<Begin Segment 27>

MN: So, and then you talked about going back to college and you, what did you get a degree in?

TI: I got a degree in Sociology, a BS degree.

MN: And what year did you graduate?

TI: '46.

MN: Were you able to find a job right after you graduated?

TI: Yes, I was. I found a job with All Nations Foundation, and it's a Methodist establishment, and I worked in the nursery in the morning, and then I did group work with the girls that came to the girl's club in All Nations Foundation.

MN: And All Nations, was this located on skid row?

TI: Yes.

MN: Where did the children come from?

TI: In the neighborhood of skid row. So they were black children, Mexican children. I really should say Hispanic, Chinese, and... I had Chinese, but I don't think I had a Japanese child.

MN: So while you were working at All Nations, your husband returned from duty.

TI: Uh-huh.

MN: And you became pregnant with your first child. While you were working there somebody said something to you. Can you share that?

TI: Yes. Well, the nursery school children, I would take, you know, walk with them to cross some of the intersections because they were so dangerous. So they would be black children and Chinese children and Hispanic children with me. And one day I was walking with them with a maternity smock on, and I heard one man say to, to the people around him, "I wonder what color the next one's gonna be." [Laughs] I was really offended at the time, but now I can laugh about it.

MN: So when your mother found out she was gonna be a grandmother, how did she react?

TI: Well, she didn't react very well. She was not happy to be a grandmother. Surprising. But after they came, she was very happy with them. [Laughs]

MN: So at this time, what was your mother doing? What kind of work?

TI: She did not go to work until, let me see... I've forgotten what year she went back to work. But it was... anyway, she found a job again with the YWCA as being director of the Magnolia residence in Boyle Heights on Third and Mott. And they housed mostly Japanese American girls that were coming back from the camps. And it was dormitory living more or less, and it was a cooperative again, and the girls all took turns in cooking and cleaning, and my mother was the director of that house until it was no longer needed again, and it closed.

MN: Do you know how long she was the director?

TI: Seven years.

MN: And do you know how many females were living there at the peak?

TI: It varied, but I don't know. About, at the height, I think maybe fifteen or twenty girls. They had a large attic, and it had alcoves, and many girls stayed in the attic. And then there were bedrooms, and sometimes three and four girls stayed in a bedroom.

MN: Is that house still there on Third and Mott?

TI: Uh-huh, it's still there. But it's owned privately now. In fact, they used it for some movies recently. It's a beautiful house.

MN: There's a lot of beautiful houses in Boyle Heights.

TI: Yeah. You know, eighteen hundred houses, yeah, and it's really kept well. And that beautiful magnolia tree in front. I was the one that named it. They were wondering what to call it.

MN: Oh, so because of the magnolia in the front, that's why it's called Magnolia?

TI: Called Magnolia residence.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.