<Begin Segment 19>

AI: Well, since Madrona was racially mixed as well as mixed socio-economically, and your kids were, were still young, obviously, I was wondering, at that young age with your kids, did you and Ralph begin talking to them about race, about prejudice?

EH: I think that's, you know... I think we didn't really avoid it, but we didn't bring it up. Again, because I didn't want them to, to develop complexes. They knew by the time they were in elementary school. We had a, I think there were no white kids; there were two white couples on our street, but no kids. So predominately, people were black. And Larry, from the time he was in kindergarten, went to school with a kid by the name of Herman Brown who lived on the, on Martin Luther King, which was probably then, it might have been Twenty-eighth. But anyway, from kindergarten on, and they trekked back and forth to school, and from where we lived, Madrona, we lived at Howell, between Howell and Olive, and Union was three long blocks away. And then from Union, Twenty-seventh and Union up to, to Thirty-second and Union, was a steep uphill climb. But they did it, and no gripes about it.

But one day after school I was hearing Herman saying to Larry, "How come you named Peter Bono as your best friend?" Because teacher apparently had asked everybody to name their best friend, not realizing that this kind of problem or hurt feeling could -- Peter was saying to Larry, "How come you named Peter Bono as your best friend? I thought we were best friends." And Peter Bono's mother, father was a math prof. on campus, and mother, they were both active at PTA. Larry, Ralph wasn't that active in PTA, but we became good friends, 'cause Peter and Larry were good friends. And that's something that was kind of a dynamics in social growing, that kids are going to find a lot in common with kids that are at the same level, academic or playing or whatever. Peter had two older brothers, so they were making complicated carts and things like that.

Even with, with, in our neighborhood, we had a, we had a cabin up at, in La Conner, which we bought when Mark was born, I guess. And we, I would take the kids in the neighborhood, especially for a birthday party or something. I know I took 'em once to Vashon Island, because I thought they probably didn't have that much chance to get on ferries. And I find that that was true... when I, we started Madrona enrichment program, I found that even if you weren't limited income, you didn't venture out of your community because you didn't trust the kind of reception you were (going to) get, for instance. So going to Vashon was a treat, but it was a strange treat for those black kids. They weren't that enthusiastic about the smelly air and the sand and all that. And I took 'em over to Burton, I think is the next community south of Vashon, and we had a picnic and came back. I took 'em up to La Conner a couple of times, and they had a great time because they could hammer away at drift boards and make floatable items at, in the neighborhood, I don't know where the idea came from, probably Larry, maybe Peter Bono's family did that.

But they wanted to make carts, so I would take 'em to Goodwill, where you could go through bins of all kinds of throw, throwaway items, and they would buy wheels and boards and, and I had to, I had to tell the neighborhood kids that, "Hey, you guys gotta bring your own hammers, 'cause we're losing too many." And even up at La Conner, they would be hammering and they would forget and leave a hammer out there, and the tide would come in and you'd never find it. But I was always running to Goodwill with a bunch of kids and turned 'em loose and I said, "Okay, you got half an hour, I'm not waiting any more than that." And they had a great time, though it was a little bit dangerous, I must say. Twenty-seventh had a slope like this, and then going down on Olive, or Howell, it was very steep going down to Martin Luther King. And if they didn't watch themselves, I wouldn't let 'em get on Howell, because there's no way to stop yourself to get out to Martin Luther King. But just racing down that one block was enough, enough fun. In the summer, then, you know, skateboards came along and that was, that took away that a little bit. But...

AI: You know, I wanted to ask you, when, again when your kids were at a young age, because there, at that time, there were not very many racially mixed children, and I was wondering, did they ever ask you questions like, "Mommy, how come we don't look the same?" Or, "Other parents look the same as their kids"?

EH: No, I don't know whether... I think they would have asked if that avoid, that bothered them. But they, you, I don't know whether you know and I'm, Onos will kill me if they hear this, but Stuart Ono was in Larry's class, and Stuart would come over and say to Larry, "Are you Japanese or are you Negro?" And Larry just never, just, he kind of looked at them and maybe shrugged his shoulders. He never, he never bothered getting into it, really. I don't know whether Candy and Peter -- I just happened to be there when Stuart asked that question, so I, I know that.

I also, one of the things that we did at Madrona was start after-school programs, and I forgot what Aki was always teaching some group, and she maybe taught science. And I said okay, I would do some basics about Japanese, and showing them A-I-U-E-O, the alphabet, and one day I made rice and took some tsukemono and rice bowls and chopsticks and just have them, let them have an experience at that. Oh, I think Aki made some phrases, "arigato" and "konnichi wa" and that kind of thing. But...

AI: And I think you mentioned in an earlier conversation that Aki and Junks Kurose had, some of their kids were similar ages to your kids.

EH: (Yes). (Yes), in fact, Candy, Guy Kurose and Candy were in the same class from kindergarten on up to sixth grade. 'Cause we left... what happened to seventh grade? I don't remember that Candy went to Meany. Maybe she was in seventh grade at Berkeley, but anyway, Larry and Ruthann Kurose were in the same class. So we, the Kuroses and Hayeses became good, intimate friends. We were always running over there, and I think Junks enjoyed Ralph, except that Junks worked at a graveyard shift, so he always had to get ready for work by ten o'clock and he would be gone. Aki liked, enjoyed Ralph because in her teaching -- she must have been, I think maybe she was getting her teacher's certificate, or she had to take some history for some reason. And she would pick Ralph's brain about... and she was always amazed at how thoroughly he knew, he could give answers about everything and anything. And they, they enjoyed... though Aki and I worked, she started Head Start work about the same time I started CAMP Head Start. So we were seeing each other in those circles a lot, and we were active at Madrona PTA. My goodness, she had her share, Madrona, and they lived in, at first they lived on Spring Street, which was on the west side of Madrona school, then they bought a house on Thirty-sixth, and they lived -- so they stayed in that one location.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.