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TI: I wanted to ask you about now school. What was school like? What school did you go to?

CH: I went to Rocklin. I started first grade in the Rocklin grammar school. And at that time, there was a big old building, and it had first grade, then the next room, there was a wall, then the next room was second and third grade, that's all. There was an anteroom, anteroom was where you take your coats and your lunches and leave it in there. And that's all there was. And that and a stove in the middle for heat. We played, and then outside we played acting bar, we used to hang on that like a monkey. [Laughs] And then there were a couple of swings. The swings were taken most of the time. But I remember swinging one time, it's quite a tall chain, I mean, a swing was, had a real long, so it was the swing that went quite a ways out. And I went up as high as I could, and then I came down, I slipped, my foot slipped and then fell flat on my stomach and knocked myself out. And I don't know what happened, but I guess they carried me into the classroom. And when I came to, or what I could remember is everybody around me, and then I saw my dad. [Laughs]

TI: Wow, so you must have got knocked out.

CH: And my dad must have come and picked me up. So it was all my fault, I mean, I thought I'd be smart and pump as high as I could, higher than anybody else. [Laughs]

TI: Now, how large was your first, second and third grades?

CH: First, second grade? Not too many. Not very large, I would say maybe... gosh, I think twelve, maybe twenty at the most in the class. Because there weren't that many kids. No, there weren't that many kids at all. I think maybe in the second and the third grade together there must have been twenty kids, because in my first year... and then I remember my mother, my mother used to drive in those days, and we had one of those Ford... let's see. These old Fords that had great big windows, and then the running board and the fender like that, and then...

TI: Like an old Model A?

CH: Model A. Then we'd get on the fender and then we'd get up on the, well, fender, over the wheel, and then go through the window and sit in the backseat. [Laughs] Us kids.

TI: No seatbelts back then.

CH: Oh, no. It's a wonder... of course, I don't think they traveled that fast on a country road. My mother used to drive us and come and pick us up at church. She did the driving while my dad was still working.

TI: Going back to your school, your class, how many of your classmates were Japanese?

CH: Oh, in Rocklin, I went to the Rocklin school, and it was our family and the Hori family, and that's about all.

TI: So very little.

CH: Very little. And then the rest of them were... it was quite a Spanish colony in Rocklin, and even in town, and the Finnish, that was another... yeah, there were a lot of Finnish there, so there were a lot of steambath, Finnish people liked steambath. We didn't, never been in one, so I have no idea what it was like or anything, but they called it steambath. And then the Spanish people were kind of on their own, too, they have a little area, they have large families, and I know there were always kids running around. And then in our classes, too, there were quite a few Spanish classes. But as a rule, they didn't go to school. They kept them home, I don't know why. And then the Finnish people were all blond, and I remember Melvin Barquist, yeah, Melvin Barquist and what was her name? Perkins? There were a few people there like that, I can't remember.

TI: And how did the kids get along from different races? Was it pretty good or were they were any fights, name calling or anything like that?

CH: Yeah, I think we had... we had problems with Spanish kids, they always were picking on us. And we were calling them a lot of names, and they called us a lot of names, too. And we had to walk two miles to school and two miles home, and it's a country road. And, oh, I remember we had to cross this little creek that had a bridge, and under the bridge, there were all these tramps. And during the Depression, there were a lot of men out of work, and they had no place to stay. And under the bridge, I guess, is kind of warm or something, but they have, they cooked their meals and the smoke comes up, and us kids would just be scared of them, so we'd just run across that bridge as fast as we could to get home. And those tramps used to travel by railroad cars, and you'd see them on the top of the railroad cars, or if it's an open boxcar, you'll see a bunch of men. And Rocklin was one of the, kind of a rail stop, and the train would stop, and all these tramps would get off. Like I say, they tried to find work.

TI: Would they ever come to your farm looking for work or food?

CH: We never did hire them, no. You know, it was just like we had this Spanish family with us, they were good workers, too, so we didn't have to depend on outside strangers.

TI: Okay, good.

[Interruption]

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.