<Begin Segment 22>

TM: So at this point, you're going off to college, and you said you got a scholarship. Can you tell us about that scholarship and how you got it and what it paid for?

FP: Right, okay. The Veledas gave me a scholarship. It wasn't huge, it was nominal. But I got this four-year scholarship from Oregon State, so that was very helpful, although tuition wasn't that much. It was like three hundred dollars, four hundred dollars per term. So that's pretty reasonable, that's about fifteen hundred, a thousand to fifteen hundred a year for tuition, which is unheard of now.

TM: That's a great honor to get that scholarship, you worked hard for that.

FP: Right.

TM: What did you study in college?

FP: I studied... first I started in, I was going to major to be a medical technician. And when I interned in a summer with Dr. Manuel, he was a pathologist, and I got locked away in a lab. I decided, when I came out then, I said, "No, I don't want to do that. I want to interface with people," so teaching turned out to be a good choice for me. And I majored in sciences, because, remember, in '57, that's the Sputnik era, okay. So I majored in science, but I ended up teaching general science and biology. I would take every biology course I could see, 'cause I loved biology. Which is fine, because now, Oregon has a reputation for being weird and green, and it just kind of was very appropriate to be an Oregonian and major in biological education and sciences.

TM: And did you find love in college, did you meet your husband?

FP: Yes, I met my husband, right.

TM: When did you meet him?

FP: When I went, the very first or second day when I was entering as a freshman, Oregon State, right. He was coming out of the forest. He had this long, shaggy hair, and a mustache and a beard, looked really weird. But he was a friend of a friend, and we went on kind of a group date at the Beaver, which is kind of a hangout for milkshakes and burgers and stuff like that, for after-hours.

TM: So '58, you must have been with the look, a little different than guys you saw before.

FP: Right, right, because he came out of the forest working at cottage grove as a firefighter.

TM: So he wasn't in school then?

FP: Well, he was in school, but he had gone for the summer.

TM: And what was his name, your husband?

FP: Larry Marchend Palk, a product of Hawaii.

TM: So with that name, what was his heritage?

FP: His heritage was three-fold Asian. He was Chinese and Japanese, and he had a Korean dad, Korean grandparent that had imported, had transported over to Hawaii, okay. So that's how he got his last name.

TM: And he, were your parents happy about your dating and marrying this guy from Hawaii?

FP: Well, my parents were okay because, you know, this is America. But Grandma Sumida, oh, she was so upset. She said, in those days, the daughter's family could adopt the name if there was, like in my family, there is no continuation. And we could have adopted, or he would adopt our name, that's how it would go, the other way. Which happened to my (younger uncle), Mr. Mita, (who was originally the third Sumida), George Mita (...) in Chicago, when they came over on the ship.

TM: And you ended up becoming a teacher.

FP: Yes, yes.

TM: And was that in high school? High school teacher, what grade level was it?

FP: Yes, I taught in junior high and high school for a few years, and eventually found my niche. And I taught biology and general science, and then eventually I decided, "I want to teach in the community college." So that turned out to be a very stable place for me, and I ended up loving it.

TM: What was the profession --

FP: Community college. (Full-time English teacher at Portland Community College). Pardon me?

TM: What was the profession of your husband?

FP: Oh, my husband was a chemist analyst. He would analyze the metal at Union Carbide, he would do the analytical chemistry part, because he was a pretty smart guy, and he could do that. He could read from a test tube how much iron it held, what percentage, and how much calcium it had or whatever type of metal that you wanted, you did by adding certain scraps to it.

TM: Did you have children?

FP: Yes, two.

TM: What are their names?

FP: Delcy, who turns fifty this year. In fact, she might be turning fifty-one this year.

TM: When was she born?

FP: August 19, 1964. (...) And my son,(Keith), born in '68, he would be four years younger than Delcy.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.