<Begin Segment 6>

BK: You had mentioned earlier that your family moved around, from Wenatchee to Rock Island.

MH: Uh-huh. We moved, once, when we first sold the property, we moved to a place called Stemilt Hill. But we weren't there too long, it was only long enough for my dad to tear the house down, because the people wanted the lot and not the buildings, and there were two. But his friend had a little house in Rock Island. So, while they were tearing the house down and remodeling the house in Rock Island, with the wood that came out of the house they tore down, we lived in... up in the mountains it was, it wasn't too far, but they used to drive us to school. It was Stemilt Hill, I think is the name of it. And then, they built an addition on to the house, and that's where we, Rock Island is where Teddy and I both went to school... in a school with four classes in one room. [Laughs]

BK: What, the traditional one-room schoolhouse kind of concept?

MH: Right, but we had three or four, I believe, in our class. And that was the only time, in all the time I was there, that racial things had really come up.

BK: Can you describe those?

MH: It was only one boy, and he was, at that time, I guess they would call it now, he was a little bit slow. And he was much, much taller than I was. And he would call me a "Jap" and chase me. I mean, I'd chase him. And he'd duck, one time he ducked and I didn't, and I still carry the scar on the top of my head. [Laughs] But in all the years I was there, although I never feel, everybody would say, "What are you?" And I'd say, "Oh, I'm half Japanese and half American." I didn't know the difference at the time. And that's why they'd say, "Which half, Mary?" And I said, "I don't know." [Laughs] But I think that was the way I felt when I was young.

BK: Right, so most of your friends were Caucasians.

MH: Uh-huh. But I didn't play with Caucasians too much. I stayed with my family.

BK: With your family, uh-huh. Well, seeing how things were kind of far between, it seems as far as location, that it was hard to get together on a casual kind of basis.

MH: Right. Right... although there were children in the neighborhood we played with, most of my playing was with my brothers. We'd go fishing in the ponds that they had right by our house. And of course, with all the rattlesnakes and stuff, we used to laugh. Now that I've grown up, we'd hear 'em, but we never -- we'd just keep going, we never thought about it.

BK: You weren't afraid or that kind of thing?

MH: No, no. Now, you couldn't get me go through the sagebush. [Laughs]

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.