<Begin Segment 27>

TI: And as a housewife, you eventually had children?

MN: Oh, yes.

TI: So tell me about your children.

MN: Since 1946, I had... '46 to '57, I had five children. And subsequently, I had twelve grandchildren.

TI: So why don't, let's start with your children. Can you just tell me their names and...

MN: Oh, yes. Al is now sixty-three, and he married a girl from Japan, but she came as a five-year-old, so she's just like a Sansei. And they had one child, she is now thirty-five, I believe. And my next daughter, next child's a daughter who is Mallory. Did I give you my son's name?

TI: Yeah, Al.

MN: Uh-huh, A-L-A-N. My daughter was Mallory, and she married a Jewish fellow, (Tom Saul), and they have one son and one daughter. My son-in-law is a medical engineer and he plays the shakuhachi.

TI: Oh, interesting.

MN: And he goes anywhere, all over the world, with a shakuhachi strapped to his back.

TI: Oh, that's good.

MN: He's so funny. And my third child, was Lisa, married Gerald -- oh, I didn't give you my son-in-law's name, (Ishibashi). She married a Japanese fellow, and they have three daughters. They're all in show business, and they're, two in New York and one in L.A., and they do a lot of show business work. And my fourth is my son, who is now fifty... oh, my daughter is, Lisa is now fifty-seven, and Mallory will be sixty this year. And my son Norman will be fifty-five? No, what is he? Two years younger than... anyway, he's fifty-five.

TI: Yeah, he'd be fifty-five.

MN: Yeah, and then my youngest, the baby, she was born in fifty-seven, so she's fifty-two years old, and she has (three) children. Oh, and Norman has three daughters, and Nina has (three) children.

TI: And her name again was?

MN: Nina.

TI: Nina, okay.

MN: I named her after my Italian girlfriend who was my neighbor, who was so sweet to me when I was growing up and during the wartime.

TI: And in the same way, as you raised your children, was music part of their lives?

MN: Oh, yeah (...). Every single one of 'em, they loved music. And my eldest son loves classical music. I mean, he can name all the music and all the composers and stuff. And his daughter, she loves classical music also, but is more into semi-classical music. And my daughter, Mallory, her daughter is in ethnomusicology, she graduated college, UCLA, with that (degree). So she and her mother, do belly dancing, flamenco, you name it, they do anything weird. And my son-in-law plays the shakuhachi. And Lisa's daughter are all into show business. One of 'em is into commercials and acting and movies in L.A., and commercials, too, (Nissan and AT&T) commercials. And the two daughters in New York are into acting and singing. And Norman's three daughters are not into music, but they do enjoy, the second daughter loves music, (she plays the flute). My son has a lovely voice, he sings for the joy of it; he has a lovely voice.

TI: And this is Norman?

MN: Norman. And, but he loves to do public speaking, he's into Toastmasters, he's good at that, so he wants to become the world's best Toastmaster, that's what he wants to be. So that's his forte. And the youngest one, the youngest one loved music, but she didn't sing or perform. And her youngest daughter is now eleven, plays piano like I've never heard a child that age play piano like she does. So that's it, they all love music.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.