<Begin Segment 7>

SG: So you went to high, where did you go to high school in Portland?

GA: Jefferson.

SG: And what was that like going to Jefferson High School for you?

GA: Pardon me?

SG: What was it like going to Jefferson High School for you?

GA: Well, nothing unusual. In those days, we had to go by streetcar as far as transportation was concerned, and the streetcar ran right in front of our store, so I would catch that and come back by with that way. It was about mile, mile and a half to Jefferson High School from our store. As far as friends were concerned, I had a few friends. I was a member of a fraternity, high school fraternity, made a lot of new friends there. I didn't have any girlfriends there. There weren't, there were very few Japanese girls in Jefferson High School. Most of the Japanese were in the downtown area. They went to Lincoln High.

[Interruption]

SG: So Mr. Azumano, you were talking about Jefferson High School and you said you couldn't remember any Japanese girls there. Were there Japanese guys, boys?

GA: Very few, very few. I remember two that I can remember right now. There could have been more, but that's all I remember. In those days, there were many Japanese that lived on the Columbia Boulevard. Their parents operated fruit stands. There must have ten or fifteen, maybe twenty fruit stands on Columbia Boulevard operated by Japanese. Those children would come to Jefferson High. Most of them would come to Jefferson High. I don't remember too many of them.

SG: Were you friends with any of them?

GA: Yes, I was, very few, very few. I know we did not have any organization of Japanese students. We went very independently, of course. I remember one girl who was a year or so ahead of me and then there was another girl who was a year or so ahead of me. And later on, she became one of my insurance clients when I was selling insurance. Her mother and father had died early, so she was managing this fruit stand on Columbia Boulevard. And after she died, her sister donated some money to the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center as a result of being willed some money from her sister, the one that operated the fruit stand, so she must have done, did all right.

SG: What happened to those fruit stands eventually?

GA: When the war opened, when the war started, all the fruit stands went bust. They had to close up, no customers. And of course, we had all evacuated, you know. Even before the evacuation, many of them did close because of the lack of business.

SG: Was it most people stopped going to the fruit stands because they were owned by Japanese?

GA: Yes.

SG: I was going to ask you a couple more questions about Jefferson High School. You mentioned you were in a fraternity, what was that like?

GA: Oh, it was a men's, boy's fraternity. I can't remember the reason I went, why it was organized, but it was just a social organization. I think they called it "Phi Delts." And to this day, I still have a friend that belonged to one of the, that same club that I did.

SG: What kind of things did you do at the Phi Delt?

GA: I don't remember. I don't remember what we did. I don't know if they had a motive for being in existence or not, just a bunch of boys that was proud to be a member.

SG: Just kind of hung out and talked?

GA: Yeah.

SG: Were there any other social groups that you were involved with at Jefferson?

GA: I don't think I was. I don't recall.

SG: Did you enjoy going to Jefferson High School?

GA: Yeah, I did, I did. Jefferson used to have a good sport teams, football and basketball, so I enjoyed going to those games. Football games used to be played at Multnomah Stadium. Now they're played at high school fields. But in those days, they were all played at Multnomah Stadium. It was quite a thrill to be able to go to Multnomah Stadium to watch a high school basketball game.

SG: So you would, you and your friends would go watch the basketball and football games?

GA: Yes.

SG: And did you go anywhere after the games?

GA: Oh, I don't think so, no. I don't recall. I didn't drink, so I didn't go to any of those affairs. If there were any, I don't know, but it was just a matter of going just to watch the games.

SG: And were there dances in high school then?

GA: Oh, yeah, there were, yeah. I must have gone to one or two of them, but I remember going to the senior prom. I went with this Chinese girl who was a good friend of my sister's. Anyway, I remember that.

SG: Do you remember her name?

GA: Mildred, Mildred Goon, G-O-O-N.

SG: What was the prom like?

GA: Oh, I don't remember. I don't remember. I must have been in my best and only suit, no tuxes in those days. I don't think I wore a tux. I don't remember that, but enjoyed it, I remember that.

SG: Do people take, did people go out to dinner before the dances?

GA: I'm sure some people did. I don't remember doing it. I don't remember that.

SG: Did you enjoy the academics... you said this, the academic part of Jefferson High School?

GA: I imagine I did. I got fairly good grades, not good grades, but fairly good grades, and I like most of the teachers, so I must have enjoyed it. I remember a couple of the teachers I met in later after graduation from high school. One was a teacher in junior college that I went to and he remembered me, and another teacher also remembered me after graduation. It kind of surprised me because they had so many students. You wouldn't think they would remember, but they do. I didn't like the distance from the school to my home. Sometimes I would walk, and boy, it took a long time to walk home from school. I never walked to school, but I do remember walking from school, home from school about hour and a half, mile and a half in those days, I think.

SG: Do you remember what time you started and what time school was over?

GA: School's over around three p.m., I think. I usually get home, if I walked, it would be about 4 o'clock before I got home, three-thirty, four. Of course nowadays, most kids have cars. Well, I could have come home by streetcar. In those days, streetcars were slow, nothing like MAX that just runs around here now, but we had to, that's something that we had to use if we didn't want to walk. I wish I could remember more about that, but my memory is not good.

SG: Did your mom make lunch for you and your sister when you went to school?

GA: No. We always ate in the school cafeteria or they used to have the little restaurants right across the street from the school. I remember getting a plate lunch for like ten cents, something like that, very reasonable. So my mother never made lunch when we were going to high school or we could eat in the school cafeteria, too, very reasonably.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.