<Begin Segment 19>

MN: So let's talk about your school. Let's go to your grammar school first. Which grammar school did you attend in New Orleans?

AS: Jefferson Davis elementary school.

MN: And what grade did you start at?

AS: (...) It was the seventh. (...)

MN: And was that the grade you were supposed to be in?

AS: Yes.

MN: So the camp education didn't affect your schooling?

AS: No. It was just a few months. We just went along because it was all recognized in the American school system.

MN: And you mentioned early that school was segregated. But were there any other Asian Americans in your class?

AS: No.

MN: So how did the students and the teachers treat you?

AS: Very well. I didn't feel any animosity.

MN: And then at this school, there was this routine eye exam. Can you share with us what the ophthalmologist found out?

AS: That I had a lazy eye and I couldn't see. But that's when they really welcomed us and they treated us "white," very exceptionally kind to us. And this ophthalmologist (...) was very good to me. She ended up hiring me as a caregiver for her daughter. And I would take her on the streetcar to her music lessons every Saturday. I don't know how that came about, but it did.

MN: And then she also introduced you to Dr. Althea... is it Mayer?

AS: Mayer, uh-huh. They were her friends, and she was a pathologist, very interesting. She had a laboratory in the city of New Orleans, right in a downtown office building. So as I went to school, I'd work there on Saturdays cleaning glassware. That's how I got exposed to laboratory work.

MN: How did you start with that? Did you show an interest in science?

AS: Probably so, in high school, when I went to high school.

MN: So you had a part time job at the lab.

AS: On Saturdays.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.