<Begin Segment 23>

TI: So I'm going to keep moving because we don't have that much more time. So after this stint in New York, you returned back to Nebraska again. Now, why did you go back to Nebraska?

JI: Oh, that's right. Dwight came to select the May Show, and I went around with him to quite a few of the galleries and got acquainted with the gallery directors, commercial galleries, which stood me in stead when I went out on my own, pretty much. But Dwight asked me to come back, and got me an academic appointment, not just being a curator, but an academic appointment as well, which was... still, Nebraska was on depression salaries. So I should tell you also, in the meantime, when I'm in New York, VJ night happened, and that was quite an adventure, but I'll tell you about it later on and not with this, if I'm not keeping you from your appointment. [Laughs] But he asked me to return, and so I did. It was a good experience for me. One of the roommates I had at the Wesley Foundation had been in the, had gone to England and had been on, I guess, D-Day plus ten or something. He had been on the invasion force although he didn't have the terrible days the first two days on Normandy. But he was shot up, so he came back, and he visited me in New York. The thing about him was he was a pacifist, too, he refused to... he was convinced by Bob Drew to be, become a pacifist, but he didn't want to declare as a conscientious objector, because then his theory was if he was a conscientious objector, somebody else would have to go in his place. So he went, but he told them that he didn't want to carry a gun. And so they made him a medic, which was the lowest form of life in the army, I guess. [Laughs] But he had previously, when he had gone to Fort Leavenworth for the exam, he ate, he made all but one, he was right on all the questions except one, and they didn't believe it, 'cause nobody had scored that high before. So they made him take the exam over again, and he aced it this time, nothing. So they tried to give him a commission on the spot, and he said, "No, I don't want to be in charge of anybody." And so that was the kind of guy he was. And as a matter of fact, when he... war bonds, instead of sending war bonds to his mother, I find all these war bonds coming to me in his name and my name. And even though I was in bad straits, obviously I wasn't going to use his money, so I just saved them for him for when he came back. But anyway, he stopped by to see me, and he was going with a beautiful woman, so I told people about this, and he came back and said, "You know what Ishikawa is saying? He's saying I'm going with this most beautiful woman." And so she thought, "Ah ha, that Ishikawa is pretty bright." [Laughs] Well, anyway, eventually we got married.

TI: Oh, so that woman that you said was the most beautiful woman ended up being your wife?

JI: Yeah. [Laughs]

TI: [Laughs] That's a good story.

JI: Well, I actually said... 'cause CD had, when I was in, went back to Nebraska, he was there, too, and one day he left school apparently, 'cause his mother called up and said have I ever seen Charles David, she and I called him CD always, Charles David. I said, "Not for a couple of days, but I'll..." she said, "I think he's dropped out of school." And I said, "Well, let me check." So I went to the registrar's office, and sure enough, he had checked out. So I called my friends in New York, told 'em to keep an eye out for CD because he's probably going to show up there, and sure enough, he did. And there had been a... five of us had a little co-op apartment, the three women and Jesse Cavalier and myself, who was... and one of them worked for National Council of Churches, the other woman worked for, for, a secretary at Warren Street Methodist Church, and Jesse was a theological student at Union Seminary, although he wasn't, he was such an offbeat, I figured he'd never be ordained. [Laughs] And then a girl from Lincoln, Nebraska, whose parents had sent her to New York in my care, which shows you how harmless I was. [Laughs] Anyway, so the upshot of it was CD and she got married.

TI: Oh, interesting, okay.

JI: But before that, I asked, see, I wrote to CD, who was still in New York then, and said, "Do you mind if I ask Livie for a date?" And he says, "Well, you're the two people I love the most, and with my characteristic generosity of offering you something I don't possess, go ahead."

TI: Oh, that's a good story.

JI: So that's how Livie and I got together. And it was stormy, we took, took several more years. Well, she had, the reason he dropped out of school, he wanted to get married and she says, "I'm just not ready." She was sixteen, seventeen years old at the time, and she says, "I can't, I'm not ready to get married," and so he dropped out. And then... she taught school in various places, Lutheran schools, 'cause she only had two-year degree. And well, when we got together it was like Sid Caesar's program where the violin's playing in the background, and that was kind of an accident that we met again.

TI: And so how much longer did the two of you meet again?

JI: Well, all told, it was about six years since I had met her. And a friend of mine, there's a lot of people from different places, came to Nebraska on GI Bill, and there was this guy from New York who was older, and very outgoing guy who was there with his family, with his wife and little daughter, and we became good friends. He said he wanted to get a friend something for Christmas, and I said, "Lingerie would be good." What did I know about lingerie? But I said, "Lingerie would be good," and the best place would be at Miller & Paine. So I went up there with him, and there she is working behind the lingerie counter.

TI: And this is after six years, or several years?

JI: Yeah, well, about three years anyway. And I looked at her finger and it was bare, and she looked at my finger, and so we were kind of lost in each other. And here's Ben, big guy, and he said, "Introduce me to the pretty girl." [Laughs] So anyway, I did, and it was, so from then, all history.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.