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AI: And when did you get married?

SO: In '52.

AI: And can you tell me about your kids, children?

SO: Yeah. I have a son, Randy, he was born in '54 and, on Christmas Day. And he's a businessman now. He's vice president of Toy Biz. And he's in charge of manufacturing, designing, distributing kites: stunt kites, regular kites, all kinds of kites. He comes to Seattle or this area, I think he deals with Costco. He travels quite a bit. The company is based in New York, and he works out of Santa Monica. And my daughter was born two years later. Lisa is a professional musician. And I'm here because she's the music director of a Jive Bomber's Christmas.

AI: That's right. Tell me a little bit about -- did you encourage both your kids to go into music or to, just to enjoy music as they were growing up?

SO: No. I taught them piano, both of them. And Lisa was more of a natural musician, so to speak, although she was slower getting started. Randy started early, but typically a boy, he didn't want to continue. So it's up to him, if he didn't want to continue. I didn't push in his instance. Now Lisa didn't start 'till she was nine. But she was very adept. You could tell. She got so good that I had her study with other teachers. But she's primarily a flautist. That's her major, and that's her strength. And she went to the USC Preparatory School of Music throughout her childhood. And then she went to Domingues Hills, Cal State because her teacher from, the professor of flute from SC, transferred to Domingues. But she's, she makes her living as a accompanist, music director, chorale conductor. She does some composing, arranging.

AI: Well, now tell me --

SO: Whatever.

AI: When, when the kids were very small, where were you living at that time?

SO: Long Beach.

AI: Long Beach?

SO: Uh-huh. And until, yeah. Until a couple years after I was divorced, we lived in Long Beach.

AI: Now, when did the divorce happen?

SO: '58.

AI: And at that time, it still was not that common.

SO: No, it was not at all.

AI: What did you have -- what were you going through at that time?

SO: Oh, well, Long Beach is a very small community. And I was teaching school and teaching piano. And I lost quite a few Japanese piano students when I got divorced. I guess they felt I was not going to be a good influence. And then I had no -- I was receiving no child support. So one day, gee, this was Mary, she's from Seattle. Mary Minado, Mary Amano, formerly, a pianist, took me to a nightclub. And we were fooling around, and I started singing. And the guy asked if I wanted to work. So that was in the back of my head.

And later Tets Besho, my old boyfriend who was still single, came around with his musician friends, one of them just recently passed away in Oregon. Later -- in those days, they were making a living, but they were not famous. Later on Leroy Vinegar became extremely famous as a bass, jazz bass man. He's the one that told me to sing in the speaking voice that I use. I have a low voice. I'm a high soprano, trained. And he's the one that said, "Sing the way you talk, and I'll get you some gigs." And the few times that he came over we would mess around, and true to his word, he got me some gigs.

And the gentleman that Mary introduced me to who owned the Chinese restaurant called and wanted to -- he asked again if I wanted to work. And I thought, okay. Summertime, teachers don't -- it was not year-round. I would take the job. Somebody saw me, reported me to the Long Beach Board. And believe it or not, they didn't have unions. I got fired. So that's when I decided I needed to make a living that doesn't take me away from my children. So I went into nightclub, as long as I didn't have to go on until 9:30. And the Los Angeles laws are 'til 2:00 a.m., so I could put them to sleep and go to work, and come back and they don't know I'm gone.

AI: Wow. What a routine. That sounds like a really, quite a routine that you had there.

SO: Kept it up for ten years.

AI: Yeah. And also, such a big departure from your, your training and your classical repertoire.

SO: You pretty much do anything if you have a couple of kids to, to raise. And it's either that or go home. And my dad advised me not to come home. He said, "You're welcome, but stick it out," which I did.

AI: So he really encouraged you to --

SO: So I was able to raise my kids, buy a house, and somehow make it, with, with the performing.

AI: That must have taken a lot of energy. And what --

SO: Yes, it did.

AI: How, how difficult was it at that time? Again --

SO: It was very difficult because I'm learning songs that I never sang and learning a style I never did. So it pretty much filled my days of, of researching, studying, buying fake-books, learning things. And the other warning another great musician told me was that never imitate. He said, "Never copycat. So don't listen to tapes. Don't listen to records. Do it on your own." He says, "You have enough knowledge to set your own tempos and your own changes, chord changes." So I never listened to tapes or recordings or anything. I learned mostly on my own. But it, it does take discipline. You have to allot X-numbers of minutes per day away from the kids to do whatever you got to do. You got two kids to raise, I'll guarantee you, you can do it.

AI: What were some of the main challenges as you were going through these years of working and raising your kids and doing what you needed to do?

SO: Oh, there was some -- when I first moved to Gardena, and even Long Beach I guess, there's some prejudice, would you say, or how the community looks upon you. You're not quite as wholesome, would you say, suddenly, if you are divorced. You become less so, if you start working in nightclubs or lounges. It was, it was felt. It was rumored. You learn to ignore it. You learn to let it be. And there's no -- you can't explain it. And I felt I owed no explanation to anyone to justify where I was in life. It's my choice. It was my decision, and it was my problem. So there were, there was some sensing out there of disapproval.

AI: Well, community attitudes at those times were quite different than they are now, in some ways.

SO: In some ways. I don't think you're going to get a whole lot of approval today either, depending on how big you make it. But for the everyday musician, it's the year-round jobs that you go for, the stability. It's less glamorous, but it's the continuity of holding a job. Like I had one for five years, same place, same house, six years, I guess. Sometimes you leave it for a better offer, but you come back. You leave with the understanding that you can come back. But it's, it's bread-and-butter work. And it's not glamorous. It's hard work.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.