Densho Digital Archive - Mary Jean Spallino Interview (denshovh-smary

<Begin Segment 14>

RM: Can I ask about that? Because one of the things that I found in the Manzanar Free Press, and I talked with you about this earlier, but it's a small article, and I noticed your name in it, so I brought it with me. And it says that you and a woman who was also a teacher in the high school, Lucille Smith, went to Mexico City over Christmas vacation.

MS: Yes, we did.

RM: Can you tell me about that trip?

MS: Oh, it was wonderful. See, Lucille and her roommate, Martha Groth, Lucille was Mormon. As a matter of fact, her grandmother had been the one to do Brigham Young's wife's hair, something, in charge of keeping her hair or whatever. Anyway, Lucille Smith... and Martha Groth was the daughter of a minister, and they were the most unlikely two, in looks and everything, but they got along just beautifully. Anyway, Lucille and I decided, this was '43, that we were gonna go to Mexico. Well, Mexico wasn't at war, so we could. But we had to go to, not Tijuana, but to Agua Caliente to catch the plane, I had never flown before, that was '43. And we flew to Mexico, and we had a great time.

RM: What did Lucille teach in high school?

MS: Lucille? Home ec.

RM: And where was she from?

MS: She was from the Los Angeles area, but originally from Utah.

RM: What about Martha Groh, do you remember...

MS: She was a quiet, a very sweet gal. And she didn't stay, I think she only stayed a couple of years. And I think she also taught, I can't quite remember, seems to be home ec. And I said Lucille taught home ec., and you'd think I'd know, but I can't remember really whether it was home ec. or whether it was social studies. With her personality, it almost seems as though Lucille would have taught social studies. She was very outspoken, had opinions on things. And she got along great with the two fellows.

RM: Oh, Louis and Clive?

MS: You get the three of them together... and she really liked, Lucille Smith really liked Clive very much. I think she could have been very interested in him.

RM: That, actually, is something I wanted to ask about earlier, was about, you know, you're out in this very isolated area. Did any of the staff date?

MS: About relationships?

RM: Yeah.

MS: Well, yeah, there were a couple of marriages there, that people who met there, one of the teachers who was there for only a year, I can't think of the name... it's awful, because I was a bridesmaid. But it was a guy that, he was not a teacher, he worked there. They met and married. But there was never any rumor or any romance going on or anything like that.

RM: Did you ever date anyone in the camp?

MS: No. No, I did a couple times... see, the people would come up from Los Angeles, and I did go out a couple times with this fellow who was in the army or had been in the army. And then they had a... not too far from us they had a conscientious objector's camp.

RM: Oh, where?

MS: And we did have a luncheon with them one time, I forget where the luncheon was. These poor guys, they were out in the boondocks. And we had a nice meeting with them, and I did have a... I received a letter from one of 'em, but I just tossed it.

RM: Do you know, do you remember where the conscientious objector camp was?

MS: It wasn't too far away, but in some records, why, you could find out.

KL: I've never heard of that, that's really wonderful to know.

RM: I'm going to look that up, I'd like to know more about it.

MS: Yeah, conscientious objectors, and there should be something in Independence. And it couldn't have been too far away, it had to be someplace in the valley. But we met with 'em only once.

RM: That brings me to another question which is about different... your work with other high schools in the valley. I've read about Manzanar High School teachers going to trainings at, like, Lone Pine High School. Do you remember any of that, or meeting other teachers?

MS: No, I never knew any of that.

RM: Yeah, maybe it was just some of the other administrators.

MS: I don't know of anyone who did that. But that doesn't mean they didn't, but I never heard of anything like that.

RM: Do you remember Genevieve Carter?

MS: Oh, yes, Mrs. Carter, yes. She was our superintendent.

RM: Yeah, what was she like?

MS: Very nice, very nice. I mean, she was on the upper echelon, you know, I was down here. And I really looked up to her, she was a pretty little woman as I remember. And she was very fair, very nice, I liked her. And then our superintendent, our principal was Roland Fox. He was a quiet man, kind of a standoffish man, but very nice when you got to know him. And I remember, I told a lie once. I lied about something, it was something minor but it had to do with... it said, "Did you ever say this to your class?" I can't remember, piddling things, but I lied about it and it bothered me, and I thought, oh my gosh, I have to go to Fox, and he was the kind that you kind of were a little afraid of. And I went and I told him, and he was so nice about it. He said, "Don't worry, I'm glad you told me." So I always had a good feeling for that man.

RM: Yeah.