<Begin Segment 18>

TI: So you, you did this, and I think the summer after you graduated, I guess maybe the question that I'm asking is, after you graduated from high school, were you planning to go to college at that time?

HH: No, I was not.

TI: So why don't you talk about how you decided to go to college.

HH: Okay. I was up in Ketchikan, and I got a letter from this friend of mine, Bob Johnson, that he says he's already registered at the University of Washington journalism class and subjects such, so he said, "Why don't you, as soon as you come back, register so that we could, I could help you with the schooling, in journalism?"

TI: So this is amazing to me. So Bob Johnson is the same one that recruited you to be the sports editor at the Lincoln newspaper.

HH: Yes.

TI: And now he's encouraging you to go with him to the University of Washington journalism school, and he offered to help you. I mean, what was it that he... so you had a really close relationship with this man. He really...

HH: Well, from his side, but not from my side. You know, I was just surprised more or less.

TI: So why do you think he did this?

HH: Well, he was more of a, I think, a pacifist in a way. And I think he was in, he also had black friends, people that he, I knew, but not real close friends, but he tolerated. So I think he was that kind of person. He knew probably about the discrimination and such.

TI: So was his family sort of wealthy, or did he have money also?

HH: Yes. Well, they were pretty, fairly wealthy, 'cause Father had a, Roy Johnson, I still remember his father's name, but he had a garage or something like that, but I never saw where it was, but they were in town. So I think they were a fairly well-established family.

TI: So I'm curious, did Bob Johnson ever invite you to his home, did you ever go to his house?

HH: Yes, I did, after school sometime. But see, I had to walk home and everything else, so I think I only went once.

TI: And what was, what was it like, or how was his house --

HH: It was close to the Lincoln High School area.

TI: So I'm curious, how was his house different than your house? When you walked in, what was it like, how was that different?

HH: Well, it was a brick house, and the top of the hill and everything, and it was fairly well-furnished and such. So I'm sure I didn't think of it in that way, but I knew it was different from our homes.

TI: Did you ever talk to Bob about, like, race relations and discrimination with him? Was he curious about things like that?

HH: No. He didn't say anything like that, but I just thought that maybe, maybe he was a little more prone to be, to associate or be in contact with the minorities, I think.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.