<Begin Segment 19>

SY: And aside from being in this club, you were all pretty good students, or you were? Were you a fairly good student?

GN: Well, I was taking vocational education. Got pretty good grades, but that was in vocational education.

SY: And that's in high school?

GN: In high school.

SY: You were, you're put into vocational?

GN: Yeah, because of what happened to me in junior high school.

SY: Right, but so you were learning, you, certain, you only took certain courses like shop.

GN: Yeah, there's shop classes.

SY: I see. And then you were still active in sports then?

GN: Yeah, I went out for track. So I went out for track at Roosevelt and then also I tried gymnastics, but I didn't do as well. Find out later that you need more upper body strength than lower body. And so anyway, finally, when I was at Poly, I made the team, and they had a different classification, varsity, B, C, and so anyway, I placed fourth in the league meet so I was able, and so if you place first through fourth you get a medal and you get to compete in the city preliminary. And if you make it through the city preliminary then you'll be able to compete in the city finals.

SY: Wow, so you got up to the preliminary.

GN: Yeah.

SY: That's nice. And then were you working through this whole period?

GN: Well, I had that part time job, and I did both in the eleventh grade, and then in the twelfth grade my parents didn't have a car and so I really had to make more money so that we could get a car, 'cause you, we only had a pickup truck that my father used for gardening. And then, being in the twelfth grade, you have senior prom coming up, and so in the eleventh grade I would borrow my uncle's car, but he got married and I couldn't borrow, I didn't have anybody that I could borrow a car from so now I had to buy my own car. And so I dropped out of track in the twelfth grade and concentrated on working more hours to save money, and so that's what I did.

SY: So, and your family, meantime, is still kind of struggling, your father's gardening business, or was he getting, did it, was it a hard life for your parents?

GN: It was. Yeah, it was a hard life.

SY: And your two, your three younger siblings, were they just going to school?

GN: Yeah, just going to school.

SY: And they, did they move around like you did or did they stay in Boyle Heights?

GN: Stayed in Boyle Heights until, in 1956, we moved to Gardena, and so all three of them, I think, graduated from Gardena High School.

SY: That was, I see. So do you remember feeling, like, very poor when you were growing up?

GN: Oh yeah, really poor.

SY: Really poor. And that, so you, the working, were you the only one who was helping with the family income?

GN: Yeah. I was the only one that, old enough, could get even get a part time job, so...

SY: That was, yeah.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.