<Begin Segment 17>

MA: I wanted to go back a little bit and ask you about high school and how you met your husband, and then how you ended up in California.

JH: Oh, wow. [Laughs] Well, during my intermediate school days, things were better. I never talked about camp, but it was a regular, what do you call that, teenage years. We weren't as naughty as some of 'em are now, but we used to think we were. High school, it was exciting. We had a lot of fun, met new people. Students were bussed in from around the island, you know, along the Hamakua coast, because they don't have a high school.

MA: Which high school did you attend?

JH: Hilo High School. And we learned to dance in gym, I remember. My classmate's sister was the gym teacher, and she taught us how to dance. And I think it was a regular, normal time for me.

MA: What was the, like, ethnic makeup of your class? Mostly Japanese?

JH: Majority Japanese. I have a story to tell which she'd probably find amusing because her last name is similar to mine, my last name. [Referring to videographer] Well, my name was June Hoshida, and then I have a classmate, her name was Judith Hoshide, so I'm wondering if she has any relatives in Hilo. [Laughs] So in one class we sat, I sat first, and then she sat behind me. Regardless of what we told the teacher -- this is high school -- she would inevitably say, "June Hoshide" and "Judith Hoshida." Well, one day we both rebelled. That one letter made a difference. So when she said the same thing again, I didn't answer. And she called Judy, and Judy didn't answer, so she was kind of PO'd at us. So finally I said, "You have to get our last names correct. We don't know who you're calling." And thereafter, she was okay with that. She called us June Hoshida and Judith Hoshide.

MA: And then how did you end up moving to California?

JH: Well, my husband wanted to go to school here. So we moved up here, and a lot of, most of his family's up here anyway, even though they're from Hilo. So when he came up, he did go to electronic technician's school. But the idea of sitting down indoors did not appeal to him. So he was an auto mechanic and that was his profession until he retired.

MA: And what did you end up doing? You went to college?

JH: Well, I went to... no, I had gone to Queen's Hospital School of Nursing in Honolulu. It's now called the Queen's Medical Center, founded by Queen Emma. I spent three years in a dorm there becoming a registered nurse. They call us diploma nurses. Because I wanted to go to the University of Hawaii and be a public health nurse, but my parents couldn't afford the tuition. And when you compare the tuition now to the tuition then, you wonder, "How come he couldn't afford it?" [Laughs] It was later, toward the end of my career, that I went to work at Cal State University Dominguez Hills, which is maybe about ten minutes away from our house, and I worked at the Student Health Center. Now, while I was there, they didn't have all this conflict about the budget and things, so I decided I'll go and take courses and see if I can get my bachelor's. Tuition was three dollars for me, because I was an employee. And it took me quite a while, 'cause I worked there fifteen years and I was going to school most of the time, taking one course here, one course there, until I finally graduated in '95. And I'm proud to say to my father, "Summa cum laude, Daddy." [Laughs]

MA: That's great, so you graduated in '95.

JH: '95, and in Community Health, Health Sciences. But I haven't really made much use of it. It was before I graduated that one of my instructors asked if I would come on during, go on TV with him in order to teach them about STDs and things that we were counseling the people, the student there. So there were quite a few of the televised things that I did with him. I didn't like it, 'cause it scared the heck out of me.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.