<Begin Segment 9>

TI: So you did sports in elementary, then after Lowell, where did you go?

AA: I went to the University of Washington.

TI: Oh, so Lowell went all the way through high school, or where did you go to high school?

AA: I went to Broadway High School.

TI: Okay, so you went to Lowell, then to...

AA: Then to Broadway.

TI: ...to Broadway.

AA: I went four years there.

TI: So tell me a little bit about Broadway, because there, there were quite a few Japanese there.

AA: Japanese, yes.

TI: So how did that --

AA: But I didn't get to know very many Japanese, other than, my interaction was only during class. But after school, I walked north, and all the Japanese went south.

TI: And so would you say your friends in high school were still kind of like your Lowell school buddies more than Japanese, because you went north?

AA: I associated mostly with the kids going north, 'cause they were my classmates from Lowell, and I really didn't... when we moved north, I was in the third grade, so I really didn't have any close friends.

TI: And so if I were to ask you, in high school, who were some of your best buddies, which names would come to mind?

AA: Oh, there's one, one person, Don Combs, he's, I still keep in contact with him. He lived in the north end, and I spent quite a bit of time with him. We used to go fishing together, I helped him when he painted his house one summer, we spent about a month painting the exterior of his house. Another person was Lyle Amundson. In Broadway, our roll room, the students were assigned alphabetically, and we sat on tables, and right next to me was Lyle, and I spent four years sitting next to him. And he eventually became a stockbroker and to this day, he was my stockbroker until he passed away a couple of years ago.

TI: That's good.

AA: That helped considerably. [Laughs]

TI: Oh, that's good. And so what kind of student were you, like, in high school? You mentioned earlier how you like athletics, and that eventually, you became a pretty good student. So how would you describe yourself at Broadway?

AA: I was an excellent student.

TI: And what kind of activities were you involved in at Broadway?

AA: I went primarily in track. I was the captain of the track team. I made the varsity in my freshman year in track.

TI: And what events did you do in track?

AA: Long jump and sprints.

TI: Great. So you must have been very fast for you to, as a freshman, to make the varsity.

AA: Well, in grammar school, in track, I took first place in the all-city long jump. And the sprints, I think I came in second in all-city, I guess.

TI: So back then, when you were at that level, like the fastest in your age group in, or the longest jumper and one of the fastest runners, who would be your competition? Because you're, that's all over the city, right? So they're coming from all over. So would they be mostly Caucasians, or would they be other Japanese, or would they be, sort of, black?

AA: They were all Caucasian. There weren't too many blacks in Seattle at that time.

TI: And the other, there weren't other Japanese or Chinese at this level?

AA: Not that I'm aware of.

TI: So at that age, were you big for your age? I imagine, to be a sprinter, you'd have to be fairly large.

AA: No, I was, I was rather thin at that time. I think I only weighed about 135 pounds.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.