<Begin Segment 17>

TI: The other question I have, so you're in high school, you're, it sounds like you're popular, they elected you to Girls State. As a junior in high school, it's about the time when girls start noticing boys, boys start noticing girls. Was there ever any dating that you participated in?

MS: No. There were group activities that we were invited to, most of them things like hayrides, because it was still pretty rural. But I never went to any dances or things like that, ever. Everything was a group activity, going to the football game or something like that was about it. But I'm sure, and I know that's one of the reasons that my dad decided that it was time to come back to California, because we were getting interested in the opposite sex, and he was still the old fashioned school where, you know, you had to marry Japanese. [Laughs]

TI: Oh, so do you think that was one of the contributing factors of going back to California?

MS: Right, I'm sure it was. Plus, I think they had had a couple of good years on the farm. And so they felt they had enough to start again in California.

TI: So when you guys decided to leave, was there any, oh, I guess maybe event to signify your leaving? Like the other families, did they say goodbye to you? Do you remember any goodbyes from either the Japanese or Mr. Alexander or anything like that?

MS: Well, I don't recall any big party or anything like that, but I know Mrs. Alexander or Mr. Alexander's mother gave us, gave my mother some special crystal or something that we still have. The other families knew, must have known that we were leaving because my dad didn't plant crops that would be harvested after we left. We came back in August. So they must have planted. I was just too much into my own world, I just didn't pay attention to all these little omens that were happening.

TI: And so suddenly, it sounds like, you're leaving Arkansas to go to California. How did you feel about that?

MS: Well, I wanted to stay and finish my high school years there, but my dad was absolutely adamant that we come back. The other sad part was that we had to leave our dog. And Mr. Yada moved into the house where we lived, and he said that dog just pined away. Oh, it still makes me sad, because we wanted, I wanted to bring the dog back with us. But my dad said no way we could do that, 'cause we drove all the way down Highway, Route 66.

TI: So where in California did you resettle?

MS: We came to Pasadena where we have lived ever since.

TI: So this is about 1952?

MS: '52, uh-huh. And my dad had some friends who had settled in Pasadena, my mother had always, stepmother had always loved Pasadena, she said it was the most beautiful town. And so we came and stayed with friends, started high school, and then shortly after school started, my parents found a house and he started his gardening route. So he worked as a gardener until I think my sister and I were in college. And then he started studying to become an insurance agent, and so he sold mutual funds and became an insurance agent and serviced most of the Japanese-speaking people.

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