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LT: And you talked about their communication, too, how they always seemed to be in touch with each other.

TT: And they did. They never let us see them fight, so usually when we're younger, and so then it was always you knew there was something and then you'd see them go off somewhere to talk to each other and we didn't hear it. As we got older, we did see a bit more of it, and then they would bicker about something or talk about something. But the communication was pretty open in comparison to a lot of marriages I see. My mom wasn't afraid to speak up, and my dad wasn't either, so they talked about a lot of stuff and if there were things going on with us, they didn't talk about us in front, but I always knew they talked about us, because they knew, each of them always knew everything.

LT: For example, I'm sure you didn't get in trouble at school very often, but if you happened to get in trouble, what would happen?

TT: I did. I didn't like school at all, so it's so amazing how one day education, but I didn't care for school because I didn't like the confines. And so I can remember very clearly, because one time they did call my mom and she came in to get me, and we went home. And she just always talked, and she was very logical, and she would always say, "So what were you thinking?" As long as we could explain what we did in a logical manner, you wouldn't get a consequence. So we learned to, I think, do a pretty good job at defending ourselves.

LT: Well, can you give an example of something that might have happened at school where your mom would have been called in?

TT: The one time I remember, I was in kindergarten, and I wanted to read a book to the rest of the class. And the teacher told me I couldn't read because I was in kindergarten. So I took my book and left the classroom, and, of course, I don't even know if they had intercoms in those days. So then my mom came to get me, and they just wanted her talk and she doesn't know I'm coming to get her. So she came and she got me and we went home. And all the way home, as we drove, it was pretty quiet in the car, and she said, "I just want you to think about what you did and what part of it you think might be wrong." Well, I didn't think anything was wrong about it, because, man, I wasn't staying in that classroom. So then when we got home, we sat down and she got me something to drink, and then we just talked. And she asked a lot of questions, she said, "Why do you think that's okay?" And I said, "Well, because she told me I couldn't read, and I've been reading forever," that kind of thing. And she said, "But you know, she has all these kids," and it was that kind of thing, too logical for a young person to be able to argue. "She has all these kids, so she can't let everyone do everything." And I said, "No, but she shouldn't have said I couldn't read." She said, "That I agree with you, she shouldn't have said that. But she said that, so what is it you should have done instead?" Well, I couldn't figure out, there was no "instead" for me. So then she kind of walked me through what I should do. And then that night when Dad came home, he asked me if I wanted to go outside and walk a little bit, it was a nice spring day. So we went out, and he talked basically the same stuff. But then I had different answers because I had new options of things I can do. And I realized that when someone, especially an adult, makes you angry, you don't necessarily have to just leave. And then they gave me some options of what I should have done. And the one thing that my dad said, "You should have just said to your teacher, 'I can read, and it makes me feel bad when you say I can't,'" that kind of thing. So yeah, so it was kind of a double team kind of thing. And yet, I know they worked so hard, I don't know how they ever had time for us. You know, there were four of us, and that was a lot of stuff. Plus they were both working, Mom would go to the store to try to help. It was, they were pretty amazing. I think that's... I just can't imagine doing all those, especially since I've chosen not to have children, it's like, "How can they do that? I can't even keep myself together some days and get food on my table." [Laughs] But I think that was a lot, maybe, that put me into education, too. I can understand that, number one, I never felt like kids should have to go to school for sixteen years if people didn't actually give them something and if they were treated... so that's a lot of the reason I thought about, "I'm going to teach, because no one's going to hate coming to my class." But they're not going to get away with anything either. [Laughs]

<End Segment 4> - Copyright &copy; 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.