<Begin Segment 20>

KB: So you talk about moving to Anchorage with your wife, May, and working with your brother-in-law. So let's go back a little bit and tell me, how did you and May meet?

SO: Oh, well, let's see. She had a, her mother had a laundry, Wong's Laundry, next to, let's see, a pool parlor, Bud's Pool Parlor. I used to go over to Bud's to shoot pool back in '49, 1949. And she was next door, so I got to meet her.

KB: Did you meet her at the pool hall or did you see her before?

SO: I've seen her before. Well, she was ironing and pressing next door.

KB: Caught a glimpse of her working?

SO: Yeah. And let's see... yeah, I had a friend, Bobby Chan, I guess, and he had a car, his parents had a car. So I asked her to go out to play golf. What kind of golf was that?

KB: Like putt-putt or miniature?

SO: Miniature golf, yeah. So we'd go miniature golfing once in a while.

KB: How old were you?

SO: I think I was eighteen or nineteen.

KB: Was she the same age?

SO: She's a year younger than I am.

KB: So she was seventeen when you spotted her ironing? [Laughs]

SO: [Laughs] Anyway...

KB: Did she come over to the pool hall, too, or did you walk in the laundry to meet her?

SO: Yeah. I met her there.

KB: At the pool hall?

SO: No, no.

KB: At the laundry?

SO: I would go to the pool hall. A lot of the guys would go to the pool hall because we'd gather there to play softball or baseball, that's their gathering place.

KB: Afterwards?

SO: Well, before.

KB: So you walked into the laundry, introduced yourself?

SO: I wonder if I met her before. Can't remember. And I knew she was there.

KB: So how long did it take before you got married? How long did you date?

SO: A long time. I didn't... I went off to college in '51, to Oregon State, so I didn't see her for a while. I think she went to Oregon for a year. And I stayed out of college for two years, and then I went back to Oregon State to finish up. And she ended up at Oregon State, so we renewed friendship, and then I graduated in '56, and we got married in '58, 'cause she graduated in '57.

KB: You knew each other a long time.

SO: Yeah, we knew each other.

KB: And what is her name and where is she from?

SO: She's May Wong, and she's... well, she was born and raised in the U.S. also.

KB: In Portland?

SO: In Portland, yeah.

KB: And you got married...

SO: In June 1958.

KB: You just had your anniversary.

SO: Yes, we did. Fifty-six years.

KB: What did your parents think about the marriage, you being Japanese American and she being Chinese?

SO: My dad was the only one that was living. I told my sister and she said it was fine.

KB: Your dad, what did he say?

SO: He doesn't say much. [Laughs] But he was there for my wedding.

KB: Did her parents say anything? Her mom... would it have been her mother?

SO: Her mother? Yeah. Her older sister had married a Japanese, so it wasn't... and she doesn't, she doesn't have any animosity. She was happy, and she came, she was at the wedding, too.

KB: Did you experience any animosity or prejudice from anyone at all when you were... not just family, but other people?

SO: No.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.