<Begin Segment 38>

AI: Well, as your kids were growing up, did you have any concerns for them about any prejudices that they might face?

RT: See, I think the Midwest is a good, good place. They, you don't have the high-tempered peoples, I guess. Maybe I shouldn't say that that way, but I know in certain areas of the country you have people who, who are very prone to picking out the different people in the community, but that isn't the way it was. And sure, you worry about your kids getting persecuted, but I think that on the whole, our kids took care of themselves. There were always the bullies, but they weren't, they... the bullies pick on the kids that they think will be able to, that they can bully. And I know, like, Anne, she was a little thing and she probably looked like a pushover, and this one guy kept picking on her, sort of. And I know she knows his name to this day, and I guess one day she just hauled off and let him have it. I don't know what happened, but he never picked on her after that. And the same way, Beth never, I don't think Beth ever got picked on. I don't know about, I don't think, well, my youngest, our youngest son -- our youngest was a boy -- they were all in school same time. He was in kindergarten, the three older girls were all in the same school, and of course, I got daily reports on what John had done. And I guess if they saw a pile of kids in the playground fighting and sprawling around, they knew who would be at the bottom. And he was. But yeah, he survived it. But it wasn't any, it wasn't any racial type of hatred. Not then, no.

<End Segment 38> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.