<Begin Segment 18>

AI: Well, so, I wanted to ask you then, you, when Candy was about three or four years old, is that when you started working part-time again, and you were also with the YWCA preschool?

EH: I took a part-time job when, after Peter was born, but that didn't start until 6 p.m. My, my frustration with that period was, I think we didn't have a car, quite. We got a car shortly after that, but when I first started working at the YW, Ralph was teaching at West Seattle, and he was riding with, sharing, somebody was picking him up. They would always stop at the Rainier Brewery, where, you know, there was always free beer and hors d'oeuvre and what all. And I was just not really understanding that, and I'm almost not willing to hear it, because I had to get on the job. And I, I knew I couldn't leave the kids by themselves, so I was always apologizing, I was really ticked by the time I got to the YW. And they would say, "Don't, don't get angry and don't stay angry. We don't want you to be angry and working here," and this kind of thing. But I, I think maybe I was there two years, because, see, Larry, Peter was just born, which meant that Candy was ready for preschool, probably the following year at about three. And I don't know what I did with Peter. I must have taken him to preschool, to the co-op with me. And I didn't learn to drive until Peter was probably three. So I, I must have shared rides or gotten rides.

That was, it was a good program, one of the, kind of limited in facility, because it was a long, narrow building. But we had, you know, play area and a, to, for fundraising, we decided to have, the YWCA had a fireplace and a patio, a fireplace that was useable from the inside and the outside. So we decided to have some barbeque benefits, fundraising. And Ralph wanted to do it all, and I knew he didn't, he never, he had, what, six sisters, and he never learned how to cook. And, but he was game and willing to do it. And for a couple of years we, we did that. Maybe three years. And it was, it really gained popularity. There was the Brunner Bakery, was on the corner of Martin Luther King, and the YW was on the next corner. I mean, there were... that must have been Twenty-eighth and, between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth or something like that. And there were a couple of, the Brunners were Jewish, and then we had a kosher Jewish grocery store on the corner of Union. And we, we were maybe three blocks from Union, but we'd go around selling tickets, and they would buy it and I'd, I'd say, "You're a kosher meat market. Are you sure you wanna get ribs? How about chicken?" And he says, "Oh, how can you resist that smoky taste?" And they would buy their share. But it was amazing because everybody participated, and the other mothers would take turns delivering and so that was a good event. We could do all that with the kids being able to play around on the patio.

Then, then I kind of was not satisfied with the teachers, so I transferred Candy and Peter to Madrona, Madrona had another preschool. And we came, became active there. By the time... I guess it was Peter, before Peter was born, I guess, I was active in PTA, and we started some good programs at PTA. That was a very, Madrona was a good, integrated and socio-economically, also, a wide range. East of Madrona was almost, in those days, predominately white. Lot of UW and Group Health people. At the top of the hill, it was thoroughly mixed, and then, but going down between Thirty-second and Twenty-seventh was predominately black. Not totally black, but, and there were Asians sprinkled through there. But Madrona was an exciting school. We did a lot of experimental kinds of things.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.