Densho Digital Archive - Art Imagire Interview (denshovh-iart-01-0015)

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RP: So, Art, where did you attend grammar school in Reno?

AI: Well, excuse me, the first grammar school I attended was called Orvis Ring and it was... I was in the third grade and I almost flunked the, that grade because California was behind in arithmetic. And I forget what... I think it was fractions or something like that I, that I almost, that I almost flunked out because of that. I finished third grade there and then, because of where I lived, I went to a place, a school called Southside School. Neither one of those exist anymore. Then I went to Billinghurst Junior High and that's where I was, I think I was senior class president or something like that. And then from Billinghurst I went to Reno High School. And actually, none of those schools are left. They're all they're all gone now. We just, we just had our fiftieth reunion in 2001. And that, our class is fairly progressive but the alumni association is pretty active and they were able to build an alumni house right adjacent to the school. They have all the, all the artifacts from all the different classes and things and I think that's kind of unusual for a high school.

RP: And then you entered UNR?

AI: Yeah, University of Nevada. Yeah. At that time there was only one campus, like I told you, so it was only called University of Nevada. And I attended the school of electrical engineering. There was only (thirteen) in our class. By the time we graduated there was only six in the class. It started out like about sixteen or so and then we withered down to six. There was about two hundred and fifty total in the class. So it was a fairly small campus and I was up there recently and my gosh, it's grown. It's so huge. And I think it's got ten, twenty thousand population of students. It's really grown.

RP: One of the draws about being in Reno is, is the fact that, you know, you're not too far from the great outdoors.

AI: Yeah.

RP: Did you, did your family take any trips? Did you discover any parts of Nevada, fishing or hiking or...

AI: No, actually, my folks used to like to go out on picnics and things like that but after they moved to Reno they didn't do too much traveling. I guess mainly... one of the problems was being, my father's being an invalid and didn't travel too much. So we didn't. And I had a, I had a friend that was a hunter and a fisherman and he tried to teach me how to fish and hunt and I just never... I was impatient with fishing and I was a terrible shot. So, I didn't, I didn't do much on that.

RP: Did you have a sense growing up in Reno that your parents would rather have remained back in Oakland if circumstances allowed them to?

AI: I don't know that... my mother never related anything like that to me. She never had any regrets or anything. And taking care of my father, she never, never complained about that.

RP: Uh-huh. And you said that you actually went through the ROTC program at University of Reno?

AI: Oh yeah. At... when I was going to college, the Korean War was going on and in order to avoid that, ROTC was required for the first two years, 'cause it was a Land Grant college, and then I opted to take the following, the two years, and receive a commission. And that gave me a deferment until I graduated. And so I... when I graduated I received the commission and was told that I would... you had to serve two years active duty to do that. But they said, "Oh, we'll give you an option now. You serve six months and then for three or four years you serve in the active reserve." I said, "Oh, I'll do that." So when I got my orders, I looked, I looked on my orders and it said start at this date, and the end of the tour of duty was two years away. And I said, "Hey, wait a minute. I opted for this six months deal." And they said, "Oh, I'm sorry. We dropped that program." So I ended up staying there, in the army, for two years.

RP: So you completely avoided the Korean War then?

AI: Yes, I did. By the time... 'cause 1955, Korean War was over. So I felt pretty fortunate, although I felt unpatriotic doing that. But I wanted to finish college before I went.