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PW: So let's go back to Sacramento, and you're high school age, there were now five children in the family. And I'm kind of curious to hear who your friends were at that time. Were they Japanese American mostly?

HS: Being at McClatchy, and they're all white people, basically they're all white people. So I was pretty isolated. I really didn't have any real good friends when I went to McClatchy. I don't recall anyone that was a good friend. So my friends were my sisters at home. So it was kind of sad, but that's just the way it was. And I'm not saying there was any blatant racism or anything like that, but I don't think they were, they sought to, they avoided me, but they never sought me. I was shy, so I wasn't going to go looking for someone to become friends with. And let's see, what else about that? I belonged to... the only club I belonged to was the CSF, which was the scholarship federation, but that's almost automatic that you joined that. And I didn't have any real interest in any particular area. I took typing just because it would be helpful, but I just took academic courses so that I could go to college. So it would be science, math, a language. I think I took Spanish and I think I even took a year of German just so that I would qualify to get into any college or university that I might be interested in.

PW: Meanwhile, your family, all the kids were growing up, and what were they like? What was it like at home?

HS: Well, for us it was pretty quiet. And so, but Marge is the one that was chatty and more fun-loving. But I don't recall incidents... [coughs] excuse me. I don't recall any incidents where we had a fun time or anything like that. We lived in the Japanese part of town, and then we went to McClatchy High School. We graduated from there. I think Marge was in the band, orchestra or band, she played bass, that she did. I think Florence did not do that, neither did I. So we didn't have any really extracurricular activities that I can remember.

PW: Did your family join in any of the Japanese American association groups or kenjinkai picnics?

HS: Yes. My parents were both from Aichi-ken, their parents. So I know we belonged to the Aichi Kenjinkai, and I'm almost positive that we would have had some type of get together like a, if not a picnic, it would be a dinner or something like that, to get together once a year. The Japanese American... we used to have once a year at Elk Grove Park, which is outside of Sacramento, we used to have a so-called picnic where you bring your obentos and sit out on the lawn and eat with friends or with family. And they used to have a contest for kids, races and things like that, for the children. And you'd get small prizes for winning or coming in second or third. So that was a fun time for us to be with other kids, but we weren't intimate with the families that I, with kids that I recall.

PW: How about Obon? Did you guys usually participate in Obon?

HS: Dance in Obon odori? Yes, so we did get together for a practice, and Obon odori, yes.

PW: Even the boys? Would they dance, too?

HS: [Laughs] Probably not. I think Tom and Steve did not, but we girls did. Because we had kimono from Japan, and my mother liked to dress us up, and we would go to practice and then Obon odori during the summer. Yes, that's right.

PW: Did your family celebrate Oshogatsu?

HS: Yes, my mother did the regular, the regular foods for Shogatsu, but most of us didn't like Japanese food. She did do that, the traditional stuff. We had mochi, put it up. We didn't make our own mochi, but we bought it and that was not too much. But my mother was fluent into flower arranging, so she would do that, what they call sho chiku bai, would be pine, bamboo, and what's the other? Plum blossom? Yeah, so she would do that, because my mom liked ikebana classes when we were in Sacramento. So when we went to Sacramento, it was, she bloomed because she liked gardening. My father liked gardening, too, but my mother especially liked gardening. They used to take trips out in the countryside, so she could get unusual plants just off the roadside that would be interesting for ikebana.

PW: What was the primary language you spoke at home?

HS: I think we spoke more Japanese than English. Well, especially because my mother was there. And my mother, actually, was ambitious, and she really wanted to learn English properly. So she did go to, she did take, actually, formal classes at the JAC to learn English properly. But it was just for a little while, maybe about a year or so. But she could understand everything. Replying back, we could understand Japanese, too, so I think, at least I spoke to my mother in Japanese. But my two younger brothers, they could hardly speak Japanese, so she'd speak English to them. My father, of course, he spoke English all the time.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.