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SI: As a matter of fact, just a month and a half ago I drove back to this very same... one of the places -- the place where I almost flunked -- and the one room schoolhouse, the island, just to see what it was like. Unfortunately, there were no farmhouses at all left. The whole island, Twitchel Island near Rio Vista, is one farm. I met the watchman there and he was a little younger than I am, but he remembered the place. He remembered all the schoolhouses, the pump house, the canals, and so forth. And we had a very interesting nostalgic talk about the island, because he enjoyed it too, since this is rare that he gets to meet someone who was living there so long ago. This would have been almost seventy years ago, almost seventy years, yes, because I was seventy-eight... seventy-two years ago. Okay. I'm probably spending too much time on this.

SF: No, No. I just wanted to ask you, so your recollection of the kind of quality of life in those days was that it was, from your point of view, pretty pleasant.

SI: Oh, yes. I think my whole outlook on life is, make the best of what you have available and what's around you. Many people come and ask me when I'm in Boston, they get an offer for a job to go to Seattle or Los Angeles or Georgia or someplace, and they ask me, "Sus, do you think I ought to take this job?" I said, "Well, you know, in my estimation and in my opinion, I think it's up to you. You decide on whatever place that seems the most, that you seem to like the best, and what you would enjoy doing, and once you make up your mind to go to this certain place or undertake this job, make the most of that situation and be happy with it." And if you try to retract and say, "Well, I would have been much better off if I had done this or if I had done this." Well, it's a no gain situation. So my outlook is, wherever you decide to go, if there are other people there or even if there are very few, there must be something pleasant or something, some positive aspect of this situation, and look for the positive side, not the negative or not, "I'd rather do this or that." And if you do this, I think one can be, my pat answer is, one can be unhappy no matter where you are, and the contrary is true. So I try to make the most of any situation like walking to the hotel this morning or lying on the beach to go for a swim. Make the most of what you have available to you and the rest will take care of itself more or less.

SF: So this optimistic attitude, you've had that ever since you were a child from your mom?

SI: Yes, yes. I remember going fishing with a bent safety pin and worms that I dug and catching striped bass right off the levy in front of the house and bringing a small striped bass home so we'd have sashimi for dinner. This was a great triumph for me. [Laughs] On the other hand, my parents were trustworthy enough so they gave me a .22 rifle when I was about five years old, and some days she'd tell me -- we'd have chickens running around in the yard. And she'd tell me, "Why don't you go get a chicken for dinner tonight? So I'd go and stalk a chicken and shoot it in the head. I get to clean it and so forth and we'd have chicken for dinner. I thought this was great. So I think, as I look back, this refers to making the most of whatever you have available to you, and not wish that you were in a different situation with whatever. And I must say, for me it's worked out to my satisfaction. And I really don't care if people think I'm out of my mind or nuts for doing what I enjoy doing, but my reward is satisfying myself not somebody else. So I'll continue 'til I fall off the roof again or whatever. [Laughs]

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.