<Begin Segment 9>

TI: Okay, so I know I'm jumping around, but let's go back to your schooling. So when you're six, your sister leaves, you travel to Japan, you come back, so you're a little bit older now. So tell me about your elementary school. What was that like.

TH: Well, it was fun, mostly. Grade school is a lot of fun, you had a lot of friends.

TI: And tell me, in terms of your friends in school, were there very many other Japanese around?

TH: Not in Beaverton. Just two other families, and that was the only Japanese I ever knew 'til I grew up.

TI: And so tell me the families. I think you mentioned earlier, the two other families in Beaverton were?

TH: The Nagaes and the Satos.

TI: And the Nagaes, I just know that family because I know Peggy Nagae, so you mentioned that.

TH: Peggy lives in Portland now.

TI: And in terms of, so who would you say your best friends were, growing up during that time?

TH: They were hakujins, Ruby Rice and Marjorie Bartell. And this Margie is still living. She's a golf pro and she's in Arizona. She's retired now.

TI: I was going to say, that's pretty amazing.

TH: But she goes to Arizona, and she'll be back in Beaverton in May, so I'll go down and visit her.

TI: Oh, that's special. You also mentioned a Viola?

TH: Oh, Viola Lierman, they lived right next door to me. And her mother would give me milk to take to school. I was so proud of that milk, it's like a luxury to have, because we didn't ever buy milk.

TI: And then we were talking about neighbors and friends, you mentioned Ruby Rice. You told an interesting story when you were a kid, the Rices lived across the street. And as you were crossing the street...

TH: I got hit by a car, fell into their garden.

TI: And so how old were you and tell me kind of what happened?

TH: I must have been six years old.

TI: And so what happened after you fell into the ditch, the garden?

TH: Well, the man that hit me loaded me into the car, his car, and took me to Portland, but nobody knew where he took me. But they decided that, let's try Doernbecher Hospital, because that's a children's hospital, and that's where I was.

TI: And this man who hit you and took you to the hospital, did you or the family know who he was?

TH: No. And I don't know what happened after that, he kind of disappeared. Because it was my fault, I ran right in front of his car. But I wasn't hurt badly, thank goodness.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.