<Begin Segment 22>

TI: Okay, so let's go to New York. So you, you said you got a ride to New York?

MH: Yeah, my sister, Rae, and her husband were driving. I wonder where they got the car. [Laughs] I don't know.

TI: And was this to go because Amy was in...

MH: New York.

TI: In New York, so that's --

MH: And, and Joe had worked there before; her husband, Rae's husband, had been a YMCA something or the other. So --

TI: And for you, was this another adventure?

MH: This was another adventure. I just love adventures. So this was another adventure, so I went to New York, and I, the first place applied was, I stayed with my sister there. First place I applied was the YWCA, and they practically threw me out the door. That was the worst interview. They were not at all cordial.

TI: Was it because you were Japanese?

MH: I think so; I hope they didn't treat everybody --

TI: But yet in Chicago, the reception was, was very pleasant.

MH: Yeah, right. It depends on the individual. I mean, when people say, "I don't count," it's not true. Each one of us makes some impression on somebody, and you know, may change people's lives. So I looked in the newspaper and there was an ad for an office clerk or something, and so for... it was way up on one of these high skyscraper buildings, and so I, it was near Forty-second and right in town there. So I followed the instructions and took the elevator and went way up and got off, walked into this room, and the one thing I remember is they had a big moose on the wall, things that I just hated. And then the receptionist looked at me and, "Oh, what is it?" I said, "Oh, I came for that job." "Oh," and then she calls a man in, and he looks at me, "Oh, you want the job? Just a minute." He goes in and he gets a bunch of chairs and he puts it around the place, and then a bunch of men come in. They must have been about your age or younger. And they sat me down, and the first thing they asked me is, "Do you speak English?" [Laughs] And I said to them -- I was sassy. I said, "Well, isn't it English I'm speaking?" And says, "Well, can you write?" I said, "What do you want me to write?" Isn't that awful? "What do you want me to write? I could even take dictation if you want to dictate to me." And they, you could see that they were putting me down, these leery eyes.

TI: What was the position and what kind of firm was this?

MH: Pardon?

TI: What was the position for?

MH: To be an office clerk, secretary.

TI: And it was what kind of company? What kind of...

MH: I don't know what kind of company it was. It was a fancy office, and they had several men, and they are young men. And I was young, and I was kind of pretty in those days, and so they just all look at me and... [laughs]. So I just made a lark of it, said, "Well, thank you." Says, "Well, we'll call you back." I said, "Never mind calling me. I don't want to work here. Never mind calling," and I left them. But isn't that awful? Well, what was that? That must have been about sixty years ago, that's the way it was. So I didn't work there, but then I went to work for the church headquarters.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.