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TI: Let's go back to your experience with the Japanese American community. You mentioned earlier how sometimes on weekends there would be events or things that you would do, you mentioned your dad being the president of the Gresham-Troutdale JACL and all these different functions. So describe some of the, thinking back, some of the more memorable events that you can remember, dealing with the Japanese American community.

PN: I remember the Christmas parties when we were little, running around the Gresham-Troutdale Hall with all these little kids and Santa Claus. I remember going to the bowling alley, because my parents --

TI: Let's stay with the Christmas party. So was Santa Claus Japanese, or was he white?

PN: You know, I don't remember. But he had a white beard, but he must have been Japanese, must have had those Japanese eyes. [Laughs] But he did have a white beard.

TI: And how many people would be at this party?

PN: Oh, I mean, there was probably forty or fifty kids. But, of course, I was, like, seven and eight and three and four, so there seemed like a whole bunch. But that would be the gathering place for the farmers in that area, families. So I just remember running around and around and around the building. And then the bowling league was pretty significant because I went, they bowled on Saturday nights, so I oftentimes went with them to the bowling alley, and then my friend Patty Kato would go there too. And she went to a different grade school, different high school, but she was also a cheerleader. And so I think I started going there when I was twelve, and we went there off and on through our teenage years. And then Patty and I both went to Oregon State. So that was a significant relationship for me. And her parents were farmers, and then she had a cousin, Sharon Fujimoto, and we were all the same age. So then I got to know Sharon. And they were significant, both of them, because I didn't know many other Japanese American girls.

TI: And when you think back to this time in terms of who you would pick as friends, would Patty and Sharon be part of what you would classify as friends, or maybe the people that you went to school with?

PN: Well, they would, you know, they would be friends. Of course, the kids you went to school with and were cheerleaders with and all that stuff, you got to know really well. Because I never, like, stayed overnight with them necessarily, maybe I went to their birthday parties. There was one other girl, Gail Okita, who was a year or so younger than we were. These were, I guess these were the kids of my parents' friends, so getting to know them a little bit. But because we didn't see each other all the time, it was different than high school friends.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.