<Begin Segment 32>

KL: What was Roosevelt High School like?

GM: It was a good school. But, see, I went to Belmont High School first for about a year and a half, and then I transferred over there. And I didn't have good memories of that school.

KL: Of Belmont?

GM: No, Roosevelt?

KL: Of Roosevelt? Why not, or what were your memories?

GM: Well, no, no, you don't have to record it.

KL: Okay, if you don't...

GM: But I got caught smoking. And my two friends ran, and I said, "Hey, what's wrong with you guys?" And the vice principal comes and says, "Caught you smoking, young man, follow me." I said okay, and I walked... I'd been there only two months, and one of the gals working in the office there, I knew her, she said, "George, what happened?" So I told her, she goes, "You haven't done anything before." I said, "No." I go in there, and there's a reform school called Jackson in East L.A. There was one called Reese in the south side, it was mostly blacks. And this guy says, "You're going to Jackson." Oh, my hair just went, I said, "What?" And then he started telling me that, "Six months ago, I got fed up with all the smoking, and I made announcement. The next kid I catch is going Jackson, I don't care what they did." And I said, "I wasn't here then." And it was funny, I started almost lecturing him. I said, "You're not going to lose face and all that, no one knows me." And then he finally said, "Well, you're a nice kid." I thought, "Oh, thank god." He goes, "I'll send you to Fort Hill," that was another correctional school downtown. And here I transferred from Belmont High School on the west side, and I take the bus and I run into some guys I knew. "Hey, I thought you transferred to Roosevelt High." Said, "Yeah, I'm just going to the eye clinic on Neil Street.

KL: So you did go to Fort Hill?

GM: Yeah. And then I didn't belong there. The first day of school, the principal reads my article, and, "What are you in here for, kid?" And I'm cocky, I'm only sixteen, I said, "Don't you understand what you read?" He said, "Young man, we don't put up with that kind of talk here." Then I told him, and he goes, "My god." So I got on my hands and knees, and that's when I started losing faith with the system. He said, "I'm sorry, I can't do nothing." And he sends me to this class, and you remember the old movie star Alan Ladd? Well, this guy was a bigger Alan Ladd, and he's sitting here at the desk, and I'm real dejected, and he goes, same thing, except a little stronger. "What the hell are you in here for, kid?" I said, "You don't understand English either?" Wham, and he sees that I'm just a lamb, I'm not a tough guy. And he goes, "What?" And I get on my hands and knees, I figured, okay, maybe he can do something. He said, "I'm sorry, kid, I can't do nothing about it." And I thought, "What?" And then he said, "Sit on that far chair there." Because that class, everybody faces one way, including the teacher, so you can't see him. And I said, "What do you want me to do?" "I don't give a damn what you do," honest to god. And you're supposed to be there six weeks, I'm excited, waiting to see, have a powwow. And six week comes, nothing happens. And I go to the principal and he goes, "George, two more weeks and school lets out. If I send you back to Roosevelt, you're not going to pass." I said, "Trust me, I will." He said, "No, no, I don't want that on my conscience. You weren't supposed to be assigned -- " I said, "I know I'm the last guy that should be here, and I'm going to be here an extra two weeks?" He goes, "I'm sorry, George." But then I remember he said one time, "You know, you didn't belong here, but if I'm looking for you, I know how I find you. I just go to my window at the basketball court there, the shed, and if smoke starts coming out of there and I wait long enough, George comes walking out of there."

KL: That was the administrator at Fort Hill?

GM: Yeah.

KL: How long...

GM: That school closed after that semester.

KL: Okay. Where did you actually graduate high school?

GM: Then I went back to Roosevelt the next year. But I was bad when you're a kid, and when I was graduating, I had the annual, and I kept following this, he was the vice principal that sent me. He was a big man about 6'3" or maybe bigger . And for two weeks I couldn't catch him, and I finally thought, okay. There's a big area where there's no way you could duck. And I got behind him, he startled, and I said, "I'm graduating and I wanted you to sign my annual." He said, "Oh, of course." And George being George, while he's signing I says, "I hope you learned your lesson, sir." That's nasty of me. But I was so mad, I was a kid, I was so mad that he sent me just because he felt I made this... and then I pleaded and I said, "No one knows me, I've been here only two months," and all that. So yeah, I had a little chip on my shoulder for adults that acted that way.

<End Segment 32> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.