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AI: Well, now, what were some of the other activities you were involved in, in high school? I think you mentioned at one time Boy Scouts?

GY: Boy Scouts, yes. That was a very important part of my life and other young Niseis because, because it was our group, too. Our leaders were all Niseis who were very much -- very capable. And we held our meetings at Chuo Gakuen in Boyle Heights, which was a Japanese school. Let's see. I, I was not much of a good Boy Scout. And one of the things -- it goes in Boy Scouts was to learn the different skills: campfire, knot-tying, building fires out of whatever, rubbing sticks together, the signals with flags and so forth and so on. I earned a few badges, but was not much, one of the... not an academic at all. What I really enjoyed was the drum and bugle corps we had. That was so neat. Again, instrumental music. And I played the drums, and it was so neat to be able to play along with a bunch of guys and to drill and to march in parades and bugles are blowing. And the martial music is so, so neat at that time.

Jazz was not a part of the story yet, but to be able to play in a group, a real instrument was so neat. And there was some competition because downtown, there was even a larger troop with a bigger band, a real sharp, sharp band. And we used to admire them very much. But I had my kicks from my local band. So that was a great experience, great experience, yeah.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.