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BN: And then I also wanted to ask you about the Purplettes.

EO: Oh, yeah, we had a Japanese school. The girls got together and we formed our club, we called ourselves the Purplettes. And I don't know why we picked that color.

BN: I'm sorry, was it Purplettes or Purpleottes?

EO: Purplettes.

BN: Purplettes.

EO: That's a strange name, huh? [Laughs]

BN: So no reason that you could think of for that?

EO: I can't think of any reason we did that.

BN: What kinds of things did you do?

EO: Well, we mainly talked about boys. [Laughs] And I don't think we even had a party, but at Japanese school we'd get together and just talk. And so we formed our club.

BN: Was there a... a lot of times there would be a boy's club that was sort of affiliated. Did you have something like that?

EO: I don't think so. In those days, they had a boy's club in Los Angeles called the Exclusive 20s. And I don't think it was our group, but another girl's group had a dance at the Japanese school and they came crashing in, ruined it for everybody. And my former husband, Francis, he said that at one of the dances, he asked, I guess she was a girlfriend of one of the guys, and he didn't know any better and he asked her to dance, and they danced. They took him out and beat him up. [Laughs] Pretty rough.

BN: This is the Exclusive 20s?

EO: Hmm?

BN: Exclusive 20s.

EO: Exclusive 20s, yeah. So they were a scary group.

BN: Did you get to know any of them later?

[Interruption]

EO: We heard they were going to break up the Exclusive 20s and send one to each camp, and we got one. I think his name was Nakamura, I'm not sure.

BN: Wait, so they really did that? They sent them to different camps on purpose?

EO: I think so.

BN: Wow, I've never heard that.

EO: And I think I met one of them, he seemed pretty nice. Maybe in a group he's different, but on a single basis, he was very nice.

BN: Did your group go to dances and so forth also?

EO: In camp?

BN: No, I mean before.

EO: Before? Well, we were kind of young, we were only fifteen, I think. So it was mostly talk. Talk and giggling. [Laughs]

BN: And your parents, how did they feel about your group?

EO: Oh, the group? I don't know even if they knew about the group. Because we just met at Japanese school, especially at lunchtime. That's when we organized our group.

BN: Did you keep in touch with the girls throughout, or did it break up after camp?

EO: Just broke up.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.