<Begin Segment 39>

LW: Then what happened was, when I was working there, one of this rich family from Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, they were staying there and they were really nice. They tell me, "Well, why don't you come and work for me?" So I said, "Oh, these are nice people, so I think I'll go there." So I went to Oklahoma City to work there for one year, and they wanted me to be a chauffeur. And I never drove a car, and they want me to... so he said, "No problem." All fixed up with a driver's license and everything, because they know all the connections. And here I'm driving a Cadillac, and never drove a Cadillac before. I was kind of scared, but I got by. And my job was to take the kids to school, that's all, private school. You know how the kids of the rich people get a chauffeur and drop it off? Then after school, they pick 'em up. That was my job, and that was it.

JS: What was the name of the family?

LW: Hmm?

JS: The name of the family?

LW: Gee, I can't... I can't place it right now.

JS: That's okay.

LW: Anyway, see, they have a gardener to take care of the garden, then they had this colored couple to do the cooking. And they got cleaning lady, my job was just chauffeur to take the kids, that was it. So it was real nice. But then there was no life to it. I got free room and board, but on my day off, what can I do? It's nothing but colored and Indians, and... huh?

TI: And so was it, back then, segregated in terms of...

LW: Well, because when I got there, I didn't even know, when I came to the train station from Colorado Springs, I got out, and I want to go to the bathroom. And it says "white only" and "colored only." So I asked somebody there, I said, "Which one am I supposed to take?" "No, you take the white one." Because they thought maybe I was an Indian. They never saw a Japanese there. So really discriminatory, because when I go downtown, I could go to a restaurant and eat, or go to the movie house and eat. But the colored people, if they go to a movie house, they got to stay up in the balcony, and they can't eat in a restaurant. It was really sad the way they discriminate the colored people. They could go shopping downtown, but that's it.

TI: Did you ever talk to blacks or African Americans about that? About the segregation and what that was like?

LW: Oh, you mean the black people?

TI: Yes.

LW: well, I guess they didn't say too much, though, the older people. Not like the younger guys.

TI: 'Cause I was curious if you ever shared with them --

LW: They keep to themselves. Funny part is, one time I went to the football game, and you know, this black couple take me to the football game, so I said, "Okay, I'll go for a ride." I went there, it's the colored's college, and I'm the only one white guy, the rest of it's all blacks. [Laughs] That's a good experience, you know. I was, I didn't know it was like that until I got there. And everyplace you go, it's colored only or white only.

TI: And how would you compare that with the Walnut Grove, where there was segregation there, too, in terms of the housing and schools? And when you see that in the South, I mean, were there similarities, or did it seem a lot different?

LW: Well, I didn't think about, nothing about like that. Because we could go anyplace. Only thing is the school was segregated, that's all. I mean, you could go to movie house, you could sit anyplace, and go restaurant or anything like that. It's just, it's just the school, that's all.

TI: And so down south, in Oklahoma City, it was much worse than...

LW: Oh, yeah. I was surprised at how bad it is, the way they treat them. And when you get on the bus, I said, "Jesus, where am I supposed to sit?" "No, don't go in the back, you sit in the front." They got half of the bus, colored people sit in the back and...

TI: So you said you were there for about a year, and then you left. Why did you want to leave?

LW: You mean the hotel?

TI: Well, Oklahoma City.

LW: Oklahoma City, no, I just had it, too much. No life to it. On the day off, all you do is go see a movie, no recreation. So what I did, go in the morning, I'd see three shows at one day and come home, and that was my life. You got no friends. Well, I ate good because whatever they eat, we used to eat the leftovers. But the colored couple really treated me nice.

<End Segment 39> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.