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BY: So you were there and then eventually you divorced and you remarried. So what was your second husband's name and how did you meet him?

DR: His name was Alex Reisbord. And I was very active in PTA from the time my kids started school, room mother, aide, whatever. And I was very active in PTA, and I became the president of the elementary school, and I did that two years. And then I got involved in the council, and I became president of the council. And then at Fleming junior high school where my kids went, repeat story. I worked as an ed. aide also, and I was PTA president. And then high school, same thing. I worked with the FFA group in agriculture department. That was a great job. And of course, the PTA stuff continued. And Alex was the math teacher, the advanced math teacher at that high school. And at that particular school, whenever they'd have faculty parties or gatherings and stuff, they would invite the PTA people. Of course, I had to go to the party. So, yeah, that's how I met him, got to know him.

BY: So all during this time, so you are... you're taking care of the kids, have a busy volunteer life, it sounds like, that you still have this desire to become a teacher. So how did that happen that finally...

DR: Alex knew of my desire to become a teacher. Being a teacher himself, that was an important thing. So then he encouraged me to continue with school. Because my first husband, he kind of frowned upon that, wanted me to be at home. So I had taken junior college classes, and I still had a long way to go. So he encouraged me to go to Cal State Dominguez, which was just down the freeway from San Pedro where we were living. And I started taking classes there, and he says, "You know what? You have to quit working." So he told his brother, who I was working for, "David, Dotti's not going to work for you, she's quitting." And David says, "Why?" And he says, "Because she wants to go to school." So he put me through school, I finished in three years and then did the teacher credentialing classes. So in four years, I became a teacher.

BY: And so when you were going to school, were your kids still at home at that point, or had they graduated from high school?

DR: Okay. So the schools that I worked with were schools that my children were attending. So all through their school years, I was there. And it's so funny because one day, my daughter saw me on campus, and she was running across the yard saying, "Mom, mom." I said, "You know, Tracy, when you're at school, you can't call me 'Mom,' you have to call me 'Mrs. Hattori' as an example." And she said, "Well, that's not fair because all my friends call you Mom," the ones on campus, you know, her fellow students. That was really funny. So through their whole life, actually, I was there. So whenever they needed me, that's what I wanted. And so after I graduated, after Alex and I -- well, before Alex and I got married, my daughter married her childhood sweetheart, or her high school sweetheart, which I wasn't happy about. And my son, he was working. And at that time... so Tracy got married and she moved out, and Kevin was still sort of with me and Alex, and that was fine with us because it was he was an easy tenant and he was a great kid. Eventually he got hired and he had to relocate to Connecticut, or to New York, because the company he was working for, that's where they're based. And so that was early in our marriage. So after that, the kids were on their own, of course.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.