<Begin Segment 4>

HC: Came back to the island, I think maybe Sam and Kay Nakao were back, and I saw them. And Kay's best friend was Eve Nyegard Bournes, and Eve could make all the Norwegian cookies, Christmas cookies, and she taught Kay, and she got to be real good. But it was strange, go into her kitchen and she was making, and I remember, it's a cookie named "fattigmann," and it was in a big frying pan, deep fat, I guess you call it, and she was turning these things with chopsticks. [Laughs] And I thought that was kind of funny. I got into school in January of '46, and soon as school was out I was dragged along over to Spokane with some guys that were gonna form a band. And it ended up I was away from Seattle for four years, and first of which was University of Idaho, had a blast, and then I went east, and then went into the Deep South. It was good to get out of Chicago in February, I tell you. And just about every summer we were able to work our way out to the Pacific Northwest to get away from that damn heat down there. I finally came home 1950 sometime, piddled around with music. I didn't have the background or the will in it to go get a real job. Went to Alaska for five years and couldn't shake the music thing, so I came back and from then on I did get a job and music was an avocation, but that allowed us to keep the job.

HM: What instrument did you play? I'm curious.

HC: Bass fiddle, and I also sang. Still do. The gal who kept the class together, her maiden name is Myrtle Schmidt, and they lived in a brick house on the west end of High School Road, very nice house. And she was a good student. She became a legal secretary and probably one of the world's greatest organizers. She tried to organize things that nobody wanted organized, but she would send out letters throughout the year and we kind of kept in touch with each other that way. Myrt was a, was good. She passed away a couple years ago up in Port Angeles. Actually, it was at their summer place in Indianola.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.