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LG: Okay. So you went to Girls High in Philadelphia. Do you have any memories of high school? Was it still sort of a Caucasian community in high school?

MR: I think so, pretty much. It was mixed, I guess. I spent a lot of my time in the art room, I used to like to do the art stuff. There was another incident where, I actually had a friend over there, I don't know who the friend was exactly, but what we liked to do is sneak out and have lunch at the local sandwich shop on the corner here, which I don't think you're supposed to do. [Laughs] You're not supposed to do that. They called my mom up. Yeah, they called my mom up and we had to go to the office, and I was told that I wasn't supposed to do that. My mom had to tell me, "Don't do that anymore," so I didn't. I just ate in the dining room from then on.

LG: What years were you in high school?

MR: I think I graduated in 1960, so from when I was in eighth grade, I guess, or something like that, the ninth grade.

LG: And so growing up in Philadelphia, your mother was a social worker?

MR: Uh-huh. She was a social worker all that time. She got to be kind of a senior level, I guess, she seemed to be directing people.

LG: So you were into art. Did you play any sports or were you involved in any other activities in high school?

MR: In high school, did we play sports? Not lacrosse. Oh, I know, in Friends Select, we played field hockey, I think. I don't think I did much sports at Girls High. I tried to sneak into the...

LR: What about swimming?

MR: I was? Did I do swimming? I don't know, I guess I did some swimming sometime. I think my main activity was doing art, I think, at Girls High.

LG: What kind of art did you do?

MR: I don't know, whatever, painting, sculpture.

LR: Woodblock prints?

MR: Woodblock prints, things like that.

LG: Did you have an art teacher that taught you how to do these things?

MR: Yes, I remember being very, I don't know her name anymore, but I was very fond of her, being in that art room a lot. I'd sneak in there whenever I could.

LG: Do you still do art? Have you continued?

MR: No. Well, actually, I sort of stopped doing it, after... I just stopped doing art stuff, I think. I worked as a drafter, I guess, which is related in a sense. I mean, you draw stuff. But since I've moved here, I think I didn't do, I haven't done any art for a long time. But when we moved here, I decided maybe I should try to pick this up again. And I've taken some drawing classes, and I even took a painting class. And I wasn't too happy with what I produced. The last one was oil painting, and I just sort of kind of gave up, and I said, "No, I don't think I'm happy with this." And then I think Lucas has sent me an article about how to prevent the progress of Alzheimer's and dementia, it's good to do art type activities. Okay, I have still been looking at, I went to the classes that are being offered at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and that's where I met, my husband went there. And I went there for a little bit. And I've been looking at their continuing education classes a lot. And there was one that was being offered just in a week or two, that is sculpture. And not sculpture in clay, just in, it's not with an armature, there's often a wire armature that gives the figure, put your figure on there. But you're just sort of supposed to squish out this clay into a figure of some kind. So I signed up for it, and I got the materials list and it said, "Twenty-five pounds of clay." I go to Blick's, the art store, and they only sell fifty pounds of clay. So, okay, I cancelled the class. But then I told Lucas, and Lucas says, "That's all right, I'll come down and get this clay." So I think last week, Lucas came down, and he hauled from, I think Blick's is at Thirteenth and Chestnut Street, so he hauled fifty pounds of clay all the way from there to here, Seventeenth and Vine Street. And I have to figure out whether I can... I think there's no problem. Fifty pounds is two hunks of twenty-five. I can probably get twenty-five pounds into my backpack and travel with it, bring it with me. I should have fun.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.