Densho Digital Archive - Lury Sato Interview (denshovh-slury-01-0003)

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MH: After you graduated from high school, did you go on to college?

LS: Well, yes. It was Depression time, and they had... let's see... WPA. They had free lessons at the public library, and I attended those different classes then. It was interesting, went on a streetcar. And there was the Oregon extension course started there at the same place. It was at Lincoln High School, so I attended those classes. And I have accumulated enough credit, so I went to Oregon Normal School, and so I graduated there after four terms.

MH: And when you went to the Oregon Normal School in Monmouth, did you live in a dorm or --

LS: No. I had a friend of mine in the area who went to Normal School too, and we had a room, housekeeping room, with other girls. There was a Mrs. Conklin. She was a minister's wife, elderly person who rented rooms. We had kitchenette, and it was quite a time. It was Betty Camlin was my first roommate. And then I met another girl with whom we became very good friend. She called herself Patsy. Her name was Crystal, but it was Patsy, and she looked very much like Pansy in Dogwood, a very interesting... if I had a pipe, I would have put it in her mouth. [Laughs] We became very good friends. And I went to her house over weekend once, and she came here to Portland with me some weekends, and we had a very good time. I heard that she is still living but is quite ill in Salem, and a common friend of mine asked if I remember her. I said, "Oh, yes, I do." I'd like to see her again, but I don't know that I'd be able to. She's bedridden now, I understand.

MH: Now when you graduated from Normal School, what did you expect to do with your education?

LS: Minority people were not hired in public schools. The most other people got was the little, one little schoolhouses, one or two in the country. Well, they propose, and they consulted for me said that, "What will you do? You'll not be able to get a school." Well, I said that it didn't matter. There are other area other than teaching and education that I might be able to use my schooling. So that was where, and then I continued with the extension course in University of Portland, extension classes at Lincoln High School, and I went to University of Oregon to get my BS in education, and I did graduate with a certificate.

MH: So did you come back home after graduating from the University of Oregon?

LS: Let's see... the year I graduated, there were four girls in Seattle who were invited to [inaudible] to tour Japan, and I was joined with them. I think Dad had a grocery store then and means enough to send me to Japan with the group, and I toured Japan with a group of five girls. In 19, it was '38, '39, early 1940, and we had a very good time. The other girls stayed on after three months to go to Korea, but I came back to Portland because I felt I needed to be, help at the store that we were operating at that time.

MH: When you went to the University of Oregon, did you live in Eugene?

LS: Yes.

MH: And what was it like in Eugene then?

LS: I made a couple close friends there too. I had a roommate, and we had a house. Upstairs were rented out to... one, two, three, four, five girls with a common kitchen, and I had a friend Vivian Vernon, Vivian Langtree. She married Vernon. He was a student at the Northwest Christian College which is right off the campus. And for practice, he went to different little villages to preach, and my friend, Vivian, and I always went with them to these church service, and we'd get invited. I think I played the piano once in a while for them, not that I did very well.