<Begin Segment 21>

MU: How did you meet your wife?

GM: Just before shipping out, few days before at the USO in Minneapolis. She was with Harvey's wife, Edith.

MU: Sister.

GM: And, I said, "She looks so cute," I said, "Gosh, I'd like to marry that girl."

MU: Oh.

GM: So, I knew Harvey, so... when I saw Harvey, said, "Who's that girl with your wife?" Says, "That's her sister." "What's her name? What's her address?" Well, they had the same address. They had the same apartment. So he gave me...

MU: Oh they live together, huh?

GM: So, I wrote to her [inaudible] to start it out. Overseas romance, I was shipped out before -- shipping (out) overseas, she says, "I'll see you in the foxhole." Foxhole? How does she know about foxholes? Must've learned it from other GIs. I never told her anything about foxholes. [Laughs]

MU: So, she ever explain that to you?

GM: No. Well, I know she had lots of friends.

MU: Uh-huh.

GM: When I was overseas, she saw a lotta other fellows, too. That's natural.

MU: Okay. Well, at Minneapolis there was so many guys...

GM: We had so many GIs there, like you, Marvin. [Laughs]

MU: Yeah. Lot of single guys were there, yeah. So, you get married and...

GM: Married five days after I got discharged.

MU: Okay. Then, where'd you settle?

GM: Minneapolis.

MU: Minneapolis?

GM: Yeah. I took, let's see, civil service, city civil service exam and federal exam. In the meantime, I was going to trade school, also. The technical school in Dunwoody Institute -- eighteen months.

MU: Then you worked for the post office, did you say?

GM: Yeah, my appointment came through.

MU: Uh-huh.

GM: I was still going to school -- appointment came through. Gotta (work), right?

MU: Yeah, make a living, yes.

GM: Yeah. So I took the appointment and worked myself all the way up to middle management, 'til I retired.

MU: So, how many years was that?

GM: With my internment time, and army time, thirty-five years. Federal time. I got credit for all those times. I accumulated -- gee, I had, oh 'bout four weeks of vacation coming. And oh, let's see, 'bout -- how many days of sick leave I accumulated, huh? Heck of a lot 'cause I hardly took sick leave. That counted toward retirement, so... I had about thirty-six and a half years towards my retirement.

MU: So you retired...

GM: In 1930 -- '76.

MU: You retired then, and did you stay in Minneapolis for a while?

GM: No, I said, "Bye, bye, Minneapolis, too cold for me. San Diego, here I come." [Laughs]

MU: Okay. So you went to San Diego?

GM: Yeah.

MU: And then, you're up here now.

GM: 'Cause my wife is, went to UW here. And her, she has two sisters and a brother here. After sixteen years, retirement in San Diego -- oh, I hated to leave San Diego. But, to be fair with her, I said, "Okay, we'll move up there."

MU: And, so that's where you are.

GM: That's where I am, yes. [Laughs]

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.