<Begin Segment 26>

BK: So when you came back to Seattle in June or July of 1946, what were your career plans at that point? Did you have any...

MH: Really, I had no career plans, because I knew that no matter what, my folks couldn't help me to go to school. I wanted to go to beauty school, but I knew they couldn't, so I might just as well go to work. So, I thought, what would I do? I didn't want to do housework, and I, it just wasn't my thing. I did it because I had to. And somebody suggested that I go try sewing, so I went one month to the glove factory to learn how to run a sewing machine. And one of the other girls that was there, girl named Miyageshima, she says, "Hey, I heard about another job, let's go." So, of course, we stayed there a month and went down to Far West. And then I worked there a few years, oh, until I got my daughter. I had gotten married in the meantime.

BK: Could you tell us about that?

BH: I got -- I had been bowling since I was in Pocatello, and when I came back to Seattle my brothers sponsored Mobil bowl, Mobil bowling league, anyway, for us. And we got the shirts and -- we bowled earlier and then the boys bowled later. And my husband bowled in the second league, and I bowled in the first. My friend Kay Tsuji, Kay Iga, my sister-in-law's sister was in our team, she was going with Frank Tsuji at that time, and Ossie was in the same league. And one night, Ossie says to me, he says, "I'm going, we're all going roller skating. Would you like to go with me?" I says, "I have to call home first." So I called my brother Ted and I said, "Oh, they're all going roller skating in Renton." And he said, "Oh?" And I said, "Tell Mom I'm going to be late." And he said, "Oh, who are you going with?" And I said, "I'm going with a guy named Ossie Hirata." I see him every week, but I didn't ever think about ever going out with him. And he said, "Oh, that's okay, you can go with Ossie, I know him real well." So that's how I got to go without any problem.

BK: So that's how you met your, your future husband?

MH: Uh-huh. And I met him in September, and I knew when I first started, went out with him, that I was going to marry him. And I married him in December.

BK: Of that same year?

MH: Uh-huh. He gave me a ring in October.

BK: [Sighs]

MH: [Laughs]

BK: And what was your parents' reaction? At that...

MH: My father didn't like it. He said I wasn't old enough, I was twenty-one then. But Mother and my brothers all said, "Oh, now Dad." 'Course he had to give in, he was out-voted. My brothers all told Ossie, "Thanks for getting rid of her." [Laughs]

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.