<Begin Segment 3>

FK: Now, tell me, tell me about going to high school. What activities were you in, who were your friends?

GN: High school? Yeah, our class was fifty kids, eight, like I said, eight Japanese kids. And I really had fun in high school. I didn't study much, and I got to be good buddies with a couple of kids, Reese Moran, he was probably my closest, and then Earl Hanson, I got involved with him, and Hal Champlis. We were a real close-knit class, even after sixty-five years, we still, we still get together, and I think that's, it's nice. It's nice when you get in your eighties and you hash out all, all the world problems. [Laughs]

FK: Now, it seems like in those days, did you have, how did you get around from one place to the other? Did you have family cars?

GN: No, we used to walk. As far as I know -- there was the Lynwood Theatre, which was about 4 miles away from home, we used to walk as kids. They didn't have movies every night like they do now. I think the weekends, but we always get a ride home from people who lived in Winslow. But we used to walk there, and that was at least three, four miles.

FK: So when you wanted to meet your friends, they didn't, did they live close to you then, or did you have to move...

GN: No, no. I would say the closest was about 2 miles. And like Hal and Earl, Hal lived in Seabold and Earl lived in Eagledale, and Mike Terabocha, he lived in Eagledale.

FK: So what activities did you get into in school?

GN: Activities?

FK: Played basketball. As far as sports, that's about the only sport I got involved in, basketball. We had fun, basketball.

FK: So was sports more important to you than grades at that time?

GN: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. You can tell, I carried books home just for looks.

FK: Okay, well, did you have to go to Japanese school, too?

GN: Oh, after, after the public school, we went. But the main reason, you know, we, I didn't like working on the farm, so I went to Japanese school, I think it was about four to six. But then when sports, basketball, just forget Japanese school. I wish -- I didn't care to learn Japanese at that time. Of course, the war came along, it changed all that.

FK: So were there quite a few kids that were going to Japanese school at that time?

GN: Oh, yeah, there was quite a few, all different grade levels. Mrs. Ohtaki, Paul and Peter's mother, they lived right at the Japanese Hall there, right in the back, and she had a classroom there.

FK: So, most of the kids there, did they feel like they were forced to go to school or were they willing to go?

GN: I don't know if we were forced to go but we did what our parents told us to do. As kids, we really respected our elders. In school, we called female teachers "Miss," male teachers "Mister."

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.