<Begin Segment 7>

TI: You mentioned that one school, that seventh and eighth grade, was that the school you -- you mentioned earlier that you went to a segregated school. Was that the school that was segregated?

FS: That was, that wasn't one of 'em, 'cause I, seventh or eighth, one of those... anyway, Sacramento, Lincoln, Lincoln Junior High School to, we went, I went, next place I went to was, I think, Woodbridge, and then after, I think it was in (Clarksburg or Courtland) where it was segregated.

TI: So, so tell me a little bit, when you say segregated, so who, who was in the segregated school?

FS: Japanese. Japanese, Chinese and I think there was some Mexican or kurombo in there, mixed. We were all mixed.

TI: And how close was the, the white school? Was the white school fairly close to the segregated school?

FS: Yeah, they were, it was on the same, same ground.

TI: Oh, so same grounds, but two different buildings?

FS: Yeah, well, kind of separated. I would say maybe half a mile or more that separated.

TI: And what were the differences between the schools? If you were to compare the white school with the segregated school, how, how would they compare in terms of appearance?

FS: That I can't, I can't answer that one, no.

TI: How about size? In terms of, was one larger than the other or were they about the same size, in terms of number of students?

FS: That I wouldn't know, either. 'Cause I never, we never saw much of the white, white guys anyway, white boys.

TI: So did you ever, like, participate in maybe sports against the, the white --

FS: No. Not when I was in the, when I was in that seventh or eighth grade or so. Seventh grade, I think.

TI: So they, they kept it pretty segregated. Pretty separate.

FS: Yeah, separated.

TI: Any other memories about the two different schools, like, I'm trying to think... like in high school, if you had stayed there, would the schools have then come, the students have come together at the high school level, or do they stay segregated? Do you recall?

FS: You mean when I went to the high school?

TI: Well, if you had stayed in this one school that was segregated, I'm wondering if --

FS: I think if I stayed there, I think we would've been together in high school. I think everybody would be together. I don't think they could make it two, two high school, you know.

TI: Okay. You mentioned, I mentioned earlier sports a little bit, and you say you didn't do sports there, but how about in other places, did you participate in, like, organized sports, like baseball? Anything like that?

FS: You mean through school?

TI: Yeah. Or school or anywhere.

FS: For the school, we played. I... well, when I went back to Elk Grove we had our own YMA, Young Men's Association, so we played basketball and baseball with them instead of the high school. 'Cause high school people, they were too good for us. [Laughs]

TI: And so who would you play against? Like say, basketball, would you play with just the teams from the same area, or would they go outside?

FS: No, just like that map I showed you, segregated whatchamacall, we had, we had, like... we were, we were Elk Grove, right? They had a Florin group. They had a, they had a Taishoku group, Taisho, Taishoku. And they had a May Hill and a Perkins. They had a Oak Park and a Riverside. And they had a West Los Angeles team. That was eight teams in all. They called it the Sacramento Rural League.

TI: And so you would kind of play with the same, the same boys on your team, and then you would play against...

FS: Yeah.

TI: And then same thing in baseball, similar thing?

FS: Same thing, yeah.

TI: And, and what sport did you like the best? Did you have a particular sport you liked?

FS: Well, both of 'em, basketball and baseball.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.