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BN: Okay. So we get to UCLA now. So you would have, did you graduate in '68, then?

DA: '68.

BN: And then started that fall?

DA: Started that fall.

BN: And then did you, I forget now, did you commute?

DA: Decided to stay out there. So that was actually a discussion that, should I stay at home and commute? I remember having those kind of talks. And then, well, what about staying on campus? So we went out and visited the campus. Back in those days -- well, they even have one today -- the parents and child get to go out to the campus, and I remember visiting a couple of the dorms and thinking I could, wanting to stay there. And I guess it didn't leave a good impression on my parents because there was a lot of activity that day and lots of yelling, lots of screaming, lots of kids running all over the place. And then my mom's thinking, "How do you expect to study during all of this commotion?" [Laughs] And so I guess they decided they didn't want me staying in a dorm. And as a consequence, my dad, I guess, had a friend who owned an apartment not far from campus. So he had a little studio apartment, and I think it cost him a hundred bucks a month back then, something like that, maybe less. And so that's where I spent the first year is in a studio commuting on a motorcycle to UCLA.

BN: Where was this?

DA: Barrington and Santa Monica, right behind this Ralph's -- I think it was Ralph's -- supermarket. And those were fun days. All I had was a, there was no microwaves back in those days, so there was only... so I had a little rice cooker and a hot, little oven, and I'd make chicken pot pies, two for twenty-five cents. [Laughs] Made a little pot of rice and then you had a meal. So yeah, so UCLA, I don't know anybody that went from Montebello, maybe a couple guys, but I wasn't really close to them. And so as part of trying to find out what was going on, I'd go to these get-togethers, parties, dances. And then there's the Nisei Bruins Club, so I decided to go to that. And that's when, I think, I met one of the more influential people back in those days, was Mike Murase. So he was barking away at people, just like he does today, or did, and he and I hit it off. Really liked him, and he's a couple years older than me, and started planting seeds in my mind about things that, "You haven't thought about that yet?" "Why haven't you thought about that yet?" "You should think about that." And so yeah, so being that straight-A guy, that Eagle Scout, being told, "Well, that's not exactly true, Doug, there's a lot more to this picture than meets the eye." And so that just opened up a whole new way of looking at things up that I, up until that time, was oblivious to. In some ways, I think that made it even a stronger impact in some ways, being on the straight and narrow path, and all of a sudden you're given ideas that kind of contradict some of those things that you had built your whole life on. So that started a new, I guess, road of identity and ways of thinking.

BN: I think fairly early on, Mike was involved in the founding of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA.

DA: I think so.

BN: So did you get involved in that at all, or did you take any of the early Asian American classes?

DA: Oh yeah, definitely took the classes. But wasn't, I didn't get involved in, necessarily in all those meetings that were taking place at a much higher level. Mike was, some other people I knew were, but not me. I was doing other things. [Laughs] I had other interests. And that's actually when I started getting into sports as well. And so I started meeting other people and getting into, especially the basketball leagues. And Mike, too, he was a good basketball player and a volleyball player, too. And so yeah, Mike was such an all-around kind of guy with a lot of different interests and a lot of different expertise. And yeah, so some things he'd get into and I'd say, well, okay, that's Mike's thing. This is my thing over here.

BN: And then you were, at this point also, playing music, too, right?

DA: Actually, yeah. I started self-teaching myself. One of the other first people I met there, too, was a woman, Candace Ota. And she lived nearby, actually, she went to Uni High, had a twin sister. And their whole family was into music as well. And because she lived right down the street, I'd be over there, and I got to know the family very well. And I remember the mom was really into the Lakers back in those days, the Jerry West days, and Elgin Baylor, and she'd be in front of that TV yelling her head off. But music-wise, though, she played piano. The dad, he didn't play anything, but they had an older brother, Brian, who would play this... I don't know what it was called. Anyway, he ties a rope to a broom, and then it's hooked up to a big kettle, and he plays bass. You know, he plucks at this string, and makes it tighter to make it higher, lower to make it lower. And they'd have these little family get-togethers where they, and Candace and Colleen, they play the guitars and they'd have these little singalongs. And I thought that was such, that was a great family thing. And that kind of also prompted me to get better, because I was just learning, and I'd try to play a song, but I'd end up trying to do the chords. Plus, I liked music, so in about a couple years or so, I was half decent. And then people I was meeting through Gidra also had some of these same talents or interests. And later, a few of us formed a band. And so that's back in the day when there was a lot of garage bands going on, and got to meet a lot of people that way, too, that that's kind of when I met Dan and June and got to know them, and obviously they went on to form the band Hiroshima.

BN: What was your band called?

DA: Fine Weather. [Laughs] That was one of 'em. Street Flower was another one. I played in, I'd back up some of the other bands because we all knew each other and we were all kind of friends.

BN: What type of music were you playing?

DA: Mostly R&B, dance music. Though I liked rock and roll, and we were writing our own stuff back in those days. But it was a combination of, I'd say, R&B and rock and roll.

BN: So you were playing dances and so forth?

DA: Yeah. Playing dances, weddings, receptions, lot of fun.

BN: Were you getting paid for these gigs?

DA: Yeah, actually. Not a lot.

BN: But something?

DA: But something. And I think, actually, some of the other bands, they actually had managers and you can actually... our band was, got kind of on the larger side, there was like seven of us. So from a money-making standpoint, you have to divide everything by seven. And I know Carry On, man, they had like twelve at some point. You know, they had a horn line. They were expensive, but they were good. And because of that, they were a draw. But yeah, I knew a lot of those guys as well. And yeah, so that was a big part, took up a lot of time. So I think that was also part of my life back in those days is the music part as well as the Gidra part.

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