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BN: So I may come back to this in a minute, but I want to go back a little again now because I want to get to the basketball stuff, too. So how did you meet Wendy, and when did you get married?

NN: I met Wendy at the Long Beach Potluck, and it was like an annual Thanksgiving potluck they used to do on Thanksgiving Eve, and it was put on by the, let's see, the Long Beach State Asian American Alliance. And so, let's see, I was going to them, that's where Hiroshima first started, too, they used to jam out there. So I'd go there very Thanksgiving Eve and we all party. So I guess I don't know what year it was, how far after, but when I went there, everybody'd be there, right? So I remember, I don't know who was playing, but I felt like boogying, I felt like dancing. So I went up to Wendy, who I didn't know, I said, "You want to dance?" She says, "No." So I don't know if I went up there and danced by myself or what, or whatever, but no biggie. So then later, I think I'm outside smoking a joint or whatever, and then she comes up to me and she starts talking, like, oh, I didn't... I mean, just whatever. "I'm not stuck up," or whatever, blah, blah, blah. And then so we started talking and I got to know her, and I guess the next time I saw her was when her and her roommate threw a party in Gardena. And then I saw her again, and then like mine, Wendy liked to talk a lot, and then I guess I don't. So I was kind of like, what's going on? Yeah, so it wasn't like a dialogue kind of thing.

But I guess we start seeing each other, and all during this time, I guess we met when I was probably, it was post JACS, but I was at the Yellow Brotherhood house. And she likes kids, because she's a PE teacher, she was a PE teacher. So she'd come down to the house, and the kids really liked her, because she was likable. So she started to do Manzanar and participate in YB activities and everything. So I guess fast forward, maybe seven years later, she never pressured me, like "shit or get off the pot," kind of thing. So never anything like that. But after the second time I took the bar, that I passed the test, or maybe it was the first time, yeah, the first time I took the bar, to pass the test, I learned all these subjects, that I had to fully commit myself, I mean, totally commit myself because I had to learn shit, right? So I put aside three months out of my life just to study, and I had it down to a routine where I'd maybe get an hour exercise, I'd eat, I'd read and I'd write, and I'd read some more and then I'd write, so it was like real Spartan kind of thing, and that lasted for like three months. But at the end of three months, I think I said, I just wanted then to cut loose, I don't want to be in no relationship or anything, I just need more time. So at the end of three months, I took the bar, and then I'm ready to go out there and enjoy myself. And I went out that weekend, I think it was a Saturday night, and it was terrible. Like I went to this club and it was like, "This is what I was looking forward to?" [Laughs] Oh, man, I built everything up so much in my mind, and it was like, damn. So the guy that I worked there with, I think it was about two o'clock in the morning, I told him, "Will you drop me off at Wendy's house?" Because she was living with her parents at the time, and her parents were in Portland or something visiting relatives. So I'm going to her house, and I kind of knock on the window, and oh, she sees me. I just asked, "Do you want to get married?" So we got married that night.

BN: That night?

NN: That night, or we had to wait 'til the next, really the next morning kind of thing, yeah. So a lot of decisions that I made, major decisions in my life were very spontaneous, and maybe this is one of the ones that worked out. [Laughs]

BN: Yeah, that does seem to be a pattern.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.