<Begin Segment 6>

KL: Well, what are some, do you have, where did you go to school in Salinas?

MM: Santa Rita Elementary School.

KL: What can you tell us about Santa Rita?

MM: Well, it was a very small elementary school, and my first grade teacher was mean. I remember I used to suck my thumb and when she caught me she said, "Marion, come up here in front of the class, and I want you to use the ruler and hit your hand ten times each, with the ruler, and ten times on each leg." I had to do that in front of the class, and I guess it was humiliating. You know, I don't even remember that, but I remember having to do that. And then third grade, I think it was third or fourth grade, I had a real nice teacher, so she was nothing like Mrs. Strode. Her name was Miss Slavich, beautiful young teacher, and she was so beautiful she got married after one year of teaching, so we lost her. We lost her.

KL: She left that job.

MM: Yeah, we lost, but I can remember what a wonderful teacher she was. We all loved her. She was good. And we had in the school very few black people and very few Mexican people --

KL: But there were some?

MM: Yeah, a smattering. In my class, maybe one or two, and one black boy, and some of us Japanese kids, and all the rest were white.

KL: How integrated were people socially? 'Cause little, I mean, you were young kids, but...

MM: Well, Dolly Jane, who was Caucasian, blonde, blue-eyed, she was my best friend in school, during those elementary school years.

KL: Was her family, what was her family's work and stuff, or do you know?

MM: I don't know. I don't know what he did, Mr. Bradley. But I remember Dolly Jane and I were just very good friends.

KL: I mean, it's interesting, where you were growing up was a destination for so many people during the Dust Bowl and during those Depression years, and I think those migrations changed things about those communities that were affected. What about the, did the black kids integrate with other people, or was there a difference in the way that people were --

MM: I only know one black boy in my class. There was only one.

KL: Did he have friends?

MM: We all played with Billy, yeah. I mean, we just all played with each other. There was no, "You're different" or, there was nothing like that. I don't remember anything like that, because I liked to play. [Laughs]

KL: Were you really aware then of different ethnicities?

MM: Yes, I was. And I remember that I would be, get the kids together and I'd say, "Let's play school. I'm the teacher and you are the pupils." Or we'd play house, "I'm the mother and you're the kids." [Laughs] I kind of took over, I remember that.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.