<Begin Segment 4>

SS: When you were, when you were growing up there, you know, a teenager, a young adolescent, did you go out with boys? Was that something that was done then?

EW: I was in high school, and I was busy. I didn't have time. [Laughs] I don't think that at that time that we dated Caucasian boys. We were always in a group, and my friends weren't that crazy about boys. So we were into sports and church, or where we did things as a group, and not on dates.

SS: Did you have any other jobs, aside from cleaning your piano teacher's house? Tell me a little about that.

EW: After school, every summer, we would go out to the berry fields and pick strawberries and raspberries, and whatever. But we earned money then for our school clothes.

SS: Do you think kids these days work that hard?

EW: Well, berry picking is hard. You don't find many kids out in the berry fields now. But, and that's too bad, because we had a lot of fun doing it, too.

SS: Were there special things that you bought with the money? Do you remember a particular dress, or a bicycle perhaps?

EW: Oh, I remember a wild coat that looked like an Indian blanket, and I don't even know what possessed me to buy it. [Laughs] Oh, wow.

SS: How much did it cost? Did it cost you a whole summer's salary, or something?

EW: Well, when you pick berries, you only got 75 cents a crate. You didn't make much money, you know, maybe three dollars a day or something like that. So I can't remember how much it cost, but I can still see the awful colors in that coat.

SS: How old were you at the time?

EW: Oh, about thirteen I think. Thirteen, fourteen...

SS: Did you wear the coat a long time?

EW: I had to. [Laughs]

SS: Did it cost a lot of money? It sounds like it would have been a very expensive purchase.

EW: I think so.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.