<Begin Segment 17>

DH: So from eighth grade on, you went to school here on Bainbridge.

JH: Yes.

DH: Which was basically then, high school.

JH: Yes.

DH: What was high school like for you?

JH: High school was wonderful. I was accepted in the class, I became class president in my sophomore year, and student body president in my senior year; so I was accepted. I was not an athlete, so I had basically to prove myself through either academics or citizenship, and there was just subtle racial problems, but they weren't really problems, they were just subtle things. I mean, you never dated outside of your own community and you were very careful in what you said or did. Which was quite common in those days. I mean, you just stepped very carefully when you acted. But, otherwise -- well, I do remember one real fine incident that happened during my sophomore year. I was almost an 'A' student through my freshman year, and finally, during my sophomore year, I went through a fit of... a bit of a depression; and for some reason or other I gave up at school. And finally, a teacher by the name of Robert Kidder -- he was a mathematics teacher -- picked this up, and he says, "You know something, there's something wrong with you. You used to get A's in my class, now you're getting C's. There's something definitely wrong." And he says, "You know, I think it's a matter of attitude." And I feel that he was pretty much responsible for lifting me up beyond that stage of depression. And I don't know why I became that way, whether I wasn't proud of myself or what it was, but, anyway, it happened, and I want to give Mr. Robert Kidder a lot of recognition for lifting me out of that.

DH: You were popular, and your family was poor...

JH: Yes.

DH: ...in those days. So do you think, so it sounds, it's surprising that you were depressed about that. Was it teen angst?

JH: I'm not sure.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.