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MN: So I'm going to go back to the skating at the shrine. Tell me about that. Tell me about that.

JK: All right. If you were in high school, you probably were in a Japanese club. Japanese club, you have a bento feast, bring your bento and eat, eat Japanese food and all that. Then for the Girl's Day, you have a girl, say, "Hey, you got a kimono?" Or you can borrow one from friend. Okay. Wear your kimono. And so it got to be Girl's Day kimono. School picture's up, oh, Japan Day, the next school picks it up, and you have a Girl's Day almost city wide. Yeah, I think that was a good thing for the Japanese girls because Japanese girls are so timid.

MN: So what did these Japanese girls clubs do?

JK: Serve tea. Our school didn't have enough Japanese people. Well, they were there, but they're not, I don't know, Japanese inclined to certain... but we were in Lincoln High, Italians, a few Mexican. I saw one colored boy in my class. Lincoln High was just almost downtown.

MN: I think there was a lot of vineyards a long time ago, wine vineyards in that area, right?

JK: Yeah, yeah. So that's what we did. We went with, sneaked out with the Italian boys, go home. The wine is all ready, so we have a wine feast.

MN: Underage drinking.

JK: Well, they were wine drinkers from the day they were born.

MN: Going back to the girls club, okay, they held fundraisers, right?

JK: Oh, yes.

MN: What kind of fundraisers did they hold?

JK: Skating. You go to the Shrine Auditorium, we got a ticket for twenty-five cents. So you're at the skating club at the Shrine, boys and girls skate together, ladies only, men only, couples only. They had a great time.

MN: Now, is this where you met your future wife Masa Fujioka?

JK: Yeah.

MN: The skating rink at the Shrine?

JK: But the girls had also a basketball team. The girls started basketball and softball, so they started playing different clubs. Union church had the Keinans. Who else? Oh, I don't remember the other clubs. So they had a league, and we used to watch them on Saturday, weekends, go tease the girls.

MN: And that's how you met Masa?

JK: She had a family that all played basketball and softball.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.