<Begin Segment 13>

TI: So this was in the fall of 1937?

MH: Uh-huh, that's right.

TI: So what was Sonoma like back then?

MH: It was a little town. It was just a little town. A little, rural town, is what it was. And, of course, as you know, again, we were living in an isolated place, just as we did in Hawaii and so forth, to come up here to live. But it was very rural at that time. [Laughs]

TI: And what did you think of the idea of living in Sonoma at this point? You were, let's see, thirty-seven, so you were about eleven years old?

MH: Yes. Of course, Mother was giving a great pitch about how wonderful it was going to be to live here, and you'd have all these, you live in the country and you'd have all these beautiful flowers, and we'd have chickens and cows and things like that, so forth and so on. And it was going to be so romantic and beautiful, and nature around us all the time. She pitched a good line on the whole thing.

TI: And so were you excited about Sonoma?

MH: Oh yes, oh yes. I thought it was so beautiful up here. I mean, this property, I thought was so beautiful.

TI: And so after the property was purchased, then you moved here, and your father was still stationed...

MH: No, it was sort of, I don't remember the exact sequence, but Dad was then transferred to duty in Washington, and we had built somewhat here, and I guess we followed after Dad to Washington, D.C. And then we lived in Virginia, the family lived in Virginia, two different houses there, one in Herndon, where I went to a very, very rural school, and then in Fairfax, where I started in the high school at the sophomore level.

TI: So starting high school, again, you're moving, moving, how hard is it to start, like, high school without knowing anyone?

MH: Well, that was my life. I was always going places where I didn't know anybody.

TI: And so did you get pretty good at getting to know people?

MH: No, I don't think so, because I've never been a really social type perhaps, growing out of the way I grew up.

TI: Yeah, I wouldn't know that from our, sort of, connection here. Okay. So this is around 1938, '39, '40, your dad's, again, in Washington, D.C., with the War Plans Division.

MH: War Plans, yes.

TI: Any, sort of, memorable, or memories from that time period, starting high school, or anything that...

MH: Well, I did, that's the first time I really got into a group of girls there in high school, the Fairfax High School. And a very nice bunch of girls. All, I think, all blonde, all Southerners. That drawl, in time, you just talk like this, you know. And as a matter of fact, I picked it up, that accent. Charlie and I were both good at picking up accents, and then I, you know, was living with it for a couple of years. So when I came back out here to Sonoma and went to the high school here, I was just this Southern girl, you know. [Laughs] It was found rather attractive by the boys, I think.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. Because, yeah, so the beginning of 1941, you returned to Sonoma.

MH: We returned to Sonoma.

TI: Well, the family does, but your dad then takes command of the Pennsylvania at this time and goes to Hawaii.

MH: Yes, that's right.

TI: So this is, is this... for a while then, this is really the first time you've been really separated from your father?

MH: No, no, because I think at other posts, he was going to sea occasionally, yes.

TI: So this wasn't unusual, for him to be someplace else.

MH: Or working so hard. We didn't see very much of him, you know. Because he, he was a very hard worker, he would work long hours all the time. I remember in Virginia, when I was in high school, Mother and I would sit and play -- of course, no TV at that time, the most you had was radio. Mother and I would sit and play Chinese checkers night after night, and Dad wasn't there. She didn't have anybody else to be with, so she and I would play Chinese checkers night after night.

TI: Okay, and we'll come back to another Chinese checkers later on.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.