<Begin Segment 7>

DG: Tell me about Mrs. Fisher?

SS: Oh... she was my third grade teacher. We, she was determined that everyone should know multiplication because she said, "If you know multiplication, you can do any math easily." And every week we had multiplication tests. If you missed one, you had to write it a hundred times. [Laughs] And so, during recess and any time we were home, all of us, we would put one, two, three, four, five, seven like that. And then, times, times, times, a hundred times and then, we have that ready in case we missed. We just put which one we missed and then, we'll put the answer, you see? And so, I used to tell my kids, I says, "Well, if when I test you and you miss, you have to write a hundred times." They says, "No way." [Laughs]

DG: And you were willing to do this?

SS: We had to do... in those days, if the teacher says you do this, you do it.

DG: What about that time that you weren't supposed to leave the playground?

SS: Oh, in my second grade [Laughs]. Those days around the school we didn't have fences and I had this teacher named Mrs. Douglas, and so, she told the class, "Just play in the schoolyard," but she says, "Don't you dare step on the sidewalk." So I said to my girlfriend, "Let's put one foot on the sidewalk," and unfortunately she caught us. [Laughs] Took us on her lap and gave us spanking, and somehow, that thing just stands in my mind and I can't forget her.

DG: So even from a early time like that, you didn't actually go along with all the rules and things and you kind of tested them?

SS: No, I guess not. I guess not.

DG: That surprises me that later, you didn't really go along, you just had to and then you had no choice.

SS: I had no choice because if my parents had signed the guardianship, I think I would have remained in Hawaii. Because who wants to change schools in your senior year?

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.