<Begin Segment 7>

TI: Now, so you're not too far from Los Angeles. Did you ever go --

GS: Sixty miles.

TI: So would you often, or would you ever go down to Little Tokyo?

GS: Yeah, we used to travel to Tokyo.

TI: And what would the event be?

GS: Takes about an hour and, two, an hour and a half to two hours.

TI: So what would the occasion be? Why would you go to Little Tokyo?

GS: So my brother-in-law was living in Los Angeles, so we'd go visit there. If there was some conference or something going on between the churches, and we'd meet in Los Angeles.

TI: And so coming from Colton to Los Angeles, was there anything special about Los Angeles that you liked to do when you went there?

GS: We used to go to Little Tokyo, that's all we'd go...

TI: So what was it about Little Tokyo that you liked? Was it the food, the people?

GS: Food, all the different shoes and clothes. 'Cause when we were so small that every time we would try to buy a shoe, they don't make fives or sixes. They're all sevens, eights and that. So Little Tokyo always had shoes that'll fit Japanese, so you could buy a size six, or five and a half or six and a half. So that's why we had to go over there to buy. Clothes would be shorter, short instead of regulars, so you were able to buy clothes that way. So that's why we usually go to Los Angeles.

TI: And what about the food? What was your, kind of, favorite places to eat in Little Tokyo?

GS: We always end up in Chinatown. [Laughs] Or Japanese food, too. Japanese...

TI: Good, okay. Let's talk a little bit about school. So what was school like? What kind of student were you in school?

GS: I was one of the bad students. [Laughs] I played more than, than learning, especially in, I, after grammar school we went to Redlands, well, I got to know the rich boys that had cars.

TI: I'm sorry, say that one more time? The rich boys that did what?

GS: That had, in Redlands they had cars.

TI: Oh, cars, okay. So this is more like high school.

GS: High school. During this grammar school, it was nip and tuck, and I was fairly... but even in, when I was in sixth grade, two little girls I used to like, they were, her name was Betty Jean Ferris, she was a blonde, Martina Fontaine was a French girl. They were cute little girls, so I can remember their names.

TI: So these were, like, your girlfriends in sixth grade?

GS: Yeah. [Laughs]

TI: I'm not sure if this will last the edits. We'll have to take this out. [Laughs]

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.