<Begin Segment 33>

AI: What were you thinking when he told you that?

RT: I was absolutely speechless. I'm not my mother, I guess, because I couldn't think of anything to say. So here I am, standing here -- yeah, I was standing; I don't think he told me to sit down -- and listening to the man telling me. I don't know why he even bothered to tell me, to be honest with you, but he did. And I guess he thought he was doing me a favor. I don't know. So what did I do? I said, "Thank you," and left the room. I mean, that was the way, the behavior, that you expected.

AI: So he gave you that rationale?

RT: Yes.

AI: But you felt that it was because...

RT: Well, I thought it was a little weak and I know my father was outraged, but it wasn't anything that you did do at that time. This is 1945. The war was not over yet. I graduated in May, again May, of '45. And one of the things that made it a little more acceptable was that the valedictorian was my very, very good friend. She was one of the first ones that came to me when I entered as a sophomore and introduced herself, and we were just really good friends. And so she was the valedictorian. So I guess that was... but I felt a little funny sitting on the stage -- I think we sat on the stage as seniors -- and knowing that I should have been there, that kind of, but not for long. I didn't let that eat me up, that kind of thing. But that was, that was the tenor of the times, as an example that the school board must have really wracked their brains to prevent this, this happening. "One of these people are going to be our valedictorian? No, no, no." So that's the way it went. Yeah.

AI: So you graduated in '45.

RT: Yes, in Chinook. Yup, in '45, and went to Minnesota in, again, I think it was September. Yeah, because I know the university, they're on a quarter system and their school does not start until first of October, end of September, someplace in there. So I left home. And I found out once you leave home like that for college, you don't really come back. And I realized that with my own kids, too. You leave home and you don't come back. Yeah, in most cases.

AI: So you arrived there and your two aunties were there in Minneapolis.

RT: Yes. Yes, and they took me in and I'm sure that they, of course, they had the apartment and they fed me.

AI: Is that where you lived? Did you live with them at the apartment?

RT: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I lived with them, yeah. That's probably partly why they could, my parents could afford to send me to college.

AI: Because you didn't have to pay for on-campus living.

RT: That's right. I didn't have to pay for room and board. My aunts took care of it. They paid for the rent, and I'm sure that they... all the food. They paid for the food, too. Now, I don't know if they ever sent money, my folks, but probably the two women were working and they managed fine.

AI: So you were going to school full-time then?

RT: Oh, yes.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.