<Begin Segment 15>

PW: So you graduate from McClatchy High School, sounds like you were doing very well academically. Did you work while you were still a student?

HS: I did work. I worked for the State of California, I worked for DMV, Department of Motor Vehicles. And it was just a very menial job, but I worked from five to ten o'clock.

PW: This is after school every day?

HS: Yes, after school, five to ten o'clock. And so it was... it was such an easy thing to do, we just had to type up envelopes because we were sending out warning letters to those who had three or more tickets. It was a nothing job, it was something that they needed, and then I could use the money. So that's what I did during my time at Sac State. So I went to Sac State. I really... I should have, I could have gone into any... at that time, anybody could get into Berkeley or, I don't know, Stanford, but pretty much any college. But I chose to stay in Sacramento State because I was kind of a quiet person and I didn't want go outside the family. So I ended up starting and finishing at Sac State. I had a science degree, but I had a minor in secondary teaching, and so I became a teacher.

PW: What year did you... first, let's say, what year did you graduate from McClatchy?

HS: I graduated in '55.

PW: And then did you immediately start at Sac State?

HS: I started immediately at Sac State. So I graduated in, what, '59? And then I went another year to get my teaching credential. So by 1960 I had gotten my education, I'd finished my education in 1960. So then I started teaching. It's funny, I went back to teaching, I started teaching at McClatchy. And so my colleagues... my teachers became my colleagues. [Laughs]

PW: Very interesting. Were you surprised when you got that job?

HS: It was not that hard, I think. Yeah, it was not that hard.

PW: And was McClatchy still predominately a white school?

HS: Yes. Yes, it was.

PW: Actually, I'm curious about Sacramento State, too. So was that also a very mixed school?

HS: Sac State was a mixed school, but I don't think that there were very many nationalities. I mean, I think Blacks and Latino people didn't really, not very many. The percentage of people who went to college was very little in those days. So I would say it's basically Asian and white that went to any college.

PW: Okay, and so what did you teach as a teacher at McClatchy?

HS: I was teaching biology and physiology. And that was just for a short time because I got married after... here I finished in, graduated '59, 1960, I got my teaching credential. So in '60, I guess at the... so I started teaching at McClatchy at the end of, at the beginning of the school year around the end of 1960. But I got married in 1962. So it was just a short time that I was teaching at McClatchy, maybe one full year maybe. And then it's that one full year. Anyway, after that, when we got married, either I... I don't know whether I asked or my husband asked or someone asked if I could teach at Edison High School. And Edison High School is a high school in Stockton that has a big minority population. And it was close to the church, and so they said, "Well, we don't have any science classes, but do you think you can teach math?" I said, "Well, I didn't really take math in college, but I think I can stay ahead of the kids with general math."

PW: What grade was this, then?

HS: It was in high school, so it would be ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth. I don't know whether it was ninth, tenth or eleventh or twelfth, it was general math. And I don't recall whether I taught geometry, too. I think maybe I did teach geometry also.

PW: Did you enjoy being a teacher, both science and the math?

HS: Yeah, I did, yes. Yes, I did. So then what happened was the kids started coming, the babies started coming.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.