Densho Digital Archive - Yukiko Miyake Interview (denshovh-myukiko-01-0012)

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SY: What did you do after school?

YM: After I came home from school? I stayed with Grandma.

SY: Did you have any jobs helping her in the home?

YM: Oh, I helped her wash dishes and I helped her clean rooms. Actually I didn't do much of anything but read. I loved to read, and so when I went to the library, she always went with me and read all the fairy stories and everything.

SY: How about in high school, by the time you were in high school, what did you do after school in high school?

YM: What did I do? I think I was a very immature child then. I was... already my friends were thinking of boyfriends and things, but I was still playing with dolls so when I came home from high school -- Grandma always saved matchboxes for me, those big ones, and then she would make me doll clothes, and so I was happy then. And she sewed all my clothes. That, I didn't care for too much because that was her way of sewing and all my friends were already buying clothes and that's kind of behind times, but I couldn't say much of anything because she sewed. She said, "You don't like my sewing?" I said, "No, it isn't that, but I want black." And she says, "Why?" [Laughs] Because the kids in gym always wore black bloomers at that time.

SY: Bloomers? What did bloomers look like?

YM: Oh, my. They were baggy and big and it was black.

SY: And what did you have? So what did Grandma make for you?

YM: Grandma made me black, but actually she always made me pink, pink bloomers. Can you see me in pink bloomers? [Laughs] But that's what she did.

SY: So you were the only one in the P.E. class with pink bloomers?

YM: Yeah, and I tell you it was embarrassing, but I couldn't say much because she was a determined lady, too. If it was pink bloomers for her, she's going to wear pink bloomers. 'Til I think I was a junior -- no, sophomore. No, junior -- I think she changed. She gradually changed because I think her friends told her, "Don't you think Yuki should wear something else?" [Laughs]