  30:01 
Oh, they forgot you.  
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  30:02 
No. Well, they didn't forget us. They were just going to get more money. They gave us this, the 
main part of the suite. Like we had the living room. We got the living room and a bathroom, and 
I don't know if there was like a kitchenette there or not, but we got the living room. And in the 
living room they put a hide-a-bed. So we had a hide-a-bed in the living room, and right over here 
was the master bedroom that we were supposed to be in. And we were just like, how could they 
do this to us, you know? And I went over to the door, and I would listen, and... Who's in our 
bedroom, you know? And we're kind of embarrassed too, because it was our honeymoon, and, 
you know, we're kind of embarrassed.  
 
Linda C. Meuter  30:39 
New at this. 
 
Susan Quant Bianchi  30:40 
So-- we're new at this, and so one of the things we-- I decided to do it, the whole wall across the 
entire-- it was a large room, across the entire front was was draped, and we were on the top floor, 
being the honeymoon suite. So I thought, Oh, the view is going to be incredible, all the lights of 
Vancouver. So I started at one end, pulling, you know, the drapes open. It was a cement wall. 
The entire thing was a cement wall. I mean, I just, you know? And we laughed over that. And 
then when we went to try to get into bed, Stan was this much-- 