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BN: I wanted to ask you also about... because you've lived in Orange County for a long time. Did you enjoy living there? What were the positives and negatives as you saw it from living there, and I assume your kids largely grew up there. Or maybe, yeah, at least somewhat grew up there.

SM: We enjoyed living, have lived there for a very, very pleasurable time. We have great neighbors almost all the time, good neighborhood, people are friendly. But we really enjoyed living... it's a small house and not very large, it's on a golf course, and we happened to find it because I was commuting from San Fernando Valley to Huntington Beach, that was a difficult travel for six months until I finally figured I'm going to have to move. Started at the plant, and started driving around the plant until I found a neighborhood that I felt was reasonably close and comfortable when I found this neighborhood. This house was on a golf course. Just driving around the neighborhood, I noticed one fellow waiting outside his house. He was wearing a badge, you know, Boeing badge. So I stopped and I said, "How do you do," I work so-and-so, and I told him, "I'm looking for a house. Do you know anyone who might be interested in selling their house?" And he says, "Yes, me." [Laughs] "I'd like to sell my house. My family's growing, it's getting a little bit too big for us, for the house we have." And so I bought the house from him. We've lived there ever since. So it's been some fifty years in that same house.

BN: You mentioned it was on the golf course. Are you or were you golfers?

SM: The answer is no. [Laughs] We're not golfers. We love the scenery, we love having somebody else take care of the scene, but no, we're not golfers.

BN: Did you have other kinds of hobbies?

SM: Well, I enjoyed, outside of work, I enjoyed fishing a lot. Kind of crazy, but used to go to Alaska during the summers and Argentina and New Zealand in the winters, developed some friends doing that end enjoyed that kind of life. But otherwise, I was working full steam on my work at the Boeing company.

BN: And then you mentioned earlier meeting Norman Mineta and he got you kind of involved with redress. Did you have any interest or knowledge about that beforehand, and then what was your feeling about when President Redress signed the bill, and how did you feel about that?

SM: Well, I knew the bill was good, I knew it had the features that I was interested in. Apology and some money, I definitely felt it was appropriate. And I was fully supportive, and I'd do anything I could to help. And when Norm asked me, "Could you make contact with your local representative?" So I said sure, and that worked out real well.

BN: Did the representative eventually vote for the bill?

SM: Oh, I vaguely recall they eventually did, at least at the staff level. The staffer who was assigned to that bill, very, very sympathetic and agreed, so that worked out pretty well.

BN: Then let's see. You retired after how many years?

SM: Forty-two.

BN: And then what did you do after your retirement?

SM: Well, I was doing my own private business. I was doing consulting work working with other companies helping them in their activities, part time, and it was okay, it was interesting. The retirement program at Boeing was very good, so I didn't feel I had to get another job. I didn't have to work if I didn't want to. So things were coming along pretty well.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.