Yes. In fact, (and I really don't know that this is true) it was not easy
for me because, as you can imagine, I was suddenly thrust from an
environment of such security, such security: knowing everybody, and my
world was, you know, so secure. And then out on the ranch there was a
school on one corner of the ranch, but they didn't have the seventh and
eighth grades. Now I really could have gone in high school at that
point, because I had been having algebra and Latin, as I remember. But I
was a
Page 31 little hesitant about it, this new
situation, and so I thought, "Well, I'll go in the seventh grade."
Picked it all up by myself while going to seventh grade
[Laughter] . So I don't know, probably my
uncle got permission for me to be going to the seventh grade. But when I
came in one of the boys told me that the principal, who had both the
seventh and eighth grades and the administration, naturally, I suppose,
didn't want another pupil. He may have said this and he may not have
said it, but anyway this boy (I still remember his name, a red-haired
boy
[Laughter] ) said the principal didn't
want me because he said I was from the South and that I would be
backward, and that it would be difficult for me to keep up [unknown] and I might have a lot of extra work to do. Now
whether he did or he didn't, I don't know, but anyway . . . it was not
very pleasant for me. As I say, I was just thirteen. And I had to come
all by myself; I rode a bicycle from the ranch into town. And when there
was a flood (as there used to be before the dams were built) I'd really
have some problem getting across these channels, you know, full of
water. Then this boy that I was telling you about, he used to stick his
foot out almost every time I went down the aisle. I can remember one of
the Hawks boys (I never could remember which it was, whether it was
Kenneth, Howard or what Hawks), but one of the Hawks that later became
famous in the movie industry used to take my braid
[Laughter] and put it in his inkwell
[Laughter] . And I'd get it all over my dress and have a nice
mess when I got home to try to get that off.
But then gradually I made friends and made my place. Then the eighth
grade, [unknown] by then they had put in the seventh and
eighth grades out on this little Center school at the corner of the
ranch. I had to go there because I was in that district to the eighth
grade. I didn't want to, because I
Page 32 already had my
friends here, but I had to. And there were some very rough girls there,
I can remember. Their fathers were foremen on some of the ranches, and
they really didn't like southerners; they were mean, really mean. So I
was very glad when my father sold the ranch
[Laughter] . We moved into Azusa and I was back with my
friends.