<Begin Segment 26>

AI: Well, then what happened after the harvest was done? What did your family decide to do?

RT: Well, we were out there for the long haul. I'm sure that's what he intended. And of course, we had, we had not started school. School started out there in August sometime, toward the end of August, and we started school in November. So those kids that were in the high school, well, in the school, were already in class for over two months. So when the harvest was done, then we went to school.

AI: And were you starting over again your freshman year in high school?

RT: No. No, I was in there as a sophomore, yeah. And my brother, Tats, was a freshman and Ty was in junior high.

AI: What was that like for you coming in after class had already started and a town where you didn't know anybody?

RT: Well, it was hard, because of course, they didn't make any concessions for us coming in late, but we did have to catch up, and fortunately we were all able to do the work. We didn't -- and some of the teachers were not very helpful, but I don't think they were helpful to the other students, either. They were just not very good teachers. And I know that I didn't have too much conflict with anybody. I know that there were some girls that right away befriended me, and they were just very kind about, you know, "My name is Hazel," and coming to greet me and making sure that I was okay, which was really very, very nice.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.