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BN: And then the other thing I would ask you about, you mentioned you had a, you also had a car at that time. Did you, I guess you kind of customized it a little?

RO: Yeah, actually, my father bought it for me. And I had to have it customized, 'cause kids don't drive, back in those days, regulars, and we had to lower it, and it's got to be cleaned. You can't have markings on the side. So my father, bless his soul, he actually paid for that, getting it fixed like that so I could look like the other kids driving around.

BN: Was that something, was that kind of a Japanese American thing, that a lot of kids did that? Or was it part of the youth culture in general at the time?

RO: Maybe. I really don't recall. I know we did it.

BN: "We" being your other Squires?

RO: The JA. Oh no, all JAs. Well, I shouldn't say all, because there were some who didn't.

BN: The ones who could.

RO: Yeah.

BN: Do you have pictures of the cars? I'm curious.

RO: I don't think so.

BN: But then you got, there was an accident.

RO: Was what?

BN: There was an accident.

RO: Oh, you sure read that well, didn't you? [Laughs]

BN: Yeah, I did. It was a great story.

RO: Yeah, see, that was a learning thing for me. I was coming home late one night, and some guy came along and hit me. So we got out and talked, and he said he would pay me to have it fixed. But he didn't have much money, he was Latino. He said, "I don't have much money, but I'll give you a certain amount the first, every week until I pay this thing off." I said, what do I know? I said sure, that's fine. So he gave me, it's probably ten bucks the first week and then five bucks the next week, then he disappeared. And my father, bless him, wasn't mad at me. I think he tried to find the guy, but the guy was not available, he went someplace. The address he gave us, we went there and he wasn't there. But my father got the car fixed and let me use it again. And I don't know if that was common in those days, but it was really an easy life for me in that sense.

BN: Not a lot of, they were fairly, it sounds like, especially for Japanese, especially for Issei, fairly lenient.

RO: Yeah, they were.

BN: Well, you're also the youngest. Did your older siblings have a shorter leash, do you think?

RO: Well, they didn't do the kinds of things I did, so they didn't need a leash at all. Yeah, which is kind of funny because my brother didn't really hang out with JAs very much. And he was a singer, so that's what he did, at school he was, he joined the group. He was not a standard JA. And then my sister was, and she was in a group of JA girls, and she was nice.

BN: What was her group called?

RO: I can't remember their name, but they were very nice kids compared to us. We just had fun. [Laughs]

BN: What kind of music did your older, was your older brother singing?

RO: Oh, I don't remember.

BN: I mean, was it more contemporary jazz pop things, or more classical?

RO: I don't know, I ignored him. He was about three years older than me.

BN: Which is a lot when you're young.

RO: And I was kind of embarrassed to have my brother like that, who wasn't in the JA area. [Laughs] So yeah, I was the only one that was not such a nice kid.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.