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Good morning. My name is Ann Shi. I'm with the Houston Asian American Archive. Today is Oct 28th, we're interviewing Mrs. Susie Gee. And thank you so much, Mrs.

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Gee for joining us today for this interview. Thank you for having me. Yeah, to start. Can you tell us when and where were you born? I was born in Rosedale Mississippi.

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July 21 1932. Could you share with us a little bit about the

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neighborhood you grew up in? Well, actually, it was... My father had a grocery store.

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And actually we live in the back of the grocery store, which he-it was a house that he had built.

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And we grew up in the store. And when we were all enough, I guess you would say we would help in the store too. I had older brothers and sister because me

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being a younger one, I probably didn't do as much as they did. But it was– it was a small town. And we had customers— my father had customers that came in and usually asked for him

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because he spoke English, which my mother did not. She did speak broken English. And we used to just run around in the

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store. We couldn't when we got older enough, I cannot go to the school. That was in Mississippi. And they

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had built— I would say they because I don't really know who did it— but they had a school in Cleveland, Mississippi, but all the Chinese kids that could not go to school in Mississippi.

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So they had a school there that taught grade 1 to grade 12 they had two Caucasian teacher, one would teach one to six and the other

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one teach six to twelve. And after they taught which was around— I would say— eight o'clock to probably three or two, then there would be a Chinese teacher that would come in and teach us Chinese.

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So we had both languages in one school. And we travel back and forth from Rosedale to Cleveland, Mississippi every day to go to school. And when we were, when we came home and until

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probably when I was going to— I would say the last part of elementary up into the junior high, my father heard that in Tennessee, there would allow Chinese to go to school

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there. So we moved. We had two or three other cousin which was four, family got together and bought a house there. And we all went to

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school there and Memphis, Tennessee. And I was there up until junior high when my brother said that he needed help in the grocery store here in Houston.

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So that's when I moved here to Houston. That's so interesting. And what languages does your parents speak? You said your mom...

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Mostly my mother speak Chinese. And so I had to speak Chinese to her most of the time. My father speak both English and Chinese. So you know, we had like I guess Chinese and English at

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home. And I think, actually we spoke Cantonese, you know, not Mandarin. And we had, well, all my brothers and

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sisters spoke Cantonese, too. But I've lost a lot of that since I don't speak it hardly anymore. It's been 20 years and I, since I've had people that I can talk to, you know. But I do remember some of it.

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And I do understand a lot of it still. Yeah, yeah. That's so helpful. And wondering, did your parents— were born, were your parents born in China?

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They were born in China. My father came over when he was very young. And, gosh, I really don't know how old he was.

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But I knew that he was because all of us were born here in the United States. You know, and he came over first and then he went back and got his wife and brought her over.

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But if you asked me what year that was, I don't know. I just knew that they– they came over and all of the— all the kids who are born here in the United States. Do you remember they speaking about which city

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and why they moved? All I know is that I think they were from Zhongshan, they called it. In Guangdong? Guangdong? I don't know.

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All of that was only one that I heard that they thought they were from Zhongshan. You know, and they did say it's changed now. So I don't know. I've never been back to China. And actually, my parents had never gone back since they moved here.

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You know. And when your parents first moved here, did they have any family here? No. In fact, he had brought over his two brothers.

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He had two brothers he brought over. And they he had a paper sister. And she, I think she was the one that actually brought up that about the Chinese not

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being able to go to school in Mississippi. And she came here to Houston before my father did. And we came over later, after she had invited him over,

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said that it was real nice here and everything else. So that's when— that's when he sent my two brothers here to go— well, we all worked in a grocery store all our lives. So my two brothers came over here and they opened a store,

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one store at first, and they open and the second one, and they needed help. So that's when I said I was going from junior high to high school.

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I would just move here to, you know, to help them out. And so that's when I moved to Houston. To help my brothers out in the stores.

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They had one on Lyons Avenue and one on Hardy Street. Interesting. And what were the primary produce that you sell in the grocery store? Oh, mostly anything.

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One thing I did notice that when I came here, it was very unusual. Because at home on this Rosedale, we had all the canned goods and all the grocery around the walls of the store

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and there was a counter around the whole store. And every time a customer would come in, we would have to get the item for them, you know and sell it to them like that. But when I came here to Houston, it was self

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serving the all the goods were out in the store in the people just pick it up, and go and check out at one place, you know. So anyway, that that was the one thing that I thought was very unusual, but

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that's– that's what we did. Yeah, and I think all of us had worked in the grocers were all of, you know, ever since we were young. So we knew how to count and all this and that.

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That was one of the things, first thing that we did learn how to do is count, and can make change and everything like that. But you know, my mother, even those she cannot read or write.

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She did pick up a load of English, but she can really add, because she can add up some items without adding machine or anything you know, and collect, you know, from, from

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the customers. We did have all type of customer In fact, there was what back then, we used to call them "colored people." And those were the one that mostly come into our

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store during the weekend, because they would be picking cotton during the weekdays. And so on the weekend, we will have them all come in, you know, in trade and things like that.

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So he did have a mixture of white and color. I guess they call them "black" now. But that's what that's the type of business that we had. You know that we just saw groceries

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from me to canned goods and things like that. No clothing, but you know, just food I guess you would call it. Yeah. So interesting. And– but you're also serving the kind of— you call it

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back then, I guess "colored," but now we call "black" community or "people of color" community? Yes. Yeah. And what what the demographics like in your neighborhood? Is it primarily black or people of color?

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Yes, I guess you would say because there was a lot of people that pick cotton at that time. Because I remember going to a home of one of them, you know, at one time; and they asked me if I wanted to pick

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cotton. I said, "Sure." You know, how cotton is real soft. But when you go out to pick a cotton, it has all these seeds in it. That is not as soft you have to get the the cotton around the seed and things

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like that, where they send it to a mill or something to do that. And I said, "How come this is so hard?" You know, because I always thought that cotton was really soft. You know, and they told me, "Oh, no, this the way

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cotton is." But it's really hard to pick cotton. And that's what they did mostly there. But when I came to Houston, I noticed that now you see the– the end of

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Main, North Main Street, I remember— was the Medical Center. There wasn't anything beyond that, you know, in fact, Methodist was that and we thought...

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I said, "Golly, that's a long way to go," you know, from where we live. And that was the end of Houston. They did have one restaurant a little further out. And we thought it was pretty far out.

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It was a seafood restaurant, "Guy dolls" that they had out there. And once in a while we would go there to eat. But that was the end of Houston, you know, and that showed you how much it has grown since then.

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Because I came here in Houston in the late— I guess I would say in the 50s, or early 50s. You know so.

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Before, I guess before we move on to Houston, can you share with us some of your earliest memories back in the neighborhood? Some of my earliest memory and in...? Growing up? Well,

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yes, I guess you would say it's a... we had actually we did not the Chinese most least kept to themselves. And we usually have dances and things like that,

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that we will have at the at the school because they had a large floor on the top above the school. And so we will have dances there. And then when we move to Memphis, the

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house that we bought was pretty large and my... Because of my sister being older, they did have parties there a lot. You know, most of the parties are hardly remembered.

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But I do remember that at one time, we had... I don't know what you would call it, but it was the "Flying Tigers." We had one of the cap major that came with his crew.

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And they came to visit our place in at home and thing like that. And I remember one of them said, "Oh, you're my little sister." I says, "Okay." You know, and he... But it was very sad that I think

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later we heard that it was their plane was shot down, and all them has passed on. And when I was going to school in in Tennessee, I don't remember too much about it.

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But I do remember that. I did have a few friends there. But most of all, I kept to myself because I had a cousin that was about my same age and we played a lot together.

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Then I also had an older cousin that taught me how to shoot a bow and arrow. So we did that, you know, back then there weren't too many toys that we— like tronic toys and that we have— we used to cut out, there

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was what we call paper dolls, paper dolls, the cardboard, the dolls, it comes in a book and dolls were cardboard, and you have to cut out the dresses to fit them onto the dolls.

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And I don't remember in too much more toys that we did play with, except for dolls and things like that. Shirley Temple was one of the biggest thing during that time.

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And always wanted hair like hers because she had all these curls, you know, coming down. And there's not too much more to say I know that my mother used to have a couple of dogs in the house.

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And it was so funny that all of them every, everyone that she has she always call them "pooch". And the two dogs she had, she had, she had called them "pooch" girl; when she said pooch they both come running because they knew they were going to get something to eat.

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And she did keep a lot of cats around the house— to the store. So I, that's how I come I guess the kitty cats, I don't particularly care too much,

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because they rub up against you so much. But other than that she kept them around the house and she fed them also. That was good. But there wasn't too much to say about Rosedale because we didn't

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have anything to do. I noticed that a lot of time, I would just sit out in front of the store and, and see what was going on.

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Because actually our store was right across from the courthouse in Rosedale. So, but there wasn't hardly anything to do. There was a movie theater, and that was it. Did you and your family usually cook at home?

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Your parents would cook for you and your siblings? My parents would cook all the time. We never had cookout. In fact, I never went to a restaurant until

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I came to Houston. Because we never— even in, in Tennessee, we never went to a restaurant. We always cook at home. You know either my sister or my brothers would cook, but we never had,

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we never went to a restaurant until we came to Houston. And I think one of the first one that I remember going to is still here, is that Aladdin on West Gray. That was where my brother, him took us, took me there.

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And that was one of the first one that I remember going to. But now, and I think at that time, "Ding Hao" was on North Main. It was across the street from the

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Medical Center. And that was the first Chinese restaurant here. That I recall if I recall correctly. Yeah, that was by Linda Wu's father Albert Gee, right? Right. That was...

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Yeah. Yeah, that's her father. We were really good friend and thing like that. But really, I remember one time that Albert had this young boy there, and he would get him and he had bring

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him in. He says, "Oh, Susie, you gotta watch this." He put a steak in front of that boy. He said, "Do you know that, that old boy can eat the whole thing?" And he started laughing. He's like, "I just love to see

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him eat." So anyway, that's what he he would do, you know, thing like that. He was really a nice guy, though. We actually called him cousins, because their last name was Gee. And I married into Gee family.

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You know, my husband, and now. I met my husband, when I first came here, because of his brother, his brothers was one of them. That anyone that came into town, he would show them around his

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name was George Gee. And he would show them around. Especially they said, especially the women, anytime he see that there was a girl, anybody that came in, he would jump to it and go show them around.

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So what I— for what I heard, he went home and he told his brother, he said, "I have the girls just for you," you know. And that's how I met my husband is through his brother.

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And I think we were going out for at least seven years before got married, because we were gonna get married before then, but he was drafted into the service.

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And so we waited till we came out before we were married. Yeah, that's so interesting. I saw Susan wrote that, you were exclusively dating

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even when he was at... Right? Right. And I think when he was in the service, I had worked for a packing company for a

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little, uh, you know, for summer or so you know. And then after that, because we were saving our money to get married. My parents didn't pay for the wedding or anything like that. We had to pay for the wedding.

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And that's where Albert Gee came in, because he did cater the wedding for us, which is really nice, you know. But looking over, it has been a long time.

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But after, after we got married. We, he had— my husband had worked as a butcher for a while. And I worked as a clerk, a cashier, rather.

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In the meantime, he also worked in a restaurant and I was a hostess there. And then we decide to buy our own store. We had, had a couple of grocery stores.

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And during that time, I found out that my sister's husband was doing signs for grocery stores that they used to put out on in the front or on the windows of their special that they had.

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And so I went over to help them and things like that. And then so finally, we decided to split up, you know. And my husband said, "well, you can do it." I said, "No, I can't do any sign like that.

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They're too big." But he talked me into it. So eventually I did start painting signs for grocery store and thing. And in the meantime, he also went into

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the audio business too, with some friends he– he had met. And that we did. We were one of the first audio store, I mean, audio video store that was

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in Houston. In fact, they were trying to think of a name and I told him I said, "we should call it audio video." He said, "why audio and video?" I said, "because it's A and

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that's the first thing you would come up to when you go and look for video and it'll be A." And they said, "okay!" But we didn't have that much audio in it. We mostly had videos.

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Was one of the biggest, right, I guess a variety of movies and things like that. Because everything that came out we had, and we were known for that in Houston.

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And also, we will also known for promotions that we had there. In fact, we did one "Star Trek," and we did one of the "Ghostbuster." And there was several. And that

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"Jane Fonda" you know, and we won. In fact, we won a Jeep from one of them, one of the promotion did one first place on that.

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And the set that we did for "Star Trek", people had heard about it in Houston and some some of organizations that asked if they could borrow the set sometime and things like that. And the person that

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we had that promotion, it was really fun. Because the one that the Chinese that— what was his name that played in "Star Trek"?

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I mean, Japanese. What? George Takei, he came into town. And he was really nice. And he sat up there, and he would sign

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autographs and everything like that. And it was so funny that one of the customers says, "what planet are you from?" Because they really thought that... And he just started laughing, you know.

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But that was one of that. I really do remember, in some time, we would have Christmas parties for the little kids to come in and things like that. So

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I guess, we were I worked in the store. Actually, I had retired then, but I still you know, help them around in store, which was nice.

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It just to keep me busy. Yeah, I remember probably back then, like the video store were the kids hangout place. It's almost like kids would go after their school, and like pick out

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movies to hang out with, right? Well, we didn't show that much movie, but a lot of them would come in and rent a lot of the movies and things like that.

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Because I think we had over 60,000 titles. You know, most of them are very... I know brought by us and all them always say, "Oh, we got 2000 titles," and things like that. But we had 60,000

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different titles and things like that. And it actually with VHS, you know, and that was one of the biggest thing then and then DVD came along. But we did have the largest library, I guess in

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the United States, actually. Yeah. Yeah, I remember seeing a Houston Public Media podcasts about Susie's interview— I mean, Susan's interview, your daughter's interview a few years back in

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2015. That was about the AV— the Audio Video Plus store, and how like nostalgia people are still towards that kind of video culture, the entertainment, that back then we only have like VCD and

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DVDs. And yeah. Yeah. If you wouldn't mind going back a little bit regarding you mentioned the family, were only able to send you and your siblings to "Chinese schools", as opposed to "White

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schools". Can you tell us a little bit about your experiences back then? Actually, going to the Chinese school, everybody in there just were all Chinese.

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There wasn't any Caucasian or anyone but Chinese people. And actually we had, like I say two teachers, and they taught us the way I guess regular school did and everything like that, you know, because

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we did have an English teacher that came in, in the morning, and she taught us; and after that she taught us, then the Chinese teacher would come in and teach us Chinese.

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But there's not, I mean, I didn't have any problem with or anything like that. And we never had any problem with anybody complaining about it.

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Because I remember it was just a school all set by itself and it has itw own parking lot, playground and everything. And so that's how we had gone to school. How many families back then were in the school?

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Was it... There was quite a few because it— because actually they came from different little cities or town around there. I mean, it's just like even the town that I live in,

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my- my father had a cousin that has a store there. So his kid went to that school too. And then there was a few towns

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around Cleveland, Mississippi, that other. And I remember, there was a Lin family that live in Cleveland, they were there. But there were quite a few family, different families that did go to the school, you know, the

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one that had kids around there. But I don't remember, I guess when we were in my class, I think there was only three of us that

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were in my grade. There were two boys and myself, you know? And then of course, my sister she, like I have three older sister.

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And they all have their, you know, grades there too. But I don't remember how many families were there. That's tough, but now I would say probably at least 30 maybe.

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Is that all the Chinese families in Rosedale back then? No, there were probably more than that. Because actually, when I came to Houston, I'm finding out there was quite a few people that were there in Mississippi that I've never met

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from a different, you know, different little towns and things like that. And they said that they had gone to that school after we left there. You know, and they all know about the school and thing like that.

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But there were quite a few family here in Houston, Houston that used to be in Mississippi. And they have moved here. You know, and I

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didn't know them there, but I have met them here. It's just like when I came here to Houston, actually, the population of the Chinese was very few. In fact, they had quite a few gatherings

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all the time, you know, different family and thing like that. Because everybody knew everybody, because it wasn't such a large group of Chinese that was here.

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During that time, it's just that everyone started moving into here. But for a long time, it just seemed like there weren't that many. Do you happen to like know, whether curriculum taught

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in your school? And... I'm sorry, what? Do you happen to know if the curriculum taught in your school versus the other schools could be different? I really don't think so.

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Because actually, the teachers, the teachers, what they were teaching and, and because when I went from that school to go into the elementary school in Memphis, I didn't, I wasn't put

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back a grade or anything. I just continue on, you know, with the studies there. It's just that I know that in Memphis, there were more kids in the classroom

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than what I was used to or anything like that. But I, the, as far as them teaching us, you know, was– was the same as they would teach in– in any other school.

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Yeah, I was actually just learning from Dr. Chao, our program manager yesterday that there was a father back then in Mississippi, who allowed his daughter to attend White schools; and he tried to sue

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them for that and but lost the case. Do you happen to know that case? You... asked her some of that. What was it? Oh, yeah.

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It was a... I mean, it was actually in a book that was written that, a woman whose father sued the State of Mississippi to allow his daughter to attend White schools; but he lost the case. So yeah, I'm just— I'm not sure, I haven't like checked into the detail of

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that story yet. But what do you happen to know about that story? Or had connection to that person? What was the store, Ann?

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Oh, it was about a story about a woman whose father sued the State of Mississippi, because... Correct! So, just the background, she kind of, she... we don't firsthand know the story as much.

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But as my mother had said, she had father had a paper sister. And the paper sister was of that family. And it was called "Lum versus the Board of Education". So I'm not really sure on my facts as to what year that

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actually took place. But, yeah, so those families also ended up moving to Houston. The three siblings that we knew that were the— it was, her name is Kate Lum

00:36:46.450 - 00:36:56.420

now, but so her maiden name, I guess, would have been Kate Wong. And she had two daughters and a son. And it was the two daughters, I think that were

00:36:56.710 - 00:37:13.200

part of the "Lum versus the Board of Education." And so all three of those those children also moved, but I'm not sure about the timeline of the timetable. They were here before we were, they moved here before we did.

00:37:14.730 - 00:37:25.480

I see. Yeah such interesting history. So my mom actually moved here. I think I told you in the... in the 50s. But the rest of the

00:37:25.480 - 00:37:38.100

family didn't come. Her father and the other siblings, besides her elder brothers didn't come until later, a couple years later, so. I hope that helps your timeline.

00:37:38.710 - 00:37:47.790

I know you're trying to weave all these stories together, makes it interesting. Thank you. Yeah. That's really helpful. Like the answers from.

00:37:48.410 - 00:38:01.990

Yeah, you helping me to weave through the timeline. Thank you. And I was wondering what kind of expectations did your parents brought you up to... with? Like, what kind of family values that

00:38:01.990 - 00:38:18.420

your parents brought you up with? Family value that my parents brought me up in? I know my father had always told me at one time, you know, that,

00:38:23.370 - 00:38:44.990

I guess you would say, "Look, life is for the living and not for the dead." That was when my younger sister passed on. Actually, he never had gone back to her grave site. She was buried in Mississippi.

00:38:50.980 - 00:39:08.440

But as far as value, I guess we know that we were not supposed to do, you know, in fact, I hear a lot of people when they talk sometimes, they would curse something, I never learned to do that.

00:39:09.410 - 00:39:29.800

I have never, I have never been able to do that at all. And I know that he had never done that before. And, and the thing about it, he's, he used in

00:39:29.800 - 00:39:43.620

Mississippi, he never went to the... He never went to the church there but he would donate money to the church. And he would send us to the church, in Miss- in Mississippi, in

00:39:43.620 - 00:40:00.210

Rosedale Mississippi. And I think at one time, when they had the Christmas program, the pastor had given my sister a wrong time, when the, when the program

00:40:02.110 - 00:40:19.140

was supposed to start and we were, we were an hour late. And so he said, "Oh, I guess it's just like, you know, the Chinese they have an hour late time." And

00:40:19.140 - 00:40:35.790

my sister went back and told my father. And after that we had never gone back to that church. But when we moved to Memphis, we did find another church that was Baptist Church that we did go there.

00:40:37.290 - 00:40:51.990

And my father, because he worked in the store all the time, he had never gone to church in Mississippi. But when he moved here to Houston, he did go to the Chinese Baptist Church.

00:40:52.690 - 00:41:05.060

And he did join the church then. And he had gone every Sunday since then, back he was one of the deacons. And he was one of the repairmen,

00:41:05.510 - 00:41:19.550

whenever they did is something to be repaired, he was down there to help them out. Because he did do a lot of work on his home, you know, like housework, and then anything that needed to be fixed, he could

00:41:19.550 - 00:41:36.220

fix it, you know. In fact, when we built our house, he was the one that went out there every day to make sure the construction was done the way he wanted done. You know, so that house is still standing

00:41:38.150 - 00:41:54.670

here in Houston, well I sold it a few years back, you know. But my daughter passed by day, she said, "Oh, it is still there. And I still see the fence there and everything else," you know. So I'm pretty sure it'd be there for a long

00:41:54.810 - 00:42:11.110

time, in fact, is was the only house that we know of— I mean, the only street when we live there, only one that didn't flood in the time. You know, it was in the Lindo section, and a lot of the street around

00:42:11.110 - 00:42:33.210

there flooded, but that street did not flood, for some reason. Wow, I'm sure your father did such

00:42:37.740 - 00:42:54.790

a good job that it was— and will last longer much. Oh, yeah.

00:42:55.220 - 00:43:10.070

Amazing. What kind of career did your parents expect you and your siblings to go into? You know, there's one thing. My parents never did expect us to do go into anything,

00:43:11.010 - 00:43:17.760

but we just, he just wanted us to do whatever we wanted to do. And this is the same... And it's the same

00:43:17.790 - 00:43:33.590

way with the picking our spouse. They never decide on "Oh, you shouldn't marry him, you should marry so and so." So whoever you pick is yours. He had always told us that, "whoever you pick,

00:43:34.600 - 00:43:45.680

is your husband. I'm not going to be the one to live with him; you are." And so out of all of us that were married, none of us had gotten a divorce.

00:43:46.800 - 00:44:03.420

We all stayed married until our spouse passed on. And I'm sorry to say I think I am the only one that's still living in a family. But my husband does have three sisters that are still

00:44:03.420 - 00:44:23.400

living and all of them have passed on. But that's one thing I'm proud to say that, I guess we don't believe in divorce. You know, you just work things out. But like he was married to her or my mother over

00:44:23.910 - 00:44:41.140

50 years. Wonderful. And I guess the question is, so what, what kind of... Oh, the business. He never, in fact, my oldest sister.

00:44:41.610 - 00:44:53.620

She be, she was a nurse. But the rest of us when we married, their husband went into the grocery business. So all of us was stayed in the grocery business.

00:44:56.580 - 00:45:11.160

You know, I think I- I am probably the only one that went outside of the grocery to have the video store, my husband decided on the video store. We did work in the grocery business, we did work in the

00:45:11.310 - 00:45:30.480

restaurant, and finally ended up in the video store. But he had never told us that we had to do one thing or another. Now my oldest sister, she married a dentist. And so but she was a nurse before then.

00:45:30.480 - 00:45:42.940

So I think professional. They were, they were the only one that had gotten a profession other than the grocery business. My oldest brother had a grocery store.

00:45:45.210 - 00:45:56.950

And so did my youngest one. I mean, but he never had told us that we had to do one thing or another.

00:45:59.910 - 00:46:09.020

So we all went out on our own and decide on what we wanted to do. And that's what we did. That was, you know. That was wonderful.

00:46:10.060 - 00:46:25.510

And now, what was the church domination that you went to? Chinese Baptist Church. Yeah. It was most of the Chinese community there as well? Yes.

00:46:25.560 - 00:46:40.900

In fact, most of them were there in the early years. I did teach Sunday school there. That was when they were down in— I think it was Lamar.

00:46:41.790 - 00:47:01.970

That was when we first had– had the Chinese Baptist Church, they call it. And we were there for a long time. During the early years, I remember teaching

00:47:01.970 - 00:47:15.240

Sunday school there. And back after some of the kids grew up there come and say, "Oh, Ms. Gee, I remember you teaching me Sunday school!" And I cannot remember them when

00:47:15.240 - 00:47:30.070

they were young. But we had fun doing that, because they had they had different socials there to, you know, things like that. And one that they really, the Chinese people,

00:47:32.310 - 00:47:52.250

another thing that we did, we have what they call a bowling league in the Chinese community, you know, that was that, because so many people here in Houston, had grocery store or restaurant.

00:47:53.060 - 00:48:09.740

And they had worked, you know, seven days a week, and didn't have time out. So we would have a bowling league for some of the younger groups, and they would go in once a week. We will have teams and things like that and compete, you know.

00:48:11.110 - 00:48:28.650

But every year, we would have an annual dance with Simon Kohn. And sometimes New Orleans would come in.

00:48:30.530 - 00:48:43.320

And we will have a dance here or we will go there, you know, with the Chinese community would get together to put us... but that's once a year, you know, they would have something like that.

00:48:44.110 - 00:49:01.350

Even now, the CACA has been having few social like, a social dinner or something like that, or a scholarship for the young kids.

00:49:04.210 - 00:49:24.780

And we still have a young CACA youth club here that the Chinese would get together every so often. I am not as active is in the CACA

00:49:25.840 - 00:49:40.050

but my daughter is now. Yeah, and at one time when I was in the we had an auxiliary to you know, but now they combine it. So we don't have an auxiliary anymore.

00:49:40.050 - 00:49:53.890

We just have a CACA meeting. But at one time we did have an auxiliary and I was one of the president of the auxiliary. And at that time Pearl Buck who wrote "The Good Earth".

00:49:54.650 - 00:50:05.600

She came into town and we had the honor of having a luncheon for her. Yeah. Which was really nice. You know, she, in fact, we

00:50:05.600 - 00:50:20.690

went to "Ding Hao", with the... to have that luncheon and thing like that with them. So that was really nice. And we also invite, like, sometime they would, during the...

00:50:21.210 - 00:50:36.660

we would have the dance that they would have a "Miss Chinatown," they go out to San Francisco. And so sometimes we would have those, whoever win would come in and we would honor them with a luncheon too,

00:50:37.160 - 00:50:50.770

things, you know, different social and thing like that. Even though now we still try to, you know, at least see our friends once in a

00:50:50.810 - 00:51:06.860

while. But it's harder even now, but I do call them ever so often. It's wonderful. Going back a little bit.

00:51:07.430 - 00:51:17.550

Can you tell us a little bit about your college life? I felt like in the 1950s there were probably... Yeah. Well, I didn't have too much of a college life.

00:51:17.820 - 00:51:33.910

But I did go to University of Houston for a year. And then my sister wanted to go to Sacred Heart. And so I said, "Okay, I'll go with you there." And I went there for a year or so.

00:51:33.910 - 00:51:54.790

But I'm… I, I went to University of Houston for a year. And then I went to Sacred

00:51:54.790 - 00:52:08.590

Heart Dominican College. And for about a year or two, and I never graduated because by that time, I think my husband was out of the service.

00:52:08.880 - 00:52:22.360

And we decided to get married. So I never went back to school then. But other in my life, at one time when I was in high school— no, elementary,

00:52:26.330 - 00:52:39.230

a little girls on me, a friend of mine that was sitting across from me, she was drawing a picture and I looked at and I said, "What are you doing?" She said, "I'm drawing a picture." And I looked at it and I say, "you know that

00:52:39.230 - 00:52:53.410

look exactly like you?" She said, "it does." I said yeah. I said, "I didn't know you could draw," She said, "Oh, it's so easy. Let me show you." So that's when I really start, you know, taking up drawing and things

00:52:53.410 - 00:53:09.190

like that. And I did do mostly instead of drawing, I did lettering. And I think that came in handy when I went in, did the signs for the grocery store.

00:53:09.890 - 00:53:24.660

Because you have to have an eye just like if you were going to print something, you have to have an eye to look forward to see how much space you have; otherwise you run out of space before you get to the end of the word. And that's one thing I did learn to do.

00:53:25.490 - 00:53:37.240

And that probably helped me when I did paint signs for the stores that I had, you know. But now I guess they don't

00:53:37.300 - 00:53:49.320

use that they can have it printed out real easy. Now compare it, I mean, they don't have custom made signs. So like, but I don't see them in the window anymore. It's mostly printed out already.

00:53:51.970 - 00:54:06.170

Yeah, but I do feel like that nostalgic of like, the handwriting is so important for many people. So having that skill to like, draw and have like, hands-on creativity is really important, I'm sure.

00:54:08.670 - 00:54:27.270

Yeah, I really like printing I guess or writing. In fact, one of my friends, she liked my writing so much that she asked me if I would do all her wedding invitation. And which I did you know, I said, "boy,

00:54:27.270 - 00:54:40.930

that is really som-." But it was over 100 and something invitation and I wrote everyone of out for her because she, she wanted it to be script and thing like that and I said, "okay, we'll do that." So I wrote them

00:54:41.130 - 00:54:58.590

all out for her and and gave them to her and she was real happy about that. But I do like to— I guess you would say, I do put myself into a lot of different things. That, but I'm not really a

00:54:58.590 - 00:55:14.560

master of any of them. Like I've worked with letter before, you know that I could do lettering on, I do lettering on leather goods. And I do a lot of crochet, sewing.

00:55:15.380 - 00:55:35.090

In fact, when I was younger, and I had my daughter, I used to make matching clothes, you know, all the time with her. And one of my friend told me, she said, "When she grows out of those dress, will you save them for my daughter?" "Oh

00:55:35.090 - 00:55:45.500

Sally, you know you gonna have one?" And she said, "Oh, I will." And which she did, she did have one. But by that time, you know, we didn't give her the dresses.

00:55:47.370 - 00:56:01.430

But anyway, I do have a lot of hobbies, I guess you would call it, more than anything. You know, like I say I have a lot of hobbies, a lot of things that I can do, but I'm not a

00:56:01.430 - 00:56:14.270

master of any of them. Except I guess, for writing and thing. You know, because I do love to print and things like that. So in once in a

00:56:14.270 - 00:56:28.340

while I will draw different things. But I do a lot of that on shirts and things that at one time when they came out with those, you know, where you would paint the shirts

00:56:28.340 - 00:56:42.430

and thing, I would do that. But most of the time, I would have to get a pattern, which is like if I see something, I can draw it. But there has to be a pattern.

00:56:43.940 - 00:56:55.700

You know, and I would get a dress that I like. But there's something that I don't like about it, I would change it and make it my own. In fact, I designed my own wedding dress.

00:56:56.340 - 00:57:07.270

And I had somebody make it for me. And she told me, I told her exactly what I wanted. And she did exactly what I did. So and

00:57:07.560 - 00:57:19.080

I brag about it. I said, "I probably the only one that got married in the $25 dress." Because I went out and bought the material and thing like that, and she made it for me.

00:57:20.290 - 00:57:35.920

And so that was one thing. How was still wedding like? How was your wedding? How was my wedding? I think I had I think I had five bridesmaids and the

00:57:35.920 - 00:57:50.960

groomsmen, and five groomsmen, and my cousin and there were the flower girl and, and the ring bearer. And it was so...

00:57:52.380 - 00:58:06.190

in fact, I was really happy about the wedding except for one thing. We had it at a church and they had put all these beautiful flowers up and they like that. But after the wedding, you know, you

00:58:06.190 - 00:58:14.960

usually have a reception right afterwards. So we decided to go into the... they had a big hall there. So we went into the hall for the reception.

00:58:16.210 - 00:58:27.010

And we said we take the pictures later. But by the time we went back into the church to take the picture, they had taken the flowers away because they were having service

00:58:27.050 - 00:58:43.560

then. So we didn't have the... we didn't have a lot of the pictures of the flowers that we had there. And we did take pictures of the bridesmaid and groomsmen outside of the church and thing.

00:58:43.860 - 00:58:56.200

But other than that it was great. Yeah. And I think we had in fact, I told my husband I said, "Are you sure you're gonna invite

00:58:56.200 - 00:59:11.130

all the...?" We had over 200 something people there. Because I think we bought invite everybody in Houston at that time, because they— like I say it was a pretty close knit, you know, group of people, you

00:59:11.130 - 00:59:18.880

know. That everybody knew everybody. If they didn't know me, they knew my husband. And because he had such a large family.

00:59:19.070 - 00:59:27.630

Everybody knew them. You know, there were 13 in there, in his family. So you know, counting the parents.

00:59:28.470 - 00:59:43.430

So. That's really interesting. I guess we didn't cover, what subject did you study in college? First in U of H, then in Sacred Hearts. U of H, I went there.

00:59:44.310 - 00:59:58.290

I don't know why I went, because actually, like my father told me, he said, "I could go; if I don't want to, I don't have to" and thing like that, because I knew what I was going to do

00:59:58.290 - 01:00:06.630

anyway, already. I was gonna get married. And you know, and thing like that. And I wasn't looking for

01:00:06.630 - 01:00:26.710

anything that, that was like being a teacher or anything like that. So the only thing that I would if, I would have gone for, if I really wanted to, I would look for something in advertisement.

01:00:28.870 - 01:00:45.570

That's what, but I didn't. I mean, it wasn't. It wasn't something that I really wanted to do. But I would go into our advertisement. Because I did have a friend that used to draw for the

01:00:45.570 - 01:00:58.340

newspaper and things like that. He would draw these for battle scene, these fashion and things like that. And I guess I-

01:01:00.980 - 01:01:13.970

I really liked the way he did a lot of things. And I would ask him about it. But then I said, "No, I don't think I want to do that." So I, none of my, when I went to college, I just took

01:01:15.370 - 01:01:32.670

what you call accounting courses. Because most of it's just like I worked in the grocery store, and you learn a little bit more about things like that, you know.

01:01:32.740 - 01:01:49.010

So that's, that's what those are the courses that I did take. And that was it. But like I say, as soon as my husband came out of the service, we were planning our wedding, then you

01:01:49.010 - 01:02:01.640

know, and he was gone. He was in there for two years. Back, I taught my sister and his sister, at that time, I couldn't, I didn't drive.

01:02:02.550 - 01:02:18.050

And so I talked them into going... he was stationed in Fort Sill. So I took them into driving me up there to see him in Fort Sill at one time. So we drove up there and we spend a night

01:02:18.950 - 01:02:30.820

or two up there and we came home. And when he got out of the service. You know, like I say the most of the, the enjoyment you have, if

01:02:30.870 - 01:02:45.590

you don't bowl or anything like that, we didn't have anything to do, we go to a movie. But he didn't want to, we didn't go to a movie for two years, because every day in the service I saw he did was, see a movie.

01:02:46.270 - 01:02:57.750

Because they usually, he said they would get it first, you know, before it goes out to the public. And so he would see every movie there was. So we didn't go to a movie for a

01:02:57.860 - 01:03:18.230

couple of years. He was... Is that love for movie also one of the reasons, that your— he decided to start a audio video plus shop? No, in fact, that came quite a few years later.

01:03:19.250 - 01:03:31.570

Because when we first got married, like I say we had the grocery stores. You know? In fact, yeah, we did work in a grocery store.

01:03:32.120 - 01:03:44.120

He had worked in a grocery store. And then in a restaurant. And I had worked as a cashier too.

01:03:45.540 - 01:04:01.030

And then we bought our own grocery store, we had a couple of them. Then after we were in the grocery business, he was, he would go out and

01:04:01.030 - 01:04:19.800

he... there was a, because actually it wasn't that busy. I would stay there with a butcher that we had hired. And he would go out and meet some friends. And that's when he decided with his friends to go into the

01:04:19.800 - 01:04:36.730

video business. So that's when from there, we sold the store to go into the videos business. It wasn't because he– he had watched all these movies.

01:04:37.260 - 01:04:55.450

Yeah, but it was what I think video is coming out at that time to be one of the— and we were probably one of the first one that's up. That would be a good thing. So we had opened the videos store, then it was the first

01:04:55.450 - 01:05:05.270

one that came up, you know. And, but it wasn't the last one to close down. I

01:05:10.220 - 01:05:24.140

guess, maybe you were still very, very young back then. But do you happen to have some of the memories about World War II or any topic related to that during... World War II.

01:05:27.260 - 01:05:41.970

My brothers served in World War II. And I remember I had to write to them. Because my mom could not write. And I was only one that she would ask.

01:05:42.660 - 01:06:02.910

And I would write to both my brothers. And they would tell him, you know, they would tell me different days of what they did. But as far as my

01:06:03.020 - 01:06:17.560

father would listen to the news every day and thing like that, but I don't remember that much about the going on in World War II. But.... trying to think...

01:06:22.080 - 01:06:41.350

no, I can't say that I do remember a lot. I remember, Roosevelt was talking a lot on the radio, that's what my father would be listening to and thing like that. I see. I think I remember the very first time when they

01:06:45.130 - 01:06:58.430

they started the war. But it's been, you know, some time if you don't talk about it, you actually lose your memory on certain things. You know.

01:07:01.040 - 01:07:15.090

But I do remember some time, I don't remember what I was listening to. But I remember our big radio there, one of those graphic box radio type thing. You know, and they said that they would start a war and I was

01:07:15.090 - 01:07:35.290

yelling at my father to come here, come here, you know, and that was it. But other than that, I don't. And when they did get out of this service, my father had sent both my brothers to China to get a wife.

01:07:37.480 - 01:07:51.370

And so both of them went to China. And they both brought back a wife. And that's about all.

01:07:51.370 - 01:08:01.710

But you know, when they were in Mississippi, they stay there for a little while. And then he decided to send them here to open their own business.

01:08:02.160 - 01:08:14.130

And so that's what he did. He sent both are here to open their own business. But other than that, I guess, I don't know

01:08:14.130 - 01:08:32.190

whether he would call them or or... I don't know, maybe. Actually, I was really surprised that you know, when he did bring them back a wife and things like that, but they all seem to be really nice.

01:08:33.660 - 01:08:53.670

My, you know, my second, now— my second brother , she went and tried to learn in fact, she went to learn English. And so at the store when I went to help them,

01:08:53.670 - 01:09:06.960

she would say, "you talk to me in English, and I would answer you in Chinese. That way I could pick up more English and you could pick up more Chinese." So we did do that for a while.

01:09:08.120 - 01:09:21.300

You know, but after all that, I had forgotten a lot of it. You said your husband was in the army for a number of years.

01:09:21.770 - 01:09:36.940

Where was he stationed? He was stationed in Fort Sill. In fact, he was there for a long time. He was a cook there.

01:09:38.630 - 01:09:53.970

And I told him I said, "you don't cook." He said, "but I can read." So he decided he wanted to be a cook, which suited him very nicely because he likes to sleep, you know, early and then wake up early and things like

01:09:53.970 - 01:10:13.270

that. And all during that time, whoever was in command once in a while, he would make something special for him so that he would stay there. And he actually get his whole tour in

01:10:13.480 - 01:10:25.740

for sale, you know, as a cook, he brought home a cookbook. And he gave it to his sister. And he said, "Hey, sis!

01:10:25.740 - 01:10:35.300

I've brought you something." She said, "What?" "I bought you a cookbook!" And he, she said, "Really?" He said, "yeah." And he gave it to her. And she's, she said, "I can't use this.

01:10:35.580 - 01:10:50.200

This is 100 and something people. I'm not gonna cook for 100 people." He said, "What? Can't you divide it down?" So I don't know what happened to the cookbook. Anyway, that was so funny, that he brought her my cookbook

01:10:50.600 - 01:11:05.980

that he used in the service. But you know, and you could imagine, like, "use 100 pounds of potatoes" and things like that. And he was telling me at one time, he told this soldier, he says, "Go wash the

01:11:05.980 - 01:11:17.770

strawberry." And he says, "okay." He goes in there. And he like, "what are you doing?" He said, "I'm washing the strawberry." He had put soap in the water to wash the strawberry.

01:11:18.540 - 01:11:35.320

And the soap that they use were, used in, "Lasso," you know, Lasso soap . And they had to throw all that batch away. Like, I'm also curious, how was it like bringing up

01:11:35.490 - 01:11:50.380

three children? Did they also help in the grocery store when they weren't bringing up— when they were growing up? You know, my daughter, I took her everywhere I went. In fact, they would say that she was probably

01:11:50.790 - 01:12:08.510

the only girl that was brought up in a bowling alley. Because we went to bowl, she would go with us. And then when she get tired, she just lay on the benches then go to sleep. My two boys, they weren't any

01:12:08.510 - 01:12:24.490

trouble. In fact, as I grew older, my mother had taken care of them most of the time. They didn't grow up in the grocery store, like I did.

01:12:26.210 - 01:12:40.580

Most of the time, they would stay with my mother. Or, my husband's mother, because we would go by and pick them up and things like that. But, and then when my daughter

01:12:40.580 - 01:12:50.680

started school, she would stay mostly with my husband mother, my mother-in-law. After school, she would come home from school and go there.

01:12:51.850 - 01:13:10.900

So we would go pick them up after we got off for work. Yeah, I didn't have in fact, I had a lot of help from my parents, both parents, so I didn't have any them in the store with me as much.

01:13:12.780 - 01:13:29.310

So who are the client- clients, or the customers for the gro— the new grocery store in Houston? Okay, the first one, I would guess you would say it was white, and

01:13:36.330 - 01:13:53.470

Mexican, you know. And then the last store we had was in a black neighborhood. So that was what we had mostly. In fact, it was so that one

01:13:53.470 - 01:14:10.070

store that we did, there was the last one. The gentleman that had the store was robbed and shot, but he lived. And we bought that store.

01:14:11.040 - 01:14:25.850

And then there was someone that came in and robbed us at that store. And I was the only one there, my husband had gone out to deliver it some- some of the signs that I had

01:14:25.950 - 01:14:43.860

painted. And so I walked out after he left, I guess you call it stupid me, I walked out to see and I saw his car. And I went back in and then when I– when I

01:14:44.010 - 01:14:55.720

call my husband and told him that we were just robbed and thing like that. He said, he said, "did you call the police?" I said yes. So when he came back that night, we happen to be driving around.

01:14:56.760 - 01:15:12.260

And I looked at, I says, "That's the car!" And he said, "What?" I said, "That is the car, the guy was driving that robbed us." He said, "Are you sure?" I said, "Yes, that's the car." So we call the police and told him that the car was there anything like that.

01:15:13.000 - 01:15:25.610

They caught the guy. We had to go down and identify him and everything like that. So we all went in, we went into the court room and the head, man there.

01:15:26.250 - 01:15:40.290

It was, at first they asked you to identify him in a lineup. And we did. And what he did was put on a jacket to try to disguise and I said, "No, that is the guy that robbed me." And so when we

01:15:40.380 - 01:15:55.600

went to the court for his court day. We were sitting there and thing like that. And they had called him up and said, "Who in this court room know him and

01:15:56.020 - 01:16:11.910

had rob, and had been robbed by him?" I tell you, everybody in that courtroom stood up. Yeah. And so they did caught a guy that was really, you know, what, what was great, you know, and I couldn't

01:16:11.910 - 01:16:22.950

believe it. I turned around and look and I said, "Oh, wow. I cannot believe that." So I don't know whether he was, how many years he got for being in prison or something like that.

01:16:23.000 - 01:16:41.250

But he was caught. Yeah. So anyway, that was one of the experience. And I guess we just when he went with his friends, and they were working around, and things like that, and they thought

01:16:41.250 - 01:16:56.310

about getting theater and all this, in that, you know, that's when they were starting to talk about the video store in thing. So then that's when he decided, he would that's what, that's where he would rather go into.

01:16:57.990 - 01:17:12.910

So it was this one guy that was a lawyer. And then there was another one that he knew from University of Houston. And that's when they decide to go and do partnership and have a,

01:17:13.240 - 01:17:29.130

you know, start thinking about video store. They had a little business first, and then they went into the video store, because that's when my husband bought the video store with a friend of his, which was...

01:17:32.130 - 01:17:47.280

his father was a jeweler, and we met him. And he talked to him about that. And so that's when they went into partnership. They're going the first video store there was.

01:17:49.340 - 01:18:01.100

But it was my husband passed on before we could actually open the store. But he did work in there to get it ready and things like that.

01:18:01.100 - 01:18:16.620

But he did passed on before the store was actually open. And we still stayed its partner and thing like that. So I did go work in the back.

01:18:17.970 - 01:18:29.370

You know, like even though, because I had retired and thing like that even though I didn't get paid. But I had do, I did some of the bookkeeping and things like that there.

01:18:31.120 - 01:18:50.530

So during my lifetime, I guess you would say that I've worked in restaurant, grocery store, mostly. And for while we were in the theater business, which was right before or actually

01:18:50.880 - 01:19:10.330

during, before we had the video store. We had own theater, which was called "Champion theater". I don't know exactly how things

01:19:10.330 - 01:19:26.600

went on in that way because usually I just let my husband take care of all the business part of the thing. And I just go along with whatever he wanted. And then they did when he decided to go into video store, I

01:19:26.600 - 01:19:42.230

said okay. So we went that way and ever since then, that's what we were doing. We had worked in the store. And I just helped with the promotion and I

01:19:42.230 - 01:19:58.410

helped with the bookkeeping, and that was it. It was something that you know, to keep me busy, even though I didn't, I didn't make any money and things like that. But it was enough to get me this.

01:19:59.350 - 01:20:17.070

And as long as I was busy, I was fine. And how long are you and your husband in a theater business for? I think, actually, we were not even in the theater business for a year. It wasn't. I remember, we had

01:20:17.070 - 01:20:34.110

opened the theater business and things like that, then decided to not go that way. I guess you know. They... he handed it off to his partners.

01:20:34.110 - 01:20:52.380

He didn't want anymore do with it. His partners, oh, continue doing that. And then that's when he went into the video business instead. Because I don't think we were in there not

01:20:52.380 - 01:21:11.650

even a year. I'm also wondering what are some of the most important and significant friendships that you've built? Like during the years of your working, you said in restaurants and the grocery store and the theater, like at

01:21:11.930 - 01:21:28.850

the audio video plus shop. Like did you end up becoming friends with some of the customers or the regulars of those shops? Hmm. I don't think so.

01:21:28.850 - 01:21:44.560

Because I knew a lot of the customers and things like that, but actually being friends with them, not as much, because I still socialize with a lot of my Chinese friends.

01:21:46.510 - 01:22:00.100

And I guess business was business, and then I don't think I had any close American friends.

01:22:01.010 - 01:22:16.560

When I was going to school, high school here, there were a group of five of us that used to hang out quite often. And I never felt like I was any different than any of them.

01:22:17.940 - 01:22:32.220

Because they all were really nice and things like that. In fact, one of my friends had kept in touch with me for a long time. And she was asking me, because I never

01:22:32.220 - 01:22:44.530

went back to any of the reunion. And she was asking, she said, "you know," the last time that I talked to her, she called me. She said, "Susie, you know, you have to go back to one at the reunion.

01:22:45.160 - 01:23:00.980

Because all of us are dying." And I said, "Really?" She said, and she was telling me a couple of friends. A couple of the students that we knew, did passed on, you know, thing like that. But she had gotten married, and I don't

01:23:01.690 - 01:23:16.220

know her. I don't know her last name any more. So I haven't kept in touch with her. But she did know my name because she knew my husband, you know that we were going together.

01:23:18.760 - 01:23:34.640

And she knew we got married, but I haven't heard from her in a long time. So whether she passed on or not, I don't know. Yeah. But those were probably the closest I've ever come to any of my school friends.

01:23:36.030 - 01:23:48.510

But as far as business friend, the only friends that I know that at the time when my husband was in the cinema, you know, was in the theater business.

01:23:49.380 - 01:24:02.210

There were a few that we knew and socialize with. But I haven't seen them now in

01:24:02.210 - 01:24:17.900

a while. But if they were not close friend we just once in a while, I mean, they used to have a ball— a softball team, that's what it was. And we will go and watch them and I had gotten to know their

01:24:17.900 - 01:24:33.050

wives pretty well and thing like that. But other than that, I don't, I haven't socialized with too many Caucasians. Most of them are Chinese.

01:24:34.390 - 01:24:49.720

It's not that I don't like them anything like that. I guess I don't see them that often. And never thought about it. Were you

01:24:53.310 - 01:25:20.680

able to make any friends that are of African or Latino American descent?

01:25:27.900 - 01:25:43.050

Even with the people that we had hired to work in the stores. I don't think so. But like I say, there was one year, there was one guy that when they played

01:25:43.410 - 01:25:58.960

ball that we talked, I could talk to a lot. But actually, I would say, I don't really socialize with any of them at all, you know, I don't see him outside of just like if

01:25:59.010 - 01:26:19.420

they play ball and things like that is... After I thought about it, yeah, that's true. Most of the people that I socialize with are Chinese, you know, that I have

01:26:19.730 - 01:26:39.140

lunch and things like that with. Now, my daughter has a friend that she calls and talk to her a lot. And I do, we do go out with her a lot.

01:26:39.300 - 01:26:54.840

But in fact, we used to, in fact, we used to go with her and her husband to Vegas a lot. Yeah, my husband

01:26:55.130 - 01:27:10.620

and, and her husband, we would go to Vegas, and we would play the slot machine and thing like that. But then another word, most of the Caucasian that I would socialized with, or people that we were in business

01:27:10.620 - 01:27:23.560

with too, you know, and things. So I would go with her. And we will go together and play slots and things like that. And back,

01:27:28.740 - 01:27:42.360

those were the journaler. There's a journaler that he passed on to, but him and his wife. But when we came back, we never went out together though.

01:27:43.200 - 01:27:59.370

Most of the time it was in Vegas that we were when we go and make a trip there. That was when I would see them. And I guess for your children, like can you share with us some of

01:27:59.370 - 01:28:09.430

your children's, like your memories and experiences bringing them up? And what are they doing now? What profession are they in?

01:28:12.380 - 01:28:24.380

Well, one of them had passed on. He died from cancer. And you know what Susan does. And my oldest son, I have four grandkids.

01:28:26.680 - 01:28:41.610

In fact, it was so funny that it took him a long time to finally get married. He's married to Caucasian girl, which is really nice. I really love their family, because their

01:28:41.610 - 01:28:53.690

families for like our family, you know, they're very, they think about each other and all this and that, you know, and it's a large family. She has a large family.

01:28:53.690 - 01:29:08.670

In fact, she has her sister. It is so funny that her brother has a set of twins. Her sister has a set of twins.

01:29:09.160 - 01:29:20.550

And she has a set of twins. So there's three sets of twins in her family. And when my son had his first

01:29:20.550 - 01:29:36.450

child, he called and said that she was pregnant, and I said, "Oh, great." And thing like that. So anyway, on the third one, on the third one, he said, "Mom, Carrie's pregnant again." I said, "That's good." "And she's gonna have twins."

01:29:36.450 - 01:29:51.580

I said, "What?" Anyway, she did have twins. And what was so unusual is my- my husband has twin brothers. And she has twin a twin aunt.

01:29:52.760 - 01:30:11.020

So I guess it had to come in the family somewhere. But anyway, he's in physical therapy. And she is a professor at the University of— what is that Susan?

01:30:12.360 - 01:30:32.870

St.- St. Edward's University in Austin. So they are living in Austin and every so often we would go and visit them, or they would come down and visit. In fact, they were down here probably a couple of weeks ago.

01:30:34.150 - 01:30:45.910

And so I guess it's our turn to go up there. But we haven't been up there. Because, you know, because of this virus and thing like that. I hardly go anywhere.

01:30:46.820 - 01:31:05.610

Susan is the one that goes out, and she would buy the groceries and everything like that, you know. And I just stay home. In fact, that they try, I

01:31:05.610 - 01:31:17.800

tried to get out every so often just to walk around or something like that. But when they are home, I usually do go in, you know, we mingle together.

01:31:18.340 - 01:31:32.100

Which my son is very careful with his kids, in fact, he's teaching them at home, instead of sending them off to school and things like that. But they're all doing fine.

01:31:33.210 - 01:31:47.760

And I get to talk to them FaceTime every so often when I call them. They were, you know, they were talking to me about what they were doing and thing like that. Which was really surprising

01:31:48.580 - 01:32:02.110

'cause one this past birthday that I had. I said, "kids," they came in and I say, "kids, you know what I want for my birthday?" And they're their ears all perked up.

01:32:02.150 - 01:32:13.180

"What, what, what?" And thing like that. I said, "all I want is a homemade birthday card." And they were all shocked. You know thing like that?

01:32:13.640 - 01:32:29.150

And I said, "well, that mean y'all better start on it." And one says, "Oh, that's a long way off." You know. And said, "before you know it, it'll be here." And they all did make me a beautiful birthday card.

01:32:31.240 - 01:32:44.530

So I was happy with that. How old are they? How old are your grandkids? Right now? I'm at 88. Oh, how about your grandkids?

01:32:44.900 - 01:33:01.290

My grandkids? They're 13, 9, and 7. No— 13, 11 and 9. 13, 11 and 9.

01:33:01.290 - 01:33:19.050

The twins are 9 years old now. Wow. I guess, how are you coping in the COVID? I guess like...? Well, you know, my daughter back then bought my iPad

01:33:20.200 - 01:33:30.900

quite a while back and they have games on there. A lot. I do try to play some of the games. They said if your mind is working, and so on.

01:33:30.960 - 01:33:46.310

And so you should play this game. So at that game, Intuit and I've tried to work a lot of the games and things like that, which I do most of the days. Because I don't hardly do anything else.

01:33:47.360 - 01:33:59.140

Except, you know, I need to wash it, when I need to wash my clothes, which is easy, you put it in the washing thing like that you don't have any of the homework and thing.

01:34:00.750 - 01:34:19.240

But other than that, I just sit around. Sometimes I would crocheter still and call my friends and catch up on the late gossip and thing, and ask how their family is doing.

01:34:20.030 - 01:34:32.030

And sometimes they will call me so next thing I know the days gone. You know? Yeah, yeah, you're taking it easy.

01:34:32.150 - 01:34:40.480

And oh, yeah. Getting socialized on iPad and all that. That's great. Oh, yeah, my iPad.

01:34:41.300 - 01:34:55.760

In fact, my iPad, what it tells me is, "oh, you're not on as much as you were on last week. You were four hours down." Or it would tell me, "Oh, you are on for eight hours this week." I

01:34:55.760 - 01:35:09.790

mean, it tells me how long I've been on the iPhone at some time. So I think it's really funny. I was surprised when I looked at it one day, and it told me what, when I was on how many hours I was on the,

01:35:09.870 - 01:35:26.480

like, wow, I was on that long. So if I don't find anything else to do this, what I do go to my iPad, and I do play the games and things like that a lot. And a lot of time when the kids come in, I would have them, you

01:35:26.480 - 01:35:40.890

know, before this, as far as I said, I would have them and they would sit on my lap, and they might then they would play the game. With me and all of us, so it's enjoyable.

01:35:41.500 - 01:35:56.520

Yeah. Good to hear. And I'm also wondering to switch note a little bit that, like, during Covid, early on, we kind of had some xenophobic kind of attacks on the

01:35:56.890 - 01:36:13.220

Asian American community, as well as the current president calling the virus the "China-" "China Virus" or "Kung Flu". And I'm also wondering, like, since your upbringing, in Mississippi, and now in

01:36:13.290 - 01:36:34.900

Houston, like, throughout your life, have you been like, in any way attacked due to your Asian heritage, or, like Asian, I guess, American identity? You know, I have, in fact, it's so funny I'll do in my life.

01:36:34.900 - 01:36:52.770

I've never thought of me being a Chinese. You know? Because I guess all my friends never separate me from them. So a lot of time, I would go with

01:36:52.770 - 01:37:14.560

them. And they like that, and I never thought of myself being different. And my parents, they have never taught us that you know, that there was a difference in color or anything, you know, so we haven't really...

01:37:19.860 - 01:37:32.020

I guess that's one thing. I, when I started thinking about it, everywhere I went, it seemed like my friends, you know, they all treat me as if I was one of them.

01:37:32.020 - 01:37:46.700

So I never thought too much of it. Because in the group of friends that we had, there was also a Mexican girl that was there. But at that time,

01:37:47.700 - 01:38:03.850

no black was in the school. You know, they segregate the black and the white. So I guess it never, in fact, when one time I was in Foley's and shopping around in this

01:38:04.230 - 01:38:18.980

Mexican lady come up and start speaking to me in Spanish. And I looked at her, I said, "I don't speak Spanish." I told her in Spanish, because that's one thing. I said, "No Espanol." So she said, "Oh," and she

01:38:18.980 - 01:38:29.870

looked at me kind of funny. And then I start thinking, and I said, because I was out in the sun so much that I was very dark. I was more dark compared

01:38:30.020 - 01:38:47.790

than I am now. And I said, "Well, I guess they could have very easily mistaken me for that," you know, but I never thought of anything being different because no one had shown

01:38:48.380 - 01:39:12.240

me that I was different. That's definitely a very inspiring note to hear. We weren't like, yeah, like, supposed to be thought of

01:39:12.380 - 01:39:26.320

or treated as different beings. I remember one time when I was in grade school, I guess you would call it. There was this one boy, that he said something and it did stick with me.

01:39:27.230 - 01:39:42.970

But my sister, she said, "just ignore it." He said, "Ching Ching Chong." And I said, "What?" And she said, "Oh, don't pay any attention." And so we walked away and that was the one and only time, you know.

01:39:44.650 - 01:39:56.760

But I have never heard that again. And I guess I never thought of it that way. Yeah, and you said that was the Mississippi?

01:39:58.100 - 01:40:13.630

What? Yeah, that was In Mississippi. But in Mississippi, you know, it's just like they call the black names too and thing like that. So we don't pay any attention to that.

01:40:13.680 - 01:40:28.300

Because when we had a lot of customers that were black, they all came in, we kid around with them, we talked to them and everything like that. So, you know, but like I say, we never

01:40:28.610 - 01:40:40.830

socialized with them, we never socialized with Caucasians either. You know, they were just customers that came in, but they, they knew my father's name

01:40:40.830 - 01:40:57.710

and things like that. And, you know, and I never saw any of the kids, most of the— most of them came in to shop, and they might that they'd never had any kids around. So. It's very seldom that we would see

01:40:57.770 - 01:41:15.820

kids. And your- your children, your three children also hasn't an experience anything like that, and in their schooling, in college? As far as I know, they haven't they have not told me of anything like that.

01:41:17.610 - 01:41:36.110

But I haven't heard anything that they've experienced anything like that. That's good to hear. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for sharing. Oh, yeah.

01:41:37.030 - 01:41:52.110

And I also wonder, wonder, since we're approaching the end of the interview, like what are the proudest moments in your life, or the proudest achievements that you would like to leave for the archive to remember you

01:41:52.110 - 01:42:11.010

with? That I guess I would say that I had lived a pretty good life. And

01:42:18.100 - 01:42:37.030

that's my family, is what I want. And all my relatives are really— the one that are still here, they're all real nice.

01:42:37.340 - 01:42:55.430

And they've always been close. We've always been a close-knitted family. I don't think there's anything that I regret. Because I think I've

01:42:55.530 - 01:43:09.900

lived a pretty full life. I've had children, and I've had marriage. And my parents were really good. I mean,

01:43:09.920 - 01:43:23.700

what else can you ask for? You don't have any enemy. So that's one thing good. The way I see it now, is so funny.

01:43:23.870 - 01:43:36.400

You know, I hear about these deaths and things like that. It's really sad, that all these people are shooting one another. I wish they never had passed the law that you can have a

01:43:36.400 - 01:43:53.990

gun. My parents did have a gun, but they never never had it, where we could get to it or anything like that, you know, but I just hope things will be better next year.

01:43:57.440 - 01:44:09.630

Yeah. Really relying on everyone in this upcoming election too like, vote. Have you, have you thought about that? I'm sorry.

01:44:09.670 - 01:44:25.300

What? Have you got any thoughts you would like to share regarding the upcoming election next week? Well, not really, I don't worry, actually. Like somebody had said on TV.

01:44:25.300 - 01:44:37.420

I'm not a Republican, and I'm not a Democrat. But you vote on the person that you think is the best. But there is a lot of things that I

01:44:37.420 - 01:44:56.030

don't, I do disagree with the president now. But I hope we have a better year next year. This coming November. I'm just hoping things will

01:44:56.030 - 01:45:12.560

change for the best. Like I pray for that every day. That thing will be better. And it's been nice talking to you.

01:45:14.270 - 01:45:28.160

Thank you so much, Susie. Yeah. I hope I gave you what you were looking for. Definitely, there's so many learning about history, about people. And yeah, that's actually one of the

01:45:28.160 - 01:45:39.780

most rewarding experience to like, have that kind of very, like, the sharing of your personal memory. That's very, very heartwarming. Thank you. Yeah.

01:45:40.500 - 01:45:54.580

Thank you. Okay. Okay. I'll get in touch with Susan later on, because we may also be interested to collect the data, like, the address of the grocery stores that you ran in both Mississippi and

01:45:55.280 - 01:46:08.130

in, yeah, in Houston, that would be really interesting for a mapping project that we're doing online. If that's a...thank you, Susie. Uh huh. Thank you for having me.

01:46:08.860 - 01:46:19.040

I will, I'll be glad to fill in any of the information that you guys need, some of the blanks, I mean it was really good listening to the...