<Begin Segment 25>

TL: Do you think that whistling was more... part of entertainment and culture then than it is now?

YB: Well you see a lot of whistlers around now. In those days there weren't very many, you could count them on your finger, one hand. And it's unusual, some people can pick it up right away. But as a rule, there's different formations one has to go through with your tongue and everything. And some people can't do it at all. And I was able to do most everything the teacher taught me. And then doing a duet of birdcalls and then, regular whistling. People thought it was beautiful. So he said, "You know, we could do pretty good." He hadn't found another partner that could, until he found me. And everything would've been all, fine... Mother shouldn't have even worried. When I looked back later, years after I was married and I came here, and he came up here, we found out that I wouldn't have had any problems traveling with him as a man because he belonged to a certain group. If you know what group I'm referring to.

TL: No, I don't think I do.

YB: Because there are groups that have nothing to do with women.

TL: Ah.

YB: Men... they're not interested in women. And I would have been perfectly safe. I didn't want to come out and mention the name, but... yeah.

TL: Oh, I see.

YB: And so I would have been perfectly safe travelling with him... had we known, but I didn't know anything like that at that young age. Until I got married and learned about different groups of people.

TL: So you weren't able to pursue the stagecraft or the whistling and did you ever find anything at Santa Barbara Normal School that, that you felt was a career that you would just follow or...?

YB: No, not anymore. Then Mother took ill. So that was it, I had to drop out of school. But I would have liked to follow through with some art. But I was interested in whistling really. And now, I don't think I could do it because I would have to reset my teeth or have spaces made in my front teeth, that I knocked out by the steering wheel. But while I could whistle I did quite a bit.

TL: It sounds like you also were quite musical.

YB: My family was. And if everybody else could play the piano, play the guitar and I forgot what other instrument... oh my one, my one brother was good with a ukulele. He'd listen to one and pick it up just like that. He was the one who used to take bits and parts in the movie, six foot tall and say, "Hi, kid sister." He's now a widow, a widower living alone and I talk to him once a month. I might have followed the stagecraft was most interesting to me. And I could have, perhaps, looked up the couple, but I would imagine they would have gotten old and retired by then.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.