<Begin Segment 20>

AM: But New York was wonderful when I was, when I was there. I remember once a group of us students decided, and there were about, three of the guys were ex-GIs who were in the school. And there were about four of us girls, and we all, seven of us decided we'd stay up all night just to see what it was like to stay up all night. It was just one of those stupid things. Well, Manhattan closes down after two o'clock, there's no place to go except bowling alleys. So we sat out the rest of the night in a bowling alley, all seven of us, bowling, and we couldn't afford a whole lot of food, but we ate something, I don't remember what. But I remember that was our wild night out, these three guys and four girls.

DM: Now, the people that you hung out with and apparently stayed out all night with, and your other friends in your social circle, were they Japanese Americans?

AM: No, no, they were, one was an Irish Catholic girl from New Jersey, Bound Brook, New Jersey, I remember. And the other one was a Jewish girl from Manhattan, the other girl was -- my sister was always with us, she just sort of tagged along. Because she, at point she was... well... so yeah, there were, it was a really mixed bag. And the guys were all white guys, and they were ex-GIs, and so they were on GI Bill. And they were just... I mean, there was nothing, I mean, it was just a real nice experience. Because there was nothing sexual about it, it was just hanging out with friends. And that was the first time that I had experienced that kind of thing, 'cause at home, of course, I would never dream of doing something like that, staying up all night.

DM: And did you ever get funny looks from people, going out in a mixed group like that?

AM: No, never. Not that I ever remembered. I don't remember any time in Manhattan that anyone ever even looked twice at me. It was amazing. It was such a contrast from Utica, New York.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.