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GY: And that was that, but about that time, been hearing music over the radio. I'd hear, once in a while Benny Goodman, and it was kind of new. But it's kind of so, sounded so neat to me, and it turned out to be -- turned out to be someone who played swing music. I don't know about the word "jazz," but it was, and especially I heard something, a quartet by Benny Goodman with Lionel Hampton on the vibes, Teddy Wilson on piano, Gene Krupa. That really moved me like, hey, this is neat. Isn't this neat? It just moved me so much that I went to the music store and bought some wire brushes that, brushes used to play on the snare drum, and just found me a little box. And I'd just play on it with Benny Goodman. That was so cool. [Laughs] And I'd play up loud, right, and Mom would say, "Hey, cut it out, Joji. Yakamashii." So noisy. "Okay, Mom, okay, Mom." And I really enjoyed that. That was my introduction to jazz again, and that really started something that lasted the rest of my life until today.

And so I didn't have to worry about playing football anymore with the guys or anything that the other guys did. And that was neat. Of course, we went to -- when I had time, I'd go to dances that were sponsored by some girls' club. In those days, clubs were popular. Athletic clubs, which was, I, not a part of, but other kinds of groups. And the girls had their own clubs: YWCA and things. The clubs were, would invite each other to dances. They were very innocent kind of things. And records were played, and music by Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Artie Shaw. And I enjoyed dancing. I loved to dance. Learned how to dance through my sister, and I, I consider myself -- well, because of my enjoyment of music and rhythm, I could just, you know, dance, move around. Enjoyed that very much. So that was dancing. And the other part of, of life for high school students at that time was weekends we went to roller-skating rinks. And it's, again, clubs would sponsor parties. We'd invite this club, and they'd get together and do some roller skating. Singles, couples kind of thing. I'd go once in a while.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.