<Begin Segment 27>

CC: Well, let's... just to check in with college. So you went to the University of Washington?

MM: Yeah.

CC: Did you go for music?

MM: I was going to, but then I realized I was going to have to do a senior recital after I did my junior recital, and I didn't want to do a senior recital because that would be a whole lot of practicing as much as I should have, because during my college years, I found such freedom in being in college and not being at home. I mean, I was at home, but I didn't get home 'til like 12:01 in the morning, because I  used to play for the Washington, I don't know what it's called. But we used to do musicals at night, and it was my extra kind of money, because you didn't get paid much. But if you played in the orchestra for the musicals, you got paid, and it was always fun because they always had parties and things. But I found my freedom there, sort of, of just being able to have boyfriends, for one thing. It's not like I didn't know boys before, but it was like a freedom that I hadn't had. My parents, they didn't know all the stuff I was doing, and oh my god, it was so much fun. But because of that, I think that's one of the things, when you grow up playing classical music, you spend so much time practicing and doing just your music, that when you see there's this other part to life, you go all out and it's not good, because in college is when I should have been practicing three or four hours a day. And there were people who did, and I couldn't compete with those people who were practicing and practicing, and I was just having fun. Not a good idea, and I got married when I was a junior, and that's when Mr. Sokol gave me my first B, because I hadn't practiced enough. But it was interesting because I was married to Nori, and he was proud of me for the fact that I played violin, and he met all my music friends. And it was like a brotherhood, sisterhood. I mean, if I were ever to go back for a reunion --  I don't want to go to a high school reunion, I've never been to one -- but if they had one for the university, I'd go in a second, like that, because that's where all my friends were, in the music school. And Dr. Chapel, who I told you about, he was the one who helped do this party every summer, where all the music majors would get together and we had this huge old party out on the lawn, so it was fun. But anyway, that was so... I got my first job in music, and I've done that my entire life.

CC: So that's kind of where I was going to go next. Do you want to kind of talk about all the different ways you've...

MM: Earned money?

CC: Earned money doing music over the years?

MM: I know, and I feel so terrible sometimes because I was having fun, and I might have neglected my son a little bit because I was so busy trying to earn enough money. But it wasn't in a bad way that I was earning money, I should have spent more time at home, probably. But my first job was doing strolling violin at the Olympic Hotel, which was really fun. And it was a good thing for me because when I was taking lessons, I was always at the very edge of not being able to play my pieces, because they always take you to that place when you're taking lessons. When you're doing strolling violin, it's really easy music, and so all you have to do is have a memory, I mean, you just have to just play everything by memory. But after a while, that's not even a problem, and you had this freedom to play without having to worry about technique or anything, you could just play freely. So that was really great. And I did that until they had to close the Golden Lion because of economics or whatever. And I think Rosemary and I were the last two standing players. [Laughs] I played to the end. Let's see. After that, what did I do after? Oh, well, after that, I was teaching. I got a job teaching because I got divorced and I knew I had to teach. I mean, because I wanted a teaching job so that I could have my vacations with Jim, and it would be stable, I thought. [Laughs] It's not as stable as you would think.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2024 Densho. All Rights Reserved.