<Begin Segment 19>

AI: And so then what, after you arrived at the hostel and you were settled in, how did you go about finding a school or where, where to get started?

LK: Well, I went out to look for a school, first of all and then I needed to find a place to live. Because it was temporary housing and they would feed us, but we would all help in the kitchen and all, and then everybody would either look for a place to live or get their lives going. I think I was there maybe a couple of weeks and I heard of a place that, a girl that was, had a job working, helping a family baby-sitting and helping in the kitchen, and she was gonna leave that job, because she was gonna find a full-time job. So I went there and that was near the University of Chicago and I think the man was a professor and they had two children. So I went there as hired help and I, by then I had located a school to go to. And I first applied at the Gregg Shorthand School. Oh, to back up a little bit, my mother wanted me to go to a four-year college, but I couldn't see going with the situation that they were in. I'd have no idea what, when they would be able to earn money to send me to school. So I made an agreement with my mother that I'll go for one year, business school. And that was what my goal was, at least, and if I learned how to type I could maybe find a job. So I tried at the Gregg Shorthand School to get in, and they wouldn't admit me because I was Japanese and then I got some other referrals and was able to sign up at this Chicago Commercial College. And being it was a small college, it was like one-to-one teacher and student. So I got a very good education as far as business courses. My shorthand -- I think in shorthand all the time. [Laughs] And to this day I'm still using my shorthand in my job.

AI: So you were able to get settled in, in your situation, you had a little part-time job with the family?

LK: It was just for room and board. But then that didn't last very long because I think I had been spoiled at home where I had older brother and my older sister and then my mother was very efficient and I never cooked and I never hardly, you know, I did wipe dishes, maybe, that was about it. So I didn't enjoy being, you know, taking care of those kids and they were very -- and I felt like, you know, the maid. And I wasn't used to that. So I think I was so homesick that once I wrote to my sister and poured out my troubles and I wasn't too happy in my situation, so my mother immediately sent me a telegram saying, "Move out, find someplace, you don't need to work there." So I did locate a business, what they called girl's club where a lot of people worked and had room and board and a lot of 'em went to school. So that was my situation.

AI: Oh.

LK: So that's where I stayed until later I found some friends and we got together and got an apartment.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.