<Begin Segment 7>

MN: I want to ask you about school. Where did your older sister and brother go to school?

RN: My oldest son?

MN: No, sister and brother.

RN: My older sister and brother, they went to school in the town of Missoula. Missoula's a small town, about twelve thousand people, and our farm was about a mile from the city's limits so you could walk into town very easily. So they went to school in town. From our farm they used to walk, walk into Missoula to go to school. Me, as far as I know, just me -- my younger sister wasn't born yet -- every morning we would go up to the road, to the dirt road, and the teacher was from Seattle, I mean, from Missoula, she would come by in her Model T and drive and pick us up, pick me up and drive us to the country school, which was maybe three miles away, maybe two or three miles away. And she was the only teacher at this country school. We only had about altogether maybe ten students. She taught all eight grades, all eight grades in that one country school, from first grade all the way up to eighth grade. Course, there was only one student in eighth grade, maybe two in the fifth grade, but that's the way it was. That was a country school. We had a barn in the back and the kids all used to come to school, practically all of them -- we were the only ones that got a ride from our teacher -- other students, they came to school on horseback, ride the horses and put 'em in the barn which is in the back and keep 'em there 'til they go home. Lunchtime we would take our lunch pails, walk down the lane, and eat lunch.

MN: What did you pack for lunch?

RN: Always peanut butter sandwich, peanut butter. No butter, peanut butter period, two sandwiches. That's all that my mother would pack. There were just me and my older sister, one older sister that lived... my other oldest sister, she went to school in town, walked into town with my brother, but the younger sister, or one above me, she would, she and I were the only ones that went to this country school.

MN: So this was a one room country school?

RN: Huh?

MN: You were all in one room?

RN: One room. One room, one stove, and as far as I remember, naturally, it was all country toilet, you know, one on each side there.

MN: What's a...

RN: One, one room. Eighth grade there'd be one or two desks. It's flexible.

MN: When you say country toilet, are you talking about an outhouse?

RN: Outhouse, yeah.

MN: Were you and your sister the only Japanese American students?

RN: We were the only Orientals.

MN: Did you ever get teased for being Japanese American?

RN: Never. Never brought up. Only thing is when my, when I made friends in town I'd say, make friends with white kids, we were known as the "Japs." "I'll see you at the Japs'." Said we're, they're gonna meet me at my, at our farm and we would go down the river and play or something like that, but we were known as the "Japs."

MN: But they were not saying "Japs" in a bad way, is that right?

RN: No, they, it wasn't meant in a bad way. We weren't considered inferior.

MN: Were there any African Americans in the area?

RN: There was one family, but they didn't live very long. They, they took up and went back to Alabama.

[Interruption]

MN: Can you share with us about the African American family?

RN: Very little. When, all I remember is that they lived on the edge of town and, on my side of town, and I don't remember the, the black family. All I remember is that they had one son, and he used to tag along with us, a white guy and me, but all of a sudden one day they just took up and left. They went back to Alabama and that was the last of it.

MN: Other than that there were no other African Americans?

RN: We were the only outsiders. No Mexicans, just all white and us.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.