<Begin Segment 22>

SY: And you were living in, where were, or did you move when you started working at Hughes?

GN: Yeah, we had just moved to Gardena at that time.

SY: So, and were you married at the time?

GN: No.

SY: So when did you get, end up getting married? Was that during that fifteen years you were at Hughes?

GN: Yes.

SY: And how did you meet your wife?

GN: When I was in high school.

SY: Really? She went to Poly also?

GN: During the summer.

SY: Wow. So she knew you when you were a member of the Constituents, so was she also in one of these girls' clubs?

GN: I don't know. I don't think so.

SY: So you didn't meet her at a dance.

GN: No, I met through one of my friends.

SY: I see, and you started dating then? I mean, you...

GN: Not right away.

SY: But you eventually, after you started working at Hughes, then?

GN: No, it was before, it was before I started working at Hughes.

SY: Right, but then how, when did you decide you were going, you wanted to get married?

GN: That was in 1960. I started working at Hughes in '56, and I met her in 1954.

SY: I see. And what was she doing at the time, when she graduated?

GN: She went to work for Department of Water and Power.

SY: So she, did she go straight out of, out of high school?

GN: Yeah, straight out of high school.

SY: And ended up working there for her, as a career?

GN: Yeah.

SY: I see. And then you, so after you got married you moved again, or did you, you stayed in Gardena?

GN: No, we had an apartment right near El Camino College. That's a county area just north of the campus there, but it has a Gardena mailing address. And then from there we bought a house in Manhattan Beach, and the reason why we bought a house in Manhattan Beach is because it was cheaper than Gardena in 1962. In fact, we looked in Gardena and I still remember three bedroom homes were going for about twenty-one thousand, and so we, it was a little bit too steep for us financially so we decided let's look in other parts of South Bay. So when we looked in Manhattan Beach, the three bedroom house that we looked at was listed at nineteen thousand, and so we offered eighteen five and got it on an FHA loan, so the down payment is real small, interest rate was reasonable, and that's how we bought that house.

SY: Wow. But you never, you didn't end up staying there.

GN: We lived there for three years, and we wanted a bigger house, but the homes in Manhattan Beach was a little bit too steep for us for a bigger house, and so we looked in Torrance. And this time we had a realtor look for homes for us, and Torrance has good schools and so we bought the house that we're living in right now for thirty thousand dollars in 1965.

SY: And how much did you sell the Manhattan Beach home for?

GN: For twenty-five five. Now, when we've bought this house in Torrance for thirty thousand, there was a house right next to the beach, it was going for thirty-three thousand. When I say next to the beach, it was on Paseo de Playa, I think, and so it's at Torrance Beach and so you have a main drag and the house is on that main drag, and then just on the other side of the street it goes downhill to Torrance Beach, and it's a place where you can have, you have a good view. And so in retrospect we should've bought that house for thirty-three even though it would've been hard for us financially, 'cause I'm sure the, because of the location... we didn't like the floor plan of the house, kitchen was real small, but if we were to think ahead, you could always remodel that. But anyway...

SY: Yeah, it happens. So that was, so you started a family and you, when you finally ended up in Torrance, or did you start your family in Manhattan Beach?

GN: No, we started the family when we were living in the apartment in, near El Camino College.

SY: Okay, and your family is, can you, what...

GN: Yeah, we have a daughter that's a teacher, still single.

SY: And she's how old now?

GN: How old is she? She's what, she had her fiftieth birthday last year.

SY: Wow. And a teacher in L.A., Los Angeles?

GN: No, Torrance. She teaches in Torrance.

SY: Okay. And then you have...

GN: A son, he's an electrical engineer at Raytheon, which used to be Hughes at one time.

SY: Wow, so he kind of took after you did, huh?

GN: Not really. I mean, he, from the time he was little he was suited to be an engineer.

SY: Interested in math, like.

GN: Yeah. You know, what is interesting is my daughter was a CSF student every semester and went to UCLA from high school, my son was C average student in high school, but she says he's much brighter than she is. And so he went to El Camino College; he took electronics there. And he would drive Helen crazy because he's only a C average student, but he got like, what, a B-plus, A-minus average at El Camino, and then he got a job at Hughes, sort of like me, in a way. But he got on this fellowship program there, and then so when he went to Long Beach State for his upper division in engineering he was a straight A student.

SY: Wow. That's amazing, I know... and they're, and he's how much younger than your daughter?

GN: About three years, I think. And he met this Indian girl, Asian Indian, at El Camino College when he was going there, and so at that time, when they completed their lower division, she went to UC Berkeley and my son went to Cal State Long Beach, and so they missed each other so he used to fly up to Berkeley like, what, once every three weeks or so. And anyway, they got married, so we have two granddaughters right now.

SY: That's nice. That's nice.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.