<Begin Segment 8>

RP: We were just talking about religion. What religious tradition were you grounded in, Methodist, Methodist church?

CH: Yes, uh-huh.

RP: And you were Baptized?

CH: I presume so. I have a membership with that church near my place. I had it transferred from the Florin Methodist church, and then I think they got together with this Methodist church, got my membership sent over there.

RP: We talked a little bit about your grandparents and your parents. Did any of them had a creative side? Did they encourage you to pursue yours as well, either in music or art? Did you see that side of them?

CH: No, I didn't see anything. You know, they felt that women didn't need as much education.

RP: As men?

CH: Yeah, at that time.

RP: It seems like you had a different understanding of that.

CH: Yeah.

RP: You did play the violin, though?

CH: Yes, I did.

RP: When did that begin?

CH: Oh, I was a sophomore in high school.

RP: And you just took it up on your own, were you encouraged by your parents?

CH: No, I was... well, I took it up on my own, but I had classes in high school. Mr. Nickels, I remember.

RP: And how far did you go with that?

CH: Oh, well, I had three years, that's about it. But then my granddaughter, she fulfilled my ambition quite well.

RP: That's interesting how that works out. You kind of start something, and then the next generation finishes it.

CH: And she, she loves to paint also, and I love that, too.

RP: Did you do that as a teenager as well?

CH: No, I just drew one picture of the mountain at Manzanar, that's about it.

RP: Oh, you did? A painting?

CH: It was a sketch.

RP: A sketch.

CH: Of Mt. Williamson, yeah.

RP: And you don't have it anymore?

CH: I have it someplace, but I don't know where it is. [Laughs]

RP: Oh, I'd like to see that sometime. You also mentioned, Carol, that your father did photography.

CH: Yes, he did.

RP: When did this start?

CH: Probably when he was still single.

RP: What did he like to take pictures of?

CH: People, of course, but he wasn't very good. He had this kind of, you know the bellow kind. But you had to have it on a stand, I believe.

RP: Like a tripod.

CH: Yeah. And he used to develop it in the basement. He had a red bulb, I remember. So that was...

RP: Oh, in the basement of your house?

CH: Yeah. Well, there was a basement, cemented one, and the one underneath the house was a cellar, I guess they would call it. There were two.

RP: So he developed his own film down there?

CH: That's what he did, yeah. But some of the pictures, he cut off the heads. [Laughs] Not very good.

RP: So he was strictly an amateur.

CH: Yeah.

RP: But that was kind of his hobby.

CH: I think so.

RP: So your mother, was it a traditional art of a mother's, knitting and sewing?

CH: Oh, she was excellent. She could knit a sweater in one week.

RP: So she would make a lot of your clothes for you when you were you growing up?

CH: Oh yes, she did.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.