"[Within an area] every house was exactly alike. You couldn't tell your own house. It was always a joke in the olden days about somebody coming into the wrong house. Men coming home from work if they weren't thinking, they d come into the wrong house. I do know of cases where people got up in the morning and found a man sleeping on their couch. But they'd just wake him up and ask him what he was doing. 'My gosh, this is not where I belong!' "25 - Rose Lawson "Originally Six Companies scrip was just a little book that was stapled together. It had twenty-five [cents], fifty and dollar pages in it. It was $5. After a man had worked one day, he could do what they called 'scrip up.' He could get a book of scrip for his wife to get some groceries at Six Companies Store. Later they made the scrip out of metal. "26 - Erma Godbey The 661 homes built by Six Companies for laborers' families soon lined streets named for trees. These two, three, five, and six-room cottages were intended as temporary housing while the dam was constructed. However the families who lived there improved their homes, and many homes remained long after the project ended, some to the present. The Boulder City Department Stores quickly became a prime shopping area, but the government realized the possibilities for exploitation and allowed independent stores as well. To resist competition, Six Companies issued scrip to its workers as part of their pay, redeemable at the company stores. Eventually City Manager Sims Ely required the end of the scrip system.