<Begin Segment 21>

TI: Okay, so let's go to Milwaukee, and what was that like going to Milwaukee?

MM: We couldn't find housing, so we stayed in an old Milwaukee hotel. It was an old hotel, but we stayed there until we found an apartment that they were remodeling the old home into four units. And when that was ready... four months we stayed in the hotel, then just went to work. No car, we just went on the buses. He had to go to south Milwaukee to work, and the company was south Milwaukee, so went by bus.

TI: And the difficulty in finding a place to stay, why was that? Why was it so hard to find a place to stay?

MM: I don't know. We couldn't find an apartment that we wanted to rent, maybe if we're downtown, right downtown. But this was on Ambaum Boulevard we stayed, and a Polish lady had one apartment, and we were up above her, and there were two. There was a Japanese family in one. We stayed there. That's where Sharon was born.

TI: In Milwaukee? And, well, I guess, because you had Sharon, probably, did you work in Milwaukee?

MM: Yes. I worked... yes, I worked for the YMCA office downtown.

TI: And what did you do at the YMCA?

MM: Office, in the office, secretary.

TI: Okay. So all that training that you got at Oregon State was useful, because you always seemed to be able to get jobs pretty easily.

MM: Yes, I had jobs every place I went. So the time went fast.

TI: And then how long did you guys stay in Milwaukee?

MM: About two and a half years. Sharon was born in February of '45, and we came back when she was eight months old.

TI: Okay, so about October of '45? October/November?

MM: September... yes.

TI: And where did you go? When you say you went back, was that to Hood River, or was that to Portland?

MM: Portland. But that was right after the war, and it was hard to find a car, something to buy, to go home. So he bought a... I remember that big black Buick he bought, he thought he had a good deal. And, you know, tires were hard to get. They were able to give him four new tires, and he drove as far as Iowa, and (the car) started smoking, and took it to a garage and they said it cost a lot to fix. So we took everything out of the old Buick, packed it up, they helped us pack it up there at a motel, and we took a train. So Sharon came home on a train at eight months, clear across from Iowa.

TI: And what happened to the old black Buick?

MM: Ditched it. Oh, he lost a lot of money on that. [Laughs]

TI: And what was smoking? The engine was smoking?

MM: I guess. It was just smoking, and I don't know what was wrong, but he was told that it cost a lot to fix, so he said, "Ditch it."

TI: That's too bad. That must have been traumatic or difficult.

MM: Yes.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.