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MA: So this is the time you went to McKinley Junior High School?

MH: Yeah, I went to the grade school at McKinley. And they had a big clock on the tower there. And that's how I used to look at the tower at the time to get to going to school, was a good way to look at it, 'cause that would give me time to get to school in time to, won't be late. It was, our clock there is very helpful.

MA: So you said McKinley was, had a lot of black students. In that students who went to the school, and also was there a large Nisei population as well, at McKinley?

MH: It was basically a lot of black kids. There was a lot of other student, ten percent of it was all others, like Asians and Spanish, and we have Italians and Greeks also. And of course, the Caucasians, white people, too. But not a whole lot of Japanese or Chinese, but we had a few. But in high school there was more, because they came from down, from the northern part around Adamson, somewhere in that area. People that worked for the gardening people and people that work at the market. There was a Ninth Street Market and a Seventh Street Market where produce were all brought in. And a lot of people worked in that area, where the Japanese people did their trading for their business.

MA: And that was close to your high school.

MH: They came to our school. I mean, they came to Jefferson, quite a few.

MA: So going back to McKinley, what were the relationships like among the various ethnic groups? It seems like there were so many different groups kind of mixing together at the school.

MH: We didn't, it wasn't too much of a problem. We got along very well in those days. People had more respect for each other, and they were not, they dressed, well, we were all in the same position. We weren't rich and none of us were rich, it was during the Depression, too. So pretty much we wore simple clothes and not a lot of makeup and all that kind of stuff that they do now. So it, to me, it's quite a difference. At the time when I grew up, and the time that our kids are growing up, it's a total difference.

MA: Was your neighborhood...

MH: We had an international block, I would say. We lived on a corner and we had a grocery store. We were the Japanese family. And then next door was an Italian shoemaker. And then the next door to the north of us, we lived on a corner, so that whole block going north, there was a man, a Spanish man making, building, what do you call... suitcases. And then, the next door neighbor from there was a diner, and she was Irish. And then there was a theater next door to that. And then there was another store, he was a radiator man, and he was a Russian Jew. And then there was a coffee shop where they were grinding coffee, and these were Caucasian people. Then there was a service station on the corner, run by a Caucasian. So we, then a block south from me was a Greek family that had a grocery store also. We were competitive, more or less. And then down the line, there was a plumber and they were part German. And then, further down there was, on the corner, there was a bar, and it was run by a German lady. And then across the street, there was a Polish hall where the Polish people gathered whenever they had their meeting. And in back of us, there was a little, a house, a black family lived there. So we had a really interesting block. And then across the street, we had a couple of Caucasian people, but very friendly. We had a very good, I lived in a very good neighborhood. And growing up, because we were all different, from different parts of the country. So the Greek family didn't speak any English very well. The Italian, he spoke mostly Italian and we just hand motions to get along with our communication. So it was no hard feelings or no bad feelings about anybody. And we all helped each other. And if you were in trouble, they all came and helped you. So we didn't feel as being what you call prejudiced in those days, when I was growing up. So I didn't feel that, being cast away from other people, like other people you hear. So I felt that I was growing up pretty well.

MA: Did the families socialize together?

MH: No, that's because they didn't speak English very well. And they just say hello and that's all. Just greeting.

MA: So it was friendly.

MH: Just a friendly greeting, a hello and how are you, that's all. And nothing more than that, because my folks didn't speak English very well. But I was, well, my brothers, too, couldn't speak very well, but could get around until they finished high school, then they were able to speak much better. But as a whole, we all went to school without any, any problem. They had another Japanese family about two blocks down that had a store. And those girls, we all went to the same school, junior high and high school. And then we had another man down, was a dry cleaning business. But he was a single person, he didn't have family. And that was all the Japanese. And then we had another family in back, on McKinley Street there was another Japanese family called, I think they were Miyakes. And they had a little fruit stand in their, and they lived in the house in the back there. That was all the Japanese neighbors that I had when I was growing up in the junior high school years.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.