<Begin Segment 4>

TI: So let's move now to high school. And so which high school did you go to?

LP: I went to San Jose Tech, and that was all boys. Not my favorite type of school.

TI: Now why an all-boys school? That's, again, something unusual. You don't see that many all-boys schools.

LP: Well, today, women are doing electrical work and all kinds. San Jose Tech taught you all the trades. And women back in those days weren't mechanics or carpenters or whatever, and now they are. But that's why we went to San Jose Tech, because when we got out of there, four to five years later, in most cases they could find you a job as an apprentice whatever, electrician or painter or whatever trades you work, you took up. And in my case it didn't happen because the war started and I went from San Jose Tech to Richmond Shipyard #2 and built ships up there for a little while 'til I got drafted.

TI: But before we go there, this is, again, you're from a different era. So when I went to school, the high schools had a, kind of, vo-tech as well as academic in the same school. But it sounds like when you were --

LP: They had a commercial part to it?

TI: Yeah, they had kind of like a commercial, in our public high school.

LP: Was that here in San Jose?

TI: No, this was up in Seattle, and much later. But I'm curious, so they actually had two different schools?

LP: San Jose High School was academic and they didn't have any kind of trades. But San Jose Tech, which was across the street from 'em, was all trades. You got your high school education, plus you spent so many periods in shop, teaching you how to do whatever. And that's the way that... I don't know why they still don't have a school like that. Because when we got out of there, we could go to a business and probably make our wages. Today, the guys, or even the ones that went to San Jose High School at the same time I did, when they get out of San Jose High School, they didn't have any background as far as a trade was concerned. I'm sure they could go on to college and become attorneys and lawyers and doctors and so on, but, and probably did. But that was the way it was then.

TI: And as part of that trade, did they have like an apprentice program? Did they have people, sort of, tradespeople come in to school and show you things?

LP: They knew about how many students, how many people that the valley could take up in each trade, about twenty of us at the time. People die, they retire or whatever, and they knew, and that's about how many they took, they taught that year. And then when you graduated, normally there was a place where you could go to work.

TI: Wow, that's fascinating.

LP: It was better than not having a job.

TI: Right, that's interesting.

LP: It was a good school.

TI: Now how did you... did you decide going into high school which track to go? Whether it's the trade school or the academic? Or did your parents decide?

LP: No, I went to a trade school because... well, I'll tell you what. When we were graduating from grammar school, which was eighth grade, we had someone come out there from the school department. I can't believe it today when I think about it, but they thought that we all should go to a... not go to an academic high school, we should go to a commercial. Why? We're from a bunch of farms? What was the reason?

TI: So all the boys in your class, they just said you should...

LP: Well, all the ones going on to high school, most of 'em went to a trade school.

TI: Yeah, it's interesting that they steered you that way.

LP: Well, it was a small school. I'm sure it wasn't that way all over the valley. The grammar school was a small school, so I don't know. Things have changed a lot.

TI: And what year did you graduate from high school?

LP: High School? '41.

TI: And so right before the war started.

LP: Uh-huh.

TI: Okay, and then you mentioned you went to the Richmond Shipyard #2. And how did you get that job? Was that something that --

LP: Richmond Shipyard?

TI: Yeah, was that waiting for you?

LP: Just went up there and asked for a job, and they hired me right that same day. Because I knew how to weld and stuff, and that was what they needed. Once they found out I was graduating from that particular type school, I fit right in with making ships.

TI: So I'm curious, was there a big effort, I mean, this was before the war had started for the United States. Was there still...

LP: Before the U.S. was in the war, I believe.

TI: Right.

LP: The U.S. might have been, they were just getting into the war about that time.

TI: Well, they were probably doing a lot to help Britain or, I mean, sort of in Europe the war was raging in 1941.

LP: Yeah. But I'm not sure... well, I think the war started in the U.S. when they bombed...

TI: Pearl Harbor.

LP: Pearl Harbor. So whatever that date was, that's when the war started.

TI: So you graduated kind of in summer or early summer of '41, and then it was probably about a five months later that Pearl Harbor. So there's about...

LP: Okay, so that means that I was working in Richmond when Pearl Harbor happened.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.