<Begin Segment 15>

AC: In high school you said you played football, and you were after this guy, and you got knocked silly. Did you just... what happened?

PS: Oh, I guess that particular time the coach was telling me, it was in practice, so he says, "You got to stop these guys that's carrying the ball." I was in the line, and I was a little shrimp. But anyway, so here he comes with carrying the ball, I thought, "I'm going to get him," and so I ran head on into him, not head off to the side or anything like that, I just hit him square on. It's a wonder I didn't break my fool neck. But anyway, 'cause about that time, one of the players over in, playing for Nampa High School, playing football, but on a tackle, I guess he tackled somebody, or got hit, I don't remember the details, but anyway, got his neck broken. And so that was quite a thing back then. Well, it would be anytime, but to be killed playing football. But that was his demise. And I think about it, I've thought about it afterwards, too, that that could have been me. Stupid enough to hit somebody head on like that. But that was what I was gonna do, I was gonna stop that ball carrier. But it sure knocked me silly. But anyway, I have friends playing football at that time, too. We laugh about that kind of thing, but he says, my friend says, "You can never play football getting knocked silly." But he's a halfback or something, but anyway, he made a couple touchdowns by being knocked silly like that. I guess he just lost his inhibitions or something, and anyway, he just went wild and made several touchdowns. But he said he thinks he was knocked silly. But anyway, it's strange things that can happen.

AC: You said you were also part of the glee club and the band. What did you did in the glee club and what did instrument did you play?

PS: [Laughs] Oh boy, didn't that sound strange? But anyway, like I said, the instructor was a real good teacher, and a friend of mine talked me into it. And so we gave it a try, and, well, the three of us brothers back then were exposed to a friend that had sold, I think he had a store of musical, sold musical instruments. And brother Joe, he got a trombone, and Abe played the clarinet, and I got a hold of a tenor saxophone. And this friend who was a music man, had his own orchestra, I think, was the one that encouraged us to try to learn music, make music. Gosh, I can't even think of his name now. But he and his brother, real nice guys, and they wanted us to get into some music. So that's how we got started there. But after a few years of that, we got into other things, I think, maybe we were getting into judo about that time, too. And so the music part of it went by the wayside. But I still like music, and I guess when I was overseas, the Armed Forces Radio Service after midnight or something like that would play all this classical music. To this day I like classical music. Anyway, that was the end of our high school music back then.

AC: What was the glee club and what did you do for the glee club?

PS: Oh, I sang tenor, tried to. [Laughs] But anyway, maybe that only lasted a year, I can't remember now. I tried it, and that wasn't my thing.

AC: But you were a member of the Future Farmers of America, and in your senior project you went, you took the trip from here all the way into Corvallis to go to Oregon Agricultural College and you stayed at a frat, and you were there for several days. What was that like?

PS: Oh, well, I think we had to behave ourselves. But they had little, I think there was kids from all over, and FFA kids from all over the state. They had little projects set up. I can't remember all the things now, but one of the things I remember, they had a little tractor, Ferguson tractor, I think it was, and we were supposed to be able to start it up, hook up to a trailer and back it into a parking area, and take it back to the original position. And that was something I liked to do, so that's one of things I remember, and I think they had projects like for saddling a horse, several different things like that. I just don't remember it all, but it was an opportunity to see how good you can do something like that. It was a fun thing.

AC: Well, you said at the end of the time, no one had any money left. What were you spending your money on?

PS: Well, we never had very much to start with, but we had enough to buy something to eat, enough to buy gas. I think coming home, we stopped, I think we came through Portland, but going over, I think we took, went through central Oregon, gosh, I can't even remember now. I think we went through central Oregon going, and coming back, we come through Portland. So one night we just found a place to, we slept in the car, because we didn't have money to go to a restaurant. Or maybe we had money to eat and gas, but we didn't have enough money for a place to stay. So I think we just slept in the car. It's a thing kids can do, and it worked out fine. We laugh about it.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.