<Begin Segment 8>

TI: Yeah, because when I think about, yeah, if you go south, that's where, you're right, it's more what I would call the Broadway district, and there's more apartments. And if you go the other way, it's more the Volunteer Park, where you have more of the larger, larger homes. Anything else you can recall in terms of... 'cause that would be an interesting school to look at, because of the, especially during those years, the disparity in wealth because, 'cause those were hard times economically, when you look at the late '20s, early '30s, you're in the Depression. And so was there any influence in terms of the Depression on, that you could tell in terms of what was going on?

AA: Oh, the kids in the north end, they lived in fine, fine homes, and I used to associate with all the, all those kids. I guess the reason was that I was, I was a fairly good athlete. I remember one instance, one of my friends had a birthday party, and the mother decided that she'd treat the kids to swimming at the Moore pool in Seattle. And all of us went down there with our swimming suits, and they declined to admit me to the pool. And the mother didn't say anything, the rest of 'em went in and had a good time, and I was left out. That was the first time I'd, I'd encountered discrimination in grammar school.

TI: Do you recall how you felt being left outside when the other boys went in?

AA: Well, I kind of expected, it wasn't that bad because my father had, had experienced discrimination when we opened the store, and he told us to expect these things to come up.

TI: But how about the mother who brought you there? You said, did you have any interaction, did she say anything to you when this happened?

AA: I don't recall. There was about a dozen kids, so she was herding them around.

TI: After the, the other boys were done swimming, did you do anything afterwards with the other boys? I mean, like, was there, like, a continuation of the party someplace, like dessert or something?

AA: No, no, that was the end of the party. We had the party at their home, and then afterwards, they went swimming.

TI: Do you remember how old you were when this happened?

AA: I must have been eleven or twelve, somewhere around there.

TI: You mentioned that at school, you got to know some of these more wealthy kids, or kids from more wealthy families. Were you ever invited to their homes?

AA: Oh, yes, I was, I'd been in their homes. I especially remember a fellow named Jerry Swanson (whose) father owned a chain, chain of cigar stores down on the waterfront. They lived in a penthouse in one of their apartments, and I still remember, they had a large living room. The first time I'd been in a, a place where they had real thick, heavy carpeting, I could walk on it, and I thought, "My goodness, what a luxury." And they had a big grand piano there, and his older sister was taking singing, singing lessons. I couldn't imagine the amount of money that it took to live in a place like that. And they had, had an elevator to go up to their, their place. But I had a couple of friends that lived up on Federal Way, and they lived in huge, huge houses.

TI: So Federal, like Federal Avenue?

AA: Yeah, Federal Avenue.

TI: Federal Avenue, right. Where those large homes were.

AA: Large homes.

TI: What did you think when you went into these, these, sort of, really nice places like this?

AA: Well, I felt that, gee, I saw all this elegant furniture and things like that, but contrasted, you know, the sparse homes that I lived in.

TI: Conversely, some of these friends, did you ever have them, or invite them to your house? Did they ever come to your place?

AA: No, never.

TI: And why was that? Was that something that you decided not to do?

AA: I was kind of ashamed to bring 'em to my place.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.