Interview of Kathy Chee

This is Ruth Bayhylle. The date today is Thursday, June 23[ 2011]. I am in Highland Park, speaking with Kathy Chee at her home. Kathy, when and where were you born? 0:00:21.7

Born in Klagetoh, Arizona.

Klagetoh?

Klagetoh.

Can you spell that for me?

K-a-i-b-e-t-o (sic).

And what’s your date of birth?

February 14.

Nineteen—

Forty-four.

And what tribe are you?

Navajo.

As you know, we’re talking to people about relocation and how people came to Los Angeles on the program. I wanted to ask you just a few questions about your home, where you grew up and what your home was like, how many brothers and sisters you had, and what kind of work your folks did.

My home, my mom and dad, they raising sheep, and I herd the sheep a lot during my young childhood. Suddenly one day she told me, “I sign up for you to go to Intermountain School.” That’s what my mom told me, yes.

That school is in Utah, is that right?

Yes.

Near what city is that?

Near Brigham City.

How old were you when your mother told this to you?

1956, about twelve or thirteen.

Prior to that, where had you gone to school?

There was no school.

So you were twelve or thirteen and you hadn’t gone to school yet.

Yeah.

So what did you think about that?

So I was already grown or too old for school, so they put me—they called it eight years’ program. I learned a lot there. I didn’t realize that—in school, English, write my name, A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, and then adding, and some sports, not baseball, some basketball, and swimming. Swimming is my favorite sport.

Did you know how to swim before you got there?

No, I didn’t know how to swim.

So you learned how to swim there too.

Then from there one summer they put us to earn some money so we can buy our clothes or something if we needed, so they sent me to Denver one year, and I babysit and then I came back.

How old were you when you went to Denver?

It was probably ’58 or ’59.

Okay, so you were about fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old?

Uh-huh, maybe before ’57, because they told us too young, “No, sixteen is the age you go.”

Age for you to go outside the school.

Yeah.

Were you able to work at the school while you were there, though, too?

Yes.

What did you do there?

I work downtown café, wash dishes and peel potatoes. [laughter] It was fun, but they pay me money. I love that money. It was a little money. It was a lot to me, a lot of money.

For yourself, right.

Yeah.

So prior to that, you had been working downtown in restaurants and doing things, just odd jobs as you could get them?

Yeah.

But then when you were sixteen they offered you this opportunity to—

Go out where we want. We had to choose where we want to go, like to go San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, and other cities.

Now, we’re talking about the relocation program now, right?

During the school year. But the same thing for relocation. They sent me here.

Let’s talk a little bit about that. Did you know what relocation was all about? Did you even know what it was for?

No. No, I didn’t know.

But you had gone to Denver just for the summer, is that right?

Three months, maybe, two or three months.

What did you do there in—

Babysit, babysitter.

For an Indian family or non-Indian?

These are white people.

And their children?

He has two kids, a baby boy, I think it was.

So did you like doing that, going out there?

Yeah, I like it.

What was that like for you in Denver?

It was something new, yeah, something new and very—I’m very shy. I’m pretty sure they understand. Was totally lost, I mean, but I have some friend there, so we came there, and day off, we get together. Then came—they sent us home.

Back to the school?

Back to my mom’s house.

Oh, back to Arizona.

And then from there back to Intermountain. We spent, like, I don’t know, two, maybe two weeks at home.

When you were going to school at Intermountain, how often did you go home to visit your family?

Every year.

Every year when school was out you would go home?

Uh-huh.

Were you able to find work at home during the summer when school was out those years?

I didn’t find any work except for through BIA [Bureau of Indian Affairs]. BIA trained us to—in 1966 or ’67, ’66, they trained us. I went home. I was here and then go back, go back to home, and they trained us sewing. I did it for, I don’t know, six month. They trained us, and then I went to Flagstaff. I sew there maybe four or five months and then came back.

Where did you work in Flagstaff then?

It used to be Easy Mill. It’s not there anymore.

What kinds of things did you work on at Easy Mill?

Sewing.

Sewing jeans or curtains or—

Sew t-shirts.

Did you go by yourself or were there other young people?

There are a lot of other people.

A lot of other Indian people?

Yeah. Most of us are trained at Winslow. Winslow, Arizona.

What was there at Winslow? A school or a factory?

Well, that was sort of a school because they train us and they let us live in a motel, hotel. When we finish that, we can go anywhere.

Where was the school in Winslow? I’m just curious. Was it downtown or out—

It’s kind of out, outside.

East of town or west of town? I used to live in Winslow. That’s why I’m wondering where.

It was a railroad train, other side.

On the south side of town.

Yeah, it’s away from town.

That’s where the factory was where you trained?

Yeah.

Was it mostly Indian people or were there other—

Yeah, mostly Navajo. I didn’t see any other Indians.

So BIA, then, set this up for you, is that right?

Yeah.

So they sent you there to learn how to sew and to be trained on machines, sewing machines.

Yeah, sewing machines.

Did they help you find a job from there, too, then?

No, I can’t sew. I’m too slow, because other people are fast. So I thought I can’t make it, so I came back here on my own.

You came back to Los Angeles?

Intermountain, because I just happened to see the newspaper, Navajo Times, somebody want a babysitter, so I said, “I can do that. So just by chance I’ll call her,” the lady. She say, “Yes, come here.”

Who was this lady then? Do you remember?

I don’t remember.

Where was the job at then?

It was somewhere in Fullerton, I think, or something like that. I’m not sure where that is, but—

But the woman put an ad in the Navajo Times. Was she Indian herself?

No.

How did she know to put an ad in the Navajo Times?

I don’t know. That’s what she did. That’s why I called, and then she said, “Come, come. I need babysitter,” she said.

So how old were you when you did this? Because you were about twenty-three when you—

Twenty-something.

In your early twenties.

I believe twenty-three. I don’t know.

So you answered an ad in the paper for a babysitting job. How did you get from Intermountain to Fullerton then?

From reservation I came to Fullerton.

From Klagetoh. Catch the bus?

I catch the bus. She pay—

For a ticket.

She pay my ticket. So she pick me up and brought me home, and then I worked there for a few months.

What was that like? Did you like it?

It was nice, very nice people.

The people were nice?

Uh-huh.

Good place to stay?

And then I start—my friend working in a factory said, “Come and work with me,” she said. So I apply. They hired me. They hired me right away.

Wow. What kind of work?

It was something to do with—my job was gluing a big piece of sheet—I don’t know. Some are small. Some are big. And then just pass on. I don’t know what they do over there.

So it was just piece—

So it was kind of glue, yeah.

—assembly work then.

Yeah. That was a good job. And then I left again, back to babysitting.

Why did you leave the job?

I don’t know. I went to babysitting again for this lady for a few months.

The same woman or another woman?

This one was—I think I came from Intermountain. I work for her for two, three years, maybe less than two years, and the boy is growing up. He’s able to—not too much work for me to do. She can go—I don’t know, but, you know, I can’t do this for life. I want to do a job. Then suddenly I left that job to work in a factory again. It was downtown by the train depot, station.

Los Angeles?

Uh-huh. The factory’s not there anymore. They were working with rubbers.

With rubber?

Uh-huh. They bring us the small piece—no, the smallest quarter on [unclear] so just have to stick onto something. That’s how my hand got so ugly, because we had to put this on to push it. I worked there maybe almost a year and then I left.

Where did you go from there?

I left, I think, back to reservation—

Back to Arizona?

—and reapplied to BIA again. They trained me for nursing.

Tell me about going back then. First of all, the factory you found on your own and the babysitting you found on your own. What was the first job that you had on relocation?

Babysitting.

So was that when you were about twenty-three or twenty-one?

Yeah, about nineteen and twenty.

Between nineteen and twenty. Let’s talk about that for just a minute. You said you got the babysitting job. Tell me how that worked. You were at Intermountain.

Uh-huh.

Did the teacher, the counselor, come and talk to you and say, “There’s a babysitting job open for you”?

Yeah.

And so you were nineteen or twenty then, right?

Uh-huh.

Did they offer to pay your way out here then, or how did you get out here?

I think they pay our way, and they gave us money so we can—

Have something to spend?

Something to spend.

Did you come by yourself?

I stayed in maybe hotel or something. I don’t remember that part. I remember I was staying in a hotel one time.

Did you come by yourself?

From Intermountain?

Uh-huh, that first babysitting job.

There’s a couple of us came.

Another woman?

Another girl, two. I know two or three of us are kind of close, but there are others too. Some are already here, but I don’t see them no more.

So the school came to you and said, “There’s a babysitting job. We’re going to pay for your bus,” or—

I just chose to go to Los Angeles and I—

Oh, that’s right. You said they gave you a choice. What were the other towns they said you could choose from?

Chicago, and there was other cities, Denver, San Francisco. I don’t remember the other one.

Was the understanding that they had babysitting jobs at each one of these cities?

Mostly, yes. One teacher told us that when you go on your own, you had to go be on your own. “Go back to school,” he said. I didn’t pay attention. So my friend was going to school, but I went to night school a couple months, maybe.

You chose to come to Los Angeles.

Yes.

Why did you choose Los Angeles? Did you have friends out here or did you know anything about [unclear]?

Maybe a friend here in Los Angeles, because my friend are choosing L.A. So I did choose to go.

Chose L.A. too.

Yeah.

So they said you could go to one of these cities and there’d be a babysitting job there for you. And did they help you with the rent?

Well, when we came, they look, the people that brought [unclear]. What do you call these people? The people that brought us here, they look for job for us. I don’t know how they find my work.

But they did find—

Find somebody, yeah.

How long did it take them to find you a job?

Two or three days.

Oh, not very long, then.

Uh-huh.

And you stayed in a hotel, right?

Yeah.

How did you come to L.A., on a train or bus?

I think was train.

What was that like?

I don’t remember how I came. I think train came. It was something new.

Were you afraid or excited or worried?

I was kind of scare. No more school. I’m thinking now what do I want to do, how will I live in the future, but I don’t want to go home either, because that was too hard. My mom work so hard.

What kind of work did your mother do?

She doesn’t work. I mean she work at home.

Cooking?

She make a rug, take it to the store. We get food from there.

She trades her rug to the store for food?

Yeah, that was a hard job. I don’t know how she does. And besides I have how many sister? I think ten. I’m the oldest. Three brother, and one of my sister die, the one after me. So there was eleven, I think, eleven of us.

So you didn’t want to go back home because the work was too hard.

Too hard. I don’t want to hurt. She can’t handle that. It’s fun to herd sheep, but not for a living. And then sometime again I went to the BIA again to help me. This time I work for—I mean train for nursing and I start working at the L.A. County Hospital. I worked there for thirty-two years.

Oh, my goodness.

I retire four years ago.

Did you work at this county facility up here on State Street?

Yeah.

Did you like working there?

Oh, I loved it.

So the BIA paid for your schooling then to—

Yeah.

What kind of program did you go into, LPN or LVN or—

Just nursing assistant. And one of the representative tried to help me change, “Don’t go to nursing. Go to something else,” he tells me. He keep tells me that. I don’t know, but I can’t work in the office either. I don’t like office work.

No?

I want to keep moving around. I like to walk around.

So you went to work at the county hospital, and that was a good job for you then?

Yeah, it’s good job.

Was that sort of the way that other people did it too? If the first job didn’t work for you, you could go back to the BIA and they would help you again?

Well, that’s what I did, yeah.

Were they happy to help you the second time?

Yeah, they don’t say anything.

How did they know to send you to nursing school? Did you request it or show an interest in it?

Yes, I request for it.

How did you know anything about nursing?

Always something make me think that I want to do that work.

Did you have a friend who was in nursing?

No. I just apply, and they put me training over there, the school across from L.A. County.

From the hospital?

Uh-huh, that’s where they trained.

How long was your training? How long did that last?

About six month.

Was it easy for you or hard or—

It’s kind of easy.

So you enjoyed it, working?

Uh-huh. And I go to school there, too, on my own, and I learn a lot there, my math, my English and spelling, vocabulary, and stuff like that, so basic stuff.

How many years did you go to school then?

I go off and on all this time while I was working at L.A. County and then finally finish my GED in 1987 or ’86.

Oh, my goodness.

And then I should go on, but I stop. I slowed down. Something I do to not quit and don’t go back.

When you were in the program and living out here then, did you meet any other people on relocation?

Yeah, the girls I came with. The two of them were friend. They didn’t get hired.

Did they find jobs at all out here?

I don’t know if they find a job or what.

Did you ever speak to them again after—

I didn’t see them when I left from there because they stay over there at the county dormitory. They have dormitory there. We stay there.

Did you stay there too?

Uh-huh.

So it was associated with the hospital?

Yeah.

Was it for single women or single people, and you could stay there while you worked or went to school?

Yeah, for students, for doctors. Well, doctors are a different building. Just one building is, I guess, for everybody.

For everybody, medical students and nursing students. While you were living out here then, what kinds of things did you do for fun?

For fun I used to like beach to go to.

How did you get around? Did you have a car, or bus?

Bus. I used to catch the bus everywhere. And other than walking or jogging, I participate in the 10k run sometime.

My goodness.

I can’t do it now.

So you were an athlete.

Yeah. My friend was Japanese, a Japanese lady, and she likes to run and she’s fast, too, so that’s what we used to do. I don’t know where she go. I don’t know. Don’t see her no more. She’s a nurse, a registered nurse.

She must have moved away.

She move away, maybe back to Japan. I don’t know.

So you liked sports. You liked to go to the beach. What other kinds of things did you do for fun or recreation?

For fun, anything.

Movies?

Sometime we’ll be a—

Go out to eat.

A picnic. Sometime go eat out some places.

Did you get married and have children or have a family out here?

No.

You don’t have any children?

No.

It sounds like you probably spent a lot of time at work, though, didn’t you?

Yeah.

Different shifts and different hours.

Yeah.

Is this the only county facility that you worked at or did you go anywhere else to work?

No, this the only place.

When you first started working then, did you meet lots of other Indian people?

A few people.

How did you meet them?

At work. As soon as you get to know, they disappear. I don’t know where they go. Back to New Mexico, Arizona? I don’t know where they go. Or another city.

I met you at the church last week on Sunday. Tell me about your work with the church. Or how did you get involved with the First American Indian Church?

I was downtown and this lady, this is an old friend of mine, she saw me, and I didn’t know who was calling me. Her name is Marian. I went to Cortez School. That’s where I got to know her.

You mean when you were younger, you also went to Cortez School?

No, that was during ’68 or ’69. I came to L.A., ’69, I think it was. I only went there, like, half a year and then I didn’t go back to Cortez. That was a mission school.

What was the name of the school in Cortez, Colorado?

Cortez Navajo Institute something. It’s not there anymore.

I remember there was a school there, but it was a very small one.

Yeah, very small. I should take advantage of that because they teach you a lot. They teach singing, how to sing the note, how to read notes. I didn’t go back because I don’t have any money, no transportation, so I chose to go back to—

Intermountain?

No. Something. Maybe that’s when I went to—that’s when I came back to L.A., because I spent two months at home because I don’t have any money. When I came back to L.A., they pay my way to babysitting.

Who paid your way? The BIA?

No, the person—

Oh, that’s right. Your employer then.

Yeah.

So you’re walking downtown L.A. and you heard someone calling your name.

So she told me, “Come to church at First American Indian Church.” I say, “Yeah.” I didn’t know there was a church or other Indian church. I didn’t know. When I got to church, too, I go any church, anywhere. I never thought there was an Indian church here.

It never occurred to you to look for one then?

No, but she told me, “Come to church. We live nearby.” She told me all about. So she give me her phone number, so I came. That’s when I came—I think I came to church.

Do you remember what year that was?

It should be ’60 or ’70.

My goodness, that’s a long time ago.

Because before 1970, I think I work in the factory somewhere around in L.A. and I go back to reservation, apply for nursing. I start work in 1973 for L.A. County.

So it was after 1973 that you found the church there then.

Yeah.

So you started going to the church?

Uh-huh. I go there when my day off. I work Sundays. I work most Sunday all the time, so I don’t go to church until when I retire, I start coming to church.

On a regular basis then, right?

Yeah.

You were able to go on Sunday.

Uh-huh.

I noticed at the church there, quite a bit of the congregation is Navajo.

Uh-huh.

There seem to be some people I already knew and some people I’ve just now met, and a lot of them seem to be Navajo or married to Navajo people, husband or wife.

Yeah.

When you first started going to the church, is that the way it was? Were there a lot of Navajo people going to that church?

Yeah, I don’t come to church, but now come. There’s a lot of people. All the seats are full. Now the regular seats are full. That’s how I noticed that. It was a lot of people then, but I don’t come every Sunday. I don’t know, maybe some Sundays are like that. So I met Trudy. Her name is Trudy, very nice lady. She’s a white lady and she’s handicapped. She used to pick me up to go to church sometime. Sometime I go to her house and she teach us, teach me.

What did you study with her then?

Anything, anything in the Bible.

So she did Bible study then with you, for you, with you.

Uh-huh. So that’s how my friend told me about the church, so that’s when I learned there were some more Indian church.

Were you surprised to find how many Indian churches there were?

Yeah. Oh, yes.

What other kinds of things did you do with your time?

Wintertime, we—this is with the Japanese lady—we go to Big Bear to ski. We used to ski there too.

That was fun.

I don’t know. She has a friend that rent a place, a cabin, a little house, and we stayed there maybe couple days. That is fun, yeah.

It’s pretty there, isn’t it?

Oh, yeah. I can’t do that no more either.

Oh, you probably could, but—

No, no.

Let’s ask just a few more questions. I’m still interested in this—it sounds like you went to BIA maybe two or three times, either asking for work or looking for work or asking for assistance. Where was your area office? Where was the BIA office for you?

Where?

Uh-huh.

Well, it used to be downtown, over there—

In Arizona.

In Tuba City.

That was the agency office. How far is Tuba City from your home in—

It’s not far. It’s not too far, about twenty miles, maybe thirty miles.

Did they have a special office in the BIA that would help you with employment?

Yeah, yeah.

So that was someplace sort of like your own unemployment office then in the BIA. Is that right?

Yeah.

So when you would go to this Employment Division at BIA, would they give you tests, or how did they work with you to find a job?

Yes, they do, but they didn’t give me a test. Just sent me away. But if you want to particular job, yes, they test you if you want to go looking for—I don’t know what. I don’t know, maybe me, I just came to go look and train me. I think I said nursing. They didn’t test me. But they did say test, but they didn’t give me a test.

The nursing job you got through the BIA here, though, is that right? In Los Angeles?

Yeah.

But in Tuba City, I guess if you were already out of school but you didn’t have any work skills, they would just try to find whatever kind of job that they thought you could do.

Yeah, you find a job almost everywhere, I think.

People there at the BIA, did they speak Navajo then?

BIA, uh-huh.

So there was someone there that you could talk to in Navajo.

Uh-huh.

Did you prefer speaking to them in Navajo or were you able to speak in English and Navajo easily enough?

English and Navajo, yeah.

But there was someone there who spoke Navajo that could help all the time—

Yeah.

—and translate something or help you with something.

Yeah.

When you came out on relocation, if you can remember a little bit, tell me about how that was. Were you happy to be going somewhere or were you worried, or how did you feel about it?

Well, for me it was both. I’m happy to go find a job and work, one day own a car because it’s hard to get around on the reservation. That is what happened, mine. And sometime I get scared, live by myself sometime, but these days I live by myself, but I feel safe here because I know the neighbors are nice.

This is a nice neighborhood.

Yeah.

You’ve got the school right up here, so it’s not—

So I’m stuck right here for now. I don’t know. But in those days, you move anywhere, anywhere and anytime. It’s not like today. I move a lot those days. I move here and there.

You mean when you were younger and when you were first working, you moved different places?

Yeah, in those days I have, I guess, only my suitcase. That’s all.

No furniture, or very little things to take.

Yeah, but sometime I get homesick. Maybe sometime I want to see my mom, my dad, my sisters. I do come home. We just write letter to each other. That’s all.

Are your parents still alive?

No.

They’ve gone on?

Uh-huh.

When you were working, then, away, living away, were you able to go home very often to visit?

Yeah.

What was that like?

I’m happy to see my mom and dad.

And your home.

Yeah, and the animals, the sheep, the horses. I loved to ride horses in my young days. Nobody ride horse no more these days. The kids are spoil.

They all want cars or motorcycles or something.

Yeah. So I made it okay because I retire. I’m fine.

Anyone else in your family come out on relocation anywhere, your sisters?

My sister.

Where did she go? What was that like for her?

She came up here one summer and they went back. I don’t know where they go, but she chose to be a teacher. She went to NAU.

In Flagstaff.

Yeah. So she’s still teaching in school.

Oh, that’s good. Good for her.

I mean at Red Lake.

At Red Lake in Minnesota?

No. I mean Tonalea.

Tonalea, Arizona.

Yeah, near Tuba.

Near Tuba City, right.

Yeah, and my other sister working for—they call this—in Page, Arizona—Navajo Generator or something. She working there too. She work a long time. The other day she mentioned, “I work thirty-five years.” She’s better than I did. [laughs]

When you were doing all that work then at the county, at the hospital there, you liked it, but did you ever think of transferring back somewhere to Arizona to be closer to your family?

At one time I was thinking, and then I check it to see how much they’re making. They’re making way less than—

Less money.

Yeah, so I said, “Maybe I’ll just stay here.”

Well, it seemed to work, a good fit for you because you stayed at the job, you were able to work at the job for thirty-some years, and you have a nice home and have a nice church.

Yeah.

The people there are very nice.

Yeah.

If you had it to do all over again, you could go back and do that again, would you do the same thing, come out on relocation?

The relocation, yeah, but I might choose different stuff.

What would you do differently then?

Well, today, these days, computer technician or something.

You’re interested in that, then.

Uh-huh. Oh, yes, I’d like to learn it. I don’t know anything now. That’s the way I was with work. I don’t know what it means to work and earn money.

When you were younger, you mean?

Yeah. And they just say work, going to work, and that’s about it. What kind of work, I don’t know. Yes, in school they teach us, too, what kind of work you’re interested, and I don’t know what it’s about. At that time I don’t know anything, because some people, they choose—the students, they choose to be—there were library stuff, librarian. And what was the other one? The dormitory attendants, as I remember. For woman, it’s good, I think. But I tried dorm. I don’t like it. I don’t like attendances. I said, “No, forget it.” [laughs]

What about library? Did you try that?

No, I didn’t try, no. I don’t know what’s about library. The only thing I know is babysitting, because I used to babysit for my dorm attendant. She has a little boy, and weekend, she put me with her baby.

And you enjoyed that then?

I like it. And they teach us, too, over there, go to nurse the little children, take care.

You didn’t start a formal education until you were about twelve, you said. You said your mother decided for you that you were going to go to Intermountain. Was there just no school near your home in Arizona that you could have gone to?

No.

Where did other children—

Well, there are school, but the school is for young kids. I’m too old to go to school there, so they put us a special program, like five or six or eight years.

Right. You said it was an eight-year program.

Yeah, that’s all, and after that you go find a job and work. That’s why I don’t go to school.

Why is it you didn’t go to school when you were six or seven?

I don’t know.

Did your parents need you at home to work or take care of the other children, help your mother?

Maybe, yeah. My mom told me she don’t know. Once I got in school, it’s hard to live this way, she said, because the way she lived, working at home, you have to take care of sheep, take care of everything, cooking, had to make cheese. She did that.

Made cheese?

Make rug, yeah, rugs too. Earn some food. That’s all we have. There’s no welfare until way later.

And your house, did you live in a traditional hogan?

Yeah.

Or did you have another kind of house? Lived in a hogan, all of you and your sisters and brothers?

Uh-huh.

Did you have running water?

No.

Electricity did you have?

No.

Did you have gas?

No.

It was all wood, wood stove you cooked on?

Wood stove, oh, yeah.

Now that you’re retired, do you think of going back there to live or to stay?

Well, these days everything is different. There’s no place to go. I do think I may go back there, but not to stay there, maybe a couple months.

And spend some time there.

Uh-huh.

Do you still have your family, your brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews?

Well, sisters and brothers, yeah. They live there.

What was it like living in Los Angeles in those days, though, when you were working and getting around and going from job to job? Was it a good place to live, do you think, or it was just where you ended up?

Me, I like to go catch the bus and work. Work, work, work, that’s all I do.

That’s what you wanted to do, wasn’t it?

Uh-huh. And sometime I find school, something to learn. Like, I didn’t know much about math. That’s what I take during my work.

When you started nursing?

Yeah, but these days, the math are different, very much different of the way I learn. I don’t know anything looking at that, because you have to learn all the way from the beginning again for me.

Almost. Seems that way, doesn’t it?

Yeah.

Did you ever think of taking any classes in adult school, or did you ever try any of those courses that they offer for anything, computers or—

Yeah, computer. I took it.

How did that work for you?

It was good.

You liked it?

I love it. I took classes for—this is after my retired in ’05. No, ’07 to last year, I took computer class.

Wow, that’s long. That’s, like, two or three years.

Uh-huh. Yeah, it’s very slow. For me it’s very slow. Some people do right away. She gave me certificate. I earned two certificate. The third one, I didn’t get it yet. It’s over there. I meant to pick it up, but I keep forgetting it.

Those are really all the questions that I have for you, Kathy. Someone, your nieces or nephews hear your recording on the web, hear you talk about your experience, is there anything that you’d like them to know about relocation or about your life?

Like them to know?

Uh-huh, that you’d especially like to let people know how your life went or how it was for you that’s especially important to you.

I wish I could put it in good word, but I don’t know how to say it.

Sounds like you worked hard and—

Yeah, I work hard.

—you had a good life.

Well, I do work—workaholic I was.

Was that a good thing for you or was that—

I think it’s good, yeah. Keep me busy. Keep my mind busy.

Keep earning money.

Money, yes. You can’t go without. Well, I really don’t know. I wish I could say something good. I can’t think right now.

Well, it sounds like you had more opportunity here maybe than you might have if you had stayed in Arizona.

Yeah. Yeah, I did it. I learn a lot as I go. What did I learn? Well, anyway, I learn how to live, take care of yourself in the city—

Right. How to be safe.

—how to meet the people, yeah, some people. I met a lot of people with different language. Some I don’t understand. Most of them I don’t understand, you know, another country. A lot of people working at L.A. County and they hardly speak English, so you don’t know what they’re saying. Sometimes they say something you don’t barely understand. But that was good, something new to me. That’s about all I could think of right now.

Well, that’s fine. I appreciate your thoughts and your contribution you made. I’m going to turn the machine off now, if that’s okay.

Okay. [End of interview]