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TI: And so going back to, kind of finishing up Skyline, any other memories that were, did you develop any strong friendships with the kids at Skyline?

RH: That's one interesting, because people talk about reunions and stuff, I've never gone to a school reunion and there's only, maybe like, less than five people that I would, I'm even kind of in touch with from high school. For whatever reason, my high school experience and friendship with people has just, it just dropped off. It just didn't, never continued really, other than those people that I still, that went off and kind of are still active in the community in different ways, too, in the Asian American community.

TI: So any second thoughts about going to Skyline versus the inner city high school?

RH: You know, there's always those things you kind of wonder about, what if I had done this instead of that, and what would it have meant, what, if I'd gone to Castlemont would the options of going to a better school and college have been there for me, 'cause, or, or would I have been rounded into another different scene and maybe dead already, killed off somewhere? [Laughs] It's really kind of hard to say, but again, I guess for me, the Skyline experience, because I got so involved with the music scene, I really appreciate that, and it was much, much different than the junior high experience because that became, got into more of the, the R&B and jazz scene and what was happening there and that kind of music, and then Skyline was more on the classical end, so just getting more and understanding of what that meant and being, having that experience and working in that kind of environment. So it was, it was interesting, but, so I had this real strong music interest and so when I was graduating high school I personally had to make a choice because of what my parents wanted, you know, going to college, they were saying that naturally you have to get a good job so good career. And so what I was thinking, well, I really like music, maybe I could go into a music program. They said, "No, that's not gonna, that's not a job." [Laughs] "That won't work, so you can't do that." So even though I was really kind of interested in doing that, it was not, it was not an option for me to --

TI: Now, if you went that option, what, where would you, where would you have gone? To a different school, or what was, if you pursued the music career?

RH: Yeah, I think I would've tried to go for a major music academy, to see if that was possible. And so, like I was just talking to a friend the other day, one of the, growing up in high school there was one other Japanese guy. We, he played trombone, too, and in different orchestras we were always kind of competing for first chair and stuff, and he was very good, but we were always competing, going back and forth and stuff, and ended up he went to Julliard. And we both played in the same orchestras together for a number of years during high school and stuff, so I always thought back, says, wow, if I had really put effort to it and made a choice to try to do that, could I have gotten into that kind of music school or scene? My life would be totally different, probably wouldn't be sittin' here talking to you about taiko right now because that wouldn't have happened. But yeah, so what ifs, those what if questions are really kind of hard to think about and wonder about.

TI: 'Cause I'm curious, if you had gone to, say, Julliard, what do you think that would've taken you? When you say you wouldn't have done taiko, what would you have done differently?

RH: I probably would've ended up teaching, but little bit more in the classical end, but just knowing my interests in the R&B stuff, trying to do more of that, just be more involved in the music scene in different ways. Yeah, I'm not sure what, how that would've ended up, 'cause that's a tough business, too, so, and at that time for, for Asians to get involved in that it was a little bit harder.

TI: Okay, so parents said no music.

RH: No music.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.