<Begin Segment 12>

TI: Okay, Clara, so we're going to get started up again. And let's continue with your schooling. You talked about going to the Rocklin grammar school. After you finished Rocklin grammar school, where did you go next?

CH: After grammar school, that would be eighth grade, we graduated from eighth grade, and then we have to... being that I lived in Rocklin, I went to Roseville High School. And the kids that I knew in church in Loomis, they were up in another district, so they had to go to Placer High School, which was up in Auburn. And we were all bussed to go to high school. And so I walked two miles up to the country road, and they had built a little shed there for us to wait for the bus. And that bus would come by. And where we lived, we lived on a hillside, so I could see the bus coming down the county road quite a ways up there from the house, I could run down and meet the bus. [Laughs]

TI: So you'd run two miles, and you could, so the bus was that far away?

CH: Yes, because I can't, I just can't get up fast enough to be there any earlier.

TI: Oh, so you're the type that will try to sleep as long as you could.

CH: Last minute, long as you can, yeah. [Laughs]

TI: But then you got to be probably a good runner, then, if you had to run?

CH: Yeah, I think I was pretty strong, because I worked on the farm quite a bit. I wasn't the only one, all the neighbor kids were running, too, and we never seemed to get up early enough.

TI: Now what was it like, or what was the size difference from your grammar school to high school? Was it like a big difference in size?

CH: Yes, because in Roseville it was a city. It wasn't as big as Sacramento, but it was... and it covered a lot of areas, too. Roseville covered all of -- I'm talking about Roseville High School -- all of our area. And covered... and Roseville was quite a large, kind of, city, and they had quite a little, I think, lot of graduating from grammar school. And then they had like two grammar schools and that kind of things, so they had quite a few, lot more than Rocklin, our little one-room schoolhouse. Anyway, let's see...

TI: So were most of the students in high school, were there like farmer kids?

CH: No. Roseville was, I would say, well, I think majority of the people, I don't know... let's see, what is the... railroad was one of the main things, you know, at that time. So I wouldn't say that they all worked on the railroad, I mean, the parents, but just, the town itself has gotten bigger and bigger, so I'm sure they all, grocery stores and everything that would constitute a city.

TI: So how was it for you going to a bigger school with lots of different kids?

CH: Uh-huh. And there weren't too many Japanese. I think we were, like I say, there were Helen and myself, gee, I don't know of any other Japanese. Oh yeah, I think you have Uyeda family, they went to Roseville High School, too. Most of them all went to Auburn and were the ones that I knew that were from church. They all went up to Auburn High School.

TI: Well, how did the Japanese students do at Roseville?

CH: I don't know, average. Not extremely brilliant or anything.

TI: And how were you treated?

CH: Very good. I mean, you know, just like anybody else, just like any other routine. We didn't have any such thing as discrimination or anything like that before the war. It wasn't... well, we didn't even think about it, I guess. And then, of course, the war came, so that was...

TI: But that came after high school.

CH: Yeah, oh, a lot after high school. But I mean, during the high school time.

TI: How about extracurricular activities?

CH: I wish I had, was able to go. But being that I had to catch a bus to get home and I couldn't join any clubs or anything. But often wanted to, some of the clubs from after school there, they had parties and they had things that they did together. I know they went on picnics a lot and stuff like that.

TI: So you missed a lot of the social things.

CH: Yeah, social things. And I think... I don't know what else. Well, they went movies and things like that, that was, you know... no, I had to go home and go to work, get to work. [Laughs]

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.