<Begin Segment 13>

SY: And how about, in relationship to you, do you have other teachers that you remember?

AM: Yes. I remember... her name slipped me, but the lady, teacher that helped us work on creating the Manzanar Our World annual.

SY: So you worked on the annual.

AM: I helped work on that.

SY: What did you do on the annual?

AM: I had to go to the office and jot down the name of each student so that I can line them up when they took the photo, so we can identify the photo and the nametags underneath, make sure it's, hopefully, accurate. Yeah.

SY: So were you active in journalism, or was that just a side interest to be working on --

AM: Well, that was a major project. Journalism, we had a, I think our newspaper was called the Campus Pepper. We wrote that weekly or biweekly, I don't know. We did that.

SY: So you were kind of involved in that, in that newspaper annual. Were you in student government?

AM: Pardon me?

SY: Were you in student government? Did you, were in...

AM: Student government?

SY: Uh-huh.

AM: No. No, I don't think you would call, I was class president, senior class president, and I don't think I was involved in any government to speak of.

SY: That sounds like, that sounds like you were elected to be class president, right?

AM: I was railroaded. [Laughs]

SY: Well, you'll have to explain how that happened, then.

AM: Well, I didn't have to campaign or anything 'cause they kind of, "Oh, get on." I guess I was, I wasn't, it was the opposite of being ostracized. I guess they knew I...

SY: There must've been, did you run against someone?

AM: No, I don't think so.

SY: And it was an election where people voted for you, right? So everybody had to vote for you in your class.

AM: Yeah.

SY: And what did you do as class president?

AM: Every morning you make announcements. Other than that, I don't remember doing anything else. All I know is I think it backfired for my friends. They claimed that I knew all the girls by name, but no, it was just the opposite. They knew who I was because I was the president, and I'd have to say, "Oh, hi." [Laughs]

SY: So it didn't, didn't make you more popular, though, among the girls?

AM: No, I was girl shy because seemed like everybody else, when you take a girl out to a dance or something one time, they call you going steady, and I didn't like that. So I didn't, I didn't get involved like that until I started working. Then I found a nice, pretty girl. I thought she was my steady, but I don't know if she thought I was her steady. [Laughs]

SY: That was in camp, though?

AM: Uh-huh.

SY: I see.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.