<Begin Segment 13>

AH: If somebody was to ask you to reflect on those college years and say, "Tell me about your best friend," who would you tell them about, and what would you say?

JA: Well, actually, I don't have what you call best friend. I've got lots of associates. They want to get to know me, and I'm interested in them, so I've got lots of associates but then not what you call one person who is best friend. I could say yes, I could have had one or two, but I didn't have... I had lots of associates, but not what you'd call best friend, a one person. And there may be one or two that I associate with more than the others because I went to school and we used do homework together.

AH: Was that, do you think for some reason or other that you were keeping intimacy at arm's length, I mean, that you weren't getting involved that closely with a couple of people?

JA: Well, beyond studying, I didn't do anything with them. Okay, that was it. But with the Caucasians that I used to do things with, we'd go beyond that. Go hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, whatever, or just 'B.S.-ing.'

AH: But you didn't have any close friends, real close friends among the Caucasians either, is that what you're saying?

JA: Uh, true.

AH: So, you were mobile, you had associates and everything, you had a lot of interests and you did things with these people, but you were pretty singular, in a sense, ultimately.

JA: Yes.

AH: Private person?

JA: Not private, as so private, yet I'm open.

AH: Open to a degree.

JA: Right, see, because my father said, "Hey, you know, like the necklace, you're not round or one color, you have to be like necklace, you've got to be of all colors, all size, shape." And therefore I didn't, say one certain... it was just like the necklace my father told me.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.