<Begin Segment 20>

MS: So when your father, your family started to manage hotels, which high school did you start going to?

BS: Okay, so that was, again, skid row area, so I went to Belmont High School.

MN: So you're doing a lot of moving around. You went from Narbonne to University High to Belmont High School. How did all this moving around affect your education and your ability to make friends?

BS: Well, I was able to make friends easily enough, and education, I hope it didn't hurt. But I was just an average student anyway. But actually, I went to another school at Santa Ana High School before coming to Belmont, I went to work at a grocery store and gas station. The family that had the rabbit farm asked me to come and do schoolboy work over there in Santa Ana, so I worked there for a while. But again, they wanted to overwork me, so I quit. I came back to Los Angeles and went to Belmont High School.

[Interruption]

MN: So you were talking about your school, so you went to Santa Ana school for a while.

BS: Yes.

MN: And then from there you went to Belmont.

BS: Belmont High School.

MN: Let me change the subject and ask you about this group called Su's Plumbers. What was this group?

BS: Okay. Su Plumber was a basketball team. That originally started as a Boy Scout basketball team, and then we wanted to compete in the Japanese league. So we had to have a sponsor, because there's an entry fee, we wanted to get uniform and balls, and we couldn't afford it, so we asked the Boy Scouts to sponsor us. But since we had one non-Boy Scout, they said, no, they can't sponsor us because it's not all Boy Scouts. So Su Igawe happened to be our scoutmaster. He says, "Well, I'll sponsor you personally." So he had the Su Plumbing shop in Little Tokyo, and he decided to sponsor us. So I believe we were the most properly dressed team in the league. We had a regular uniform plus the sweatpants and the jacket. So most teams did not have a jacket and a sweatpants.

MN: So how well did the Su's Plumbers do in the league?

BS: We did pretty good. We won the championship a few times, so we got some nice trophies for Mr. Su Igawe to display. And then we were one of the younger teams, too. So in the papers they would sort of write us off as young kids, but we were still able to win the championship.

MN: Now did your group from the Su Plumbers ever get into fights with other groups?

BS: Not so-called fights, but two of our players on two different occasions at one of the public dances in East Los Angeles got beat up by another team's members. So that happened twice, so I know that wasn't coincidence, but partially maybe because we were a pretty good team and were competition for this other team. So maybe that, I don't know. I'm just projecting that happened.

MN: Did you ever get into fights with this other rival team?

BS: No, I was in pretty good with all the players. I mean, to me, I had a positive attitude, competition is competition. Sometimes you accidently elbow a person, but I just took it as an accident, that they're playing hard, so I didn't take it bad.

MN: Who was this other team, group called?

BS: Oh, I'd rather not say.

MN: Now you said they got beaten up? Did they go to the dances and get beaten up?

BS: Yes, just at a public dance, so it has nothing to do with basketball, but still they were at a gathering that they happened to be at the same place.

MN: Where did they have the dances at?

BS: They had dances all over throughout Los Angeles, but one of the favorite places was on Boyle Avenue, called International Institute. So probably every weekend or every other weekend they always had a dance there.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.