<Begin Segment 11>

RP: What was the focus of your interest during your high school years? Were you starting to gravitate towards a particular area of study or something that you looked at as a potential career?

CH: Well, I took up business courses. I had... no, I took shorthand afterwards, typing and bookkeeping.

RP: How about commercial illustration?

CH: Oh, yeah. I loved that, because I can remember that -- [drinks water] -- excuse me. I had this, I drew this chewing gum, and I put a magnifying glass, and put eyes on it, put a, sharp on that. That was my presentation of the commercial art. It was, it was good, I thought. [Laughs] I don't know where it went. Our teacher's name was Miss McKenzie. She taught the English class also, and I was in that class. And that's where Tommy was. Yeah, he was in that -- excuse me for pointing. I got the habit of doing that. [Laughs] Yeah, I remember the, we had to study Ivanhoe and Albatross... what is that one called?

KP: The Rhine of the Ancient Mariner?

CH: That's right, exactly. I remember those.

RP: How about popular culture at the time? Were there certain particular movies or movie stars that you were kind of...

CH: Oh, Shirley Temple was my, my idol, you might say, although she was younger. She was only about five or six, I believe. And I collected all the pictures and things. But I didn't send for her picture like some people did, to collect movie stars.

RP: Did you have a role model or strong influence in your adolescent years? Was it your mom, was it your grandmother, was it somebody else?

CH: Well, I guess it was my mother, yes. She was so good at everything that she did. She beat my father and grandfather out in the field, when picking strawberries. She'd have a crate before they even got halfway done. Yes, she was very fast.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.