<Begin Segment 7>

RP: Now did you, you said at the other flower shop that you helped out a little bit.

MS: Yes.

RP: What did you do with the shop in Eagle Rock?

MS: Oh, no, that was, that was the shop in Eagle Rock where we had that. There I can only remember selling. And we moved then again. Oh, my goodness, I think we only stayed a couple of years at each place because we moved to Highland Park. And I'm just wondering whether, I wonder if there's any resistance for our being in Eagle Rock since... I don't know, but I'm, now that I think back, why would we move? But Highland Park is just over the hill from Eagle Rock.

RP: That's in the Pasadena area?

MS: Huh?

RP: Is that near, that's Pasadena area isn't it?

MS: Well, it's before you get to... it's between Glendale and Pasadena.

RP: What was that community like?

MS: In Highland Park? Oh, the Highland Park area is, was a lower, lower economic level.

RP: And so what other ethnicities did you see in Highland Park?

MS: But it was still, it was still largely white. It was mostly white. And it's only lately that... oh, as a matter of fact, even Highland Park must have had restrictions because later, much later -- 'cause eventually my brother bought a house on York Boulevard which is in -- and later, much much later, when I was already teaching and I thought I wanted to rent a house, I went to a realtor, and he said that he wasn't able to rent to me. And I think there was already a restriction. But he said he would rather have rented to me than to some white, you know, some Caucasian. The Latinos were beginning to come in, I think, because I know later they did in larger numbers. But I was shocked.

RP: This was before the war?

MS: No, no, no, no. This was after the war, after, after I'd become a teacher. So...

RP: How did that make you feel?

MS: Well, that was a great shock. That was definitely a great shock. But... because by that time the war, of course had, ended and all this was in... when did I move? That would have been 1950... probably nine, probably 1959 or so, yeah.

RP: What are your memories of, of growing up at Highland Park?

MS: Yes... well, I went to the Buchanan Street elementary school. And there was a fifth grade teacher that I can remember very fondly, and her name was Miss Boyd. And her brother was, was a very famous cowboy actor. Now what was his name?

RP: William Boyd?

MS: What?

RP: William Boy? Hop-Along Cassidy?

MS: I think so. Yeah, that would make sense. And she was so nice. Now, she took, on her own time, on the weekend, she would take a group of our, a group of children from her class to the museum and...

RP: Which museum was this?

MS: The L.A. County Museum, the Natural History Museum. And we had a little group of friends, there were three friends and we wanted to go together. So she said, "All right." And so she planned that we would go together. And at the time that our date came along -- because she had, since she was taking us in the car she only took a few at a time -- and one friend became ill, and she was a young diabetic. And so she... and so Miss Boyd said, "Well, we'll take you at a date, a later date." And she arranged to take us at a later day and I thought that was very nice because that was an extra imposition in a sense. And she was very kind, uh-huh. And then I graduated from the elementary school and went to Luther Burbank junior high school, which is still there. And the elementary school is still there. And my daughter, Susan, went to the same elementary school, although she was born in New York City. [Laughs] So, yeah.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.