<Begin Segment 22>

TI: We have about ten more minutes...

ST: Oh, okay.

TI: ...and so I'm going to jump to how you met your husband.

ST: Oh, now that was interesting. It was because I belonged to a sorority, it was a non, what they called a non-academic sorority. I belonged to a sorority in college, and then I belonged, I joined this Beta Sigma Phi, which is an international sorority, non-academic, and it was usually all white. It was basically all white. But in Portland, a bunch of Chinese -- the Chinese had been there much longer than we had. They had a social group, and they decided they would like to be part of this. And so they petitioned the headquarters to see if they could open a chapter. There were quite a few chapters in Portland, and this Chinese chapter was the only all-Chinese chapter. Well, their numbers were going down, so they started inviting some Japanese to join. So my sister and joined, and there were several other Japanese in the group. It was, there were probably, in the Portland area, close to between four and five hundred members. So it was a large group, and it was, there were chapters all the way across. I later became president of the, what they called the city council, so that meant I was the president of all the presidents and the other, all the chapters. And the year that I was in there, they always have what they call the Sweetheart Ball. And they always chose, every chapter was to send a candidate to become the sweetheart. And we always laughed about that, because we said the judge was a Rose Festival judge, so he judged on that kind of qualities, and we knew nobody from our chapter would ever get it. Besides, we were all older. And they always chose some very young, almost high school age kid. And so we all kind of took turns in our chapter, who was going to be, "Well, who wants to be representative this year?" And my sister went one year, and they said, "Okay, it's your turn this year." So I went, and they said, "Well, you've got to have an escort." And I thought about who I wanted to ask, and there wasn't anybody I really wanted to ask. So my sister was married, and her husband had a great number of friends in the Seattle area. So I said to her, "Does one of Giro's friends," do you think she can get one of Giro's friends to come down and take me to this dance? And she says, "I'll check." So he called his best friend, and his best friend said, "Oh, I'm not available that weekend. I'm golfing in a tournament. I'll send my younger brother." Kaz was the younger brother. So Kaz brought his friend for moral support, I'm sure, and they came down for the weekend. And then I got a date for his friend, and we went to the ball. I went to the dance, and that's how we met.

TI: And from then all you started dating?

ST: Yeah. It was long-distance dating, gosh. But we flew back and forth quite a bit. At that point, it was very easy to fly back and forth.

TI: And so after you married, then you moved to Seattle.

ST: Yes. The children have always been amazed at how fast this happened. Because they say, "Dad always takes a long time to make up his mind, you take a long time to make up your mind." We met in February and we were married in October.

TI: Wow, that is fast.

ST: Yes. [Laughs] And in between this, you realize, my father had to send his little investigation.

TI: Oh, that's right. And plus, it was long distance. I mean, you were Portland, he was Seattle. So, while this was all happening.

ST: Yeah, it's interesting.

TI: So tell me about the family you raised. I know you talked about your children.

ST: We have two boys and a girl. Steve is, was born in '61. And actually, my father died the day before his first birthday. But we were always happy that he was able to see him. So he felt that his -- you know, they always talk about the family being settled. And so he felt satisfied, his family was settled, both of his daughters were married, and they both had children. So that was good. And then the next boy is Ron, and Ron was born in '63. And Andrea is, was born in '65. They all have done well.

TI: Good.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.