<Begin Segment 28>

AI: That was June 1944 that you got your Bachelor's --

RI: Yeah, uh-huh.

AI: -- from University of Texas, and I think you received honors, didn't you? High honors at University of Texas? So then what happened that summer in between your graduation and --

RI: Okay, that summer, as soon as I graduated, I took a train and went to Philadelphia. And in that letter it tells somebody from Philadelphia wrote, saying that they would try to find a place for me to stay. But I immediately went to a Friends, Friends, Quaker Friends hostel. There was a hostel being run from, by a Japanese couple and there were lots of Japanese students and Japanese people staying there for temporary housing. And from there we applied for work. So then I think they had a bulletin board and I said, "I'm looking for work." Here it's only June and school doesn't start 'til maybe beginning of September. And I got a job with a Quaker family to be a maid. And so whatever, it was okay because I needed board and room. So I went there to a Quaker house and she immediately gave me a uniform to wear, a maid's uniform, and she told me what to do. And I did whatever she told me. And then about a month later they went to a summer place up in the Pocono Mountains, I think it was. I, is that in Pennsylvania? And they had a cabin there in summer, summer place. So I stayed with them, but I did the same thing, I did some baking, and washing dishes. And I think this lady did all the cooking. And, well, I guess it was nice, sort of a like a vacation for me, too. But as soon as it was time to go to school I left and went to, went to Philadelphia. But that's the first, my first exposure to Quaker family. But they did have a retarded son, but the husband was a great businessman, and he worked downtown in Philadelphia somewhere. But anyway...

AI: Well, and Philadelphia must have been quite a change for you, also. Quite a change, quite different from Austin and different from Seattle.

RI: Oh yeah, temperature-wise, too, yeah. I, I think so. See, I'm from... I was from Seattle, and then the camps, so I wasn't really exposed to big city life. And even though, in Austin I was in a home, I didn't go around the town very much. Philadelphia, well, it's just a place... but it looked very different because they had a lotta row houses. It looked different. But you remember that being a student, I'm not that observant about what's going on in the world, I'm very focused just on continuing my education and, and taking care of myself without depending on my parents because they were still in, in internment camp. They were in Minidoka all that time. And I didn't tell you that when I went to Texas from camp I took my father's savings (book), I had to be able to take care of myself. Texas was not putting any student on relief. So we could not apply for relief. So we had to have our own money. And when I got that bank book, I used it, because I needed spending money, but I think I was very frugal because I got room and board and I didn't need anything. I didn't buy any clothes or anything. But I thought that this was my father's only savings and here he gives it to me to go to school. And of course I was very grateful. But more recently I sort of found out that no, that wasn't the only money he had. But in those days I thought that was all the money he had and it was a Washington Mutual Bank and I was spending it -- [laughs] -- penny at a time. But anyway, I'm, I've always been grateful to my dad for letting me bring his bankbook and I thought it was all he had, and here he's in camp with four other kids, and not knowing where he's going or what he's gonna do, but that means he believed in me and wanted me to finish school. So...

AI: That is really something.

RI: Yeah, well that's, that's why I said my father believed in education, even though I'm a female. [Laughs]

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.