<Begin Segment 9>

KL: So we're back. This is tape two of an interview with Midori Suzuki and Sat Takaha. And we left off talking your visit to school. And yeah, I do want to ask Midori, when you did start school as a student, are there any teachers that you remember especially, or experiences you had there that stood out?

MS: Not really. I really don't remember too much about, I remember more about Mickie and her incidents. Obviously she was the colorful one of the family.

[Interruption]

KL: Well, I know one of the people that comes up later in your story is the high school principal. When did you start high school?

ST: I started in the camp.

KL: Oh, you didn't attend high school in Half Moon Bay?

ST: No.

KL: Oh, okay. Did you guys know their principal, Nick Carter there at all?

ST: He was my principal in grade school.

KL: In grade school?

ST: He was the grade school, yeah.

KL: What do you remember about him?

ST: Well, he took the whole class to Lake Tahoe, '41.

MS: He was a very nice man.

ST: Oh, yeah. He's the one that bought our station wagon.

MS: Apparently Tsuki said it was one of the Dutras that bought the station wagon. I thought it was him but she said it was one of the Dutras. See, who has conflicting... because I thought so, too, but she said no.

KL: He was a nice man, you said?

MS: Oh, yeah.

KL: What was the trip to Lake Tahoe like?

ST: Well, for me, never been up there, you know. We spent at least a week, maybe two weeks up there.

MS: I didn't know that.

KL: Who were your friends in school?

ST: Oh, Eugene Tolomei.

MS: He used to kind of keep us entertained on the farm because he used to run the sled. The equipment in those days were a lot more... what would you say? Not like it is today. He used to have to run the sled, so he'd have the horse in front, and the horse pulls the sled to even out all the clumps in the dirt. So he used to let the three of us ride in the back of the sled while he ran the horse up and down.

ST: And when I finished, I'd hop on the horse and go for a ride.

KL: What was the horse's name?

ST: Mary?

MS: That was the first horse.

KL: Where did you go on your rides?

ST: Oh, around the hills, you know.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.