<Begin Segment 6>

AI: Tell me about that, about the work you did while you were in high school.

AO: My parents asked our friend, who had a fruit stand in uptown Whittier, and so I began working for him. I would work an hour before going to school and that's -- the school was dismissed at 3:15 and that took fifteen minutes to get to work, which was about four blocks that... and 3:30 until closing time I would work in the, after school, and all day Saturday. And my salary was eight dollars a week. And my homework, I couldn't do my homework because I'd be home late and so I couldn't study too well. My grades weren't the best, but they weren't that bad. [Laughs]

AI: Well, considering you had very little time to study.

AO: Yes. But I did learn to type.

AI: How did you, how did you come to take typing and learn how to type?

AO: Well, I thought that, I knew the college prep would be difficult for me. So, I thought, "Well, I'll learn to type," because I took the commercial courses in high school, accounting, bookkeeping. And so that was one thing, I thought, well, if I typed, could type, I might be able to make a living. And, but my typing teacher was very good. And her name was Patricia Ryan. And that was her first year, 1936 was her first year to teach it for the high school. And she later on became very famous.

AI: And who did she become later on?

AO: After --

AI: Not who did she become, but what happened to her later on?

AO: [Laughs] Well, I graduated in 1940 and after graduation I went on to continue working in the fruit stand. And I didn't know about Patricia Nixon until after I came back to United States, and that was 1953. So I went, my first attempt was to see my school buddy. And so I knew where his house was because people at that time never moved. So I went to his house and his mother was still there. And then I asked about different teachers that I had at Whittier High School. And I mentioned about Patricia Ryan. And says, "Don't you know?" I says, "No, I don't know." And then he explained to me that she was Vice President Nixon's wife, married to, and living in Washington, D.C. and then he mentioned to me that in order to write to her, all you need to do is put "Residence of the Vice President" and it would get there, just say "Washington, D.C." And so I did write, and she responded in handwritten letter. And I still, I had that and I donated that letter to the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles. They have it now.

AI: That's quite a story, quite a coincidence. Well, I want to take you back to that time, back in high school and you were saying that you thought if you took typing and you took a commercial course that you might have some way to make a living. Did -- in high school, a lot of kids, that's what they're thinking about, how they're gonna make a living.

AO: Yes.

AI: And did you have anything in particular in mind or any particular hopes for your future work?

AO: Not at that time. But when I was studying bookkeeping, my bookkeeping teacher, Walt Wagner, liked the Japanese people and so he told me, he said, he says, "Art, if you want to succeed in bookkeeping, become a CPA." And I thought of that, but after graduating my parents moved to Glendale. I went to Glendale City College and I, I went to night school there, but it was so close, I didn't know, but the war broke out, Pearl Harbor. And so that stopped my education.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.