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AI: Well, it sounds like from what you had said earlier, about these incidents, that while you did have some very positive experiences with some of the white people who helped you and assisted you, you also had some very negative ones.

MY: Yes, I know. But the dormitory experience in Cox Hall was just wonderful, and for the first time I became very, I became part of the women's, the group. There were some Southern women, you know, and they were full of, full of pranks and so forth. Actually I didn't, I didn't have that much time to spend with them because I worked so much. I didn't have enough money, I was always short of money. I had, you know, Cincinnati was a private school, a private university, I think, and so I had to pay my tuition and I didn't have clothes, I didn't have winter clothes, and I remember Mother -- somebody told her that I didn't, I was wearing about three sweaters I think when one of her friends came to visit me, came through to go to, going East, and she apparently wrote to my mother and told her that I was freezing in the winter in Cincinnati because I didn't seem to have a coat, but I had all these sweaters I was wearing. So she sent me some money to buy a coat. And it arrived just in time for me to buy some textbooks. [Laughs] I was wondering how am I going to buy textbooks, you know, because I didn't have any money, and when the check came, I thought oh, I can buy, I had enough money to buy textbooks.

So, but I did -- I had met at NY -- I met some really good friends in Cincinnati in camp, in the dormitory, and I kept in touch with them through all these years. And just about two years ago, two of the women, who were my roommates, and I got together. Let's see, when -- oh, I was invited to speak at Miami University in Ohio, which is right outside of Cincinnati. And so I contacted the University of Cincinnati and I did a reading there. And so I contacted my roommates and said, "Are you free?" They were both retired, you know, practically, so we, we got together and there was a funny experience. We decided to drive over to Cox Hall, there was just three of us and the fourth -- there were four of us, actually, but Bea had some, her son's wedding or something, and she had to, the fourth person had to leave. So the three of us decided to go over to Cox Hall, you know, where we used to live in the dorm, find out what it was -- to find out if it was still there. We walked up, and sure enough, it was still there. It has this dome and we were walking around it. And it turned out to be a fraternity house. There was a bunch of guys. So we went up the stairs and the door was open and we walked in, and... and then, it was a mess. [Laughs] I mean, the boys, you know, and they weren't very good housekeepers, obviously, they didn't have very many -- I don't think they had anybody managing the place. We walked in the kitchen and there was dirty, you know, dirty dishes and old dried-up food and pots and pans in the kitchen. [Laughs] And I said, "Oh, this is where I used to work. Remember there was a pantry right here?" And we were walking around and in the meantime a couple of young men came down and they -- who are these three old ladies, you know, walking around? So we told them we used to be, we used to live here almost fifty years ago, we had, you know, and they were really sweet. They were so, they were so curious, you know, they really thought that it was -- oh God, that's really a kick, you know, and so they took some pictures. Obviously we didn't, unfortunately we didn't have any pictures of, taking -- we took, one of the boys had a camera but I don't have any pictures of that. But, and we were standing outside and then one -- her name used to be, was Lila Lee Peterson and we used to call her Pete. And I said, "Pete, look, there was your room right there," and it was just around the -- and she said, "See," she told one of the boys, "look at the fire escape." She said, "You know, one night after -- I didn't get in the house, we were supposed to have curfew," I think that curfew was ten o'clock and she went on a date and she couldn't get in. You know, the door was locked and she didn't want the house mother to find out that she was out after curfew. So she said, "And so I stood right here and I pitched the pebbles up on the window to see, and then Mitsu opened, and looked down, and I walked, I walked up the fire escape and my room, my bed was right by the fire escape," and she, and they thought that was so funny, these old -- because we were obviously, you know, old women in our seventies talking about these funny incidents. She said, "Yeah, I had this date," and I said, "Pete, that's right," I had forgotten about that incident, and then she remembered that pretty vividly. But so we went back, and that period -- I have some pictures of that period in Cox Hall, that was just delightful, because I, and they told me about our other roommates and the women were just, just great. You know, some of the women, as I said, were Southerners, but...

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.