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TI: Let's talk a little bit more about school. You mentioned Bailey Gatzert. And if your friends were to describe you as a student, how would they describe you in school? Like what kind of student were you at Bailey Gatzert?

SI: Well, I thought that, looking back, I kept my grades up. And so I did quite well in school, and that goes not only for grade school but also for high school.

TI: Well, so after Bailey Gatzert, where did you go, what school?

SI: All right, at that time, Bailey Gatzert was kindergarten to sixth grade. And then we had what they called a junior high school, Washington junior high school is where I went for the seventh and eighth grades. But I was only able to go for the first quarter and a half because I think war broke out in December, and by the following spring, we had to leave. So I wasn't at Washington junior high school, I mean, Washington junior high very long.

TI: Before we get to December 7th, before we do that, what other activities did you do in school? Did you do sports, were you involved in sports or music or art or any other extracurricular activities?

SI: Well, unfortunately, I was never really into music at that time, although I wanted to play some kind of an instrument. I never had that opportunity. So music, I could sing at school, but other than that, I didn't take up any instruments. As far as sports, well, I don't believe I was all that athletic in a sense where you're the sports ace. I'm trying to think of what I did in those days. I remember going to Boeing field on a day hike with some neighborhood friends. Scared the wits out of my mom because she didn't know where I was. [Laughs] And we had an old cart that we made out of an apple box, and rode that thing all the way to Boeing field and back. On the way back, we stopped by what is now Sears. And they used to have what they called, in those days, a camp for hoboes, I guess they called it Hooverville. But we played around there, looked at some of the ponds in that area and came home after eight o'clock. And did I ever get hell from my mom when I came back, because she didn't know where we were. It was not only me but my younger brother, too. And we went all the way from Main Street to Boeing field and back.

TI: And so that's probably round trip about ten miles or something?

SI: I'm sure, all of that.

TI: And so in your family, was your mother, sort of, the disciplinarian? When you guys did something that...

SI: Yeah, my mother was a disciplinarian. My dad would generally be busy at the temple and you wouldn't see him. I think his life is pretty much taken up by temple business, and rarely do we get to really see him, other than when he comes home maybe for his meals, and that's about it.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.