Name/Title
Nona Mock Wyman Oral History InterviewEntry/Object ID
RLG_102Scope and Content
This interview is part of the Represent Los Gatos Oral History Project series. Nona Mock Wyman, author of “Chopstick Childhood,” “Bamboo Women,” and “Ten Thousand Flowers,” was born in San Francisco. By the time she was two years old, she was transferred to the Ming Quong Home in Los Gatos, an orphanage for Chinese girls led by the Presbyterian Mission. Nona lived in the MQ Home until she was about 13, when she was then transferred to the Oakland home for girls. Hear her stories from the Los Gatos home, and the “radiant light” she was shared with many others beyond her time in Los Gatos. Included is also a short reading from her book, “Chopstick Childhood.” Read a complete transcript of the interview below. Grace: [00:00:00] Today is September 9th, 2020, and we're here doing an interview with you. So when were you born and in what city were you born? Nona: [00:00:12] Oh, this is a this is a joke I usually tell people, you know, when you're in an orphanage, you don't know where you were born. So I'll say, "Oh, I found out where I was born. No, the girls go, "Yeah, where?" "In a park." They go, "In a park?" I said, "Yeah, Menlo Park." And then I found out later that I was really born in Palo Alto. So that was the end of my joke. Nona: [00:00:41] Ok, so sometimes I tell people that. Grace: [00:00:47] How did you find out that you were born in Palo Alto. Nona: [00:00:53] I finally got my birth certificate. Grace: [00:00:55] Gotcha. OK, yeah. Nona: [00:00:56] Finally I found that out as an adult. So. So all through life, I just tell people I was born in a park just for the heck of it, for the fun of it. I guess you can do things like that when you're an orphan. Grace: [00:01:14] Yeah. Nona: [00:01:14] That's the advantage of being an orphan. Grace: [00:01:19] So I understand that you spent maybe the first few years of your life in San Francisco, though? Nona: [00:01:26] Oh, yes, San Francisco Chinatown, I didn't realize that 'til a lot later on in life, too, because you don't know much about your background, because the teachers never really told us anything. Everything was to protect the children at Ming Quong because of the reputation back in those days of prostitution. And so. That's what's going on right now with Uplift. A group of MQ girls are trying to set the record straight, that prostitution was way before our time so that it's just more exciting for the press to write things about prostitution. So Ming Quong got... So the girls from Ming Quong home now, the learned ones, that means, the person that's in charge has a Ph.D., so she knows how to handle things better than us girls that... My education in life was life itself. That's how I got to start running a store just because it became about. That's the way it was with my life. Grace: [00:02:39] I see, and so did you find out more about your mom from the people who were running the orphanage then? Nona: [00:02:54] No, really, from my from my half sister. Grace: [00:02:59] That's right, Nona: [00:03:00] She didn't go to the home because she was always threatened with, "you don't want to go to the home because they're mean to you and they're strict and everything." So that was kind of the reputation. Very strict. And so she had to stay at the family. Actually she had a worse life because she was a slave to her relatives 'cause grandma wasn't very nice. Our grandma. Grace: [00:03:24] I see. So how did how did you meet your half sister? Nona: [00:03:30] She would come to the home to visit. It's all it's all in my book. Here it is. Chopstick Childhood. Grace: [00:03:38] I got one too. Nona: [00:03:42] Yours is the original one. You know how much that's worth? It was worth about over a thousand dollars on Amazon or Facebook or something. Grace: [00:03:50] Oh, wow. Nona: [00:03:53] So and if it's signed, it's even more it's worth more. Like the second edition and actually it won an award for humanitarianism. There's a picture of me. Once upon a time picture, and this is way before my time. That's me. Grace: [00:04:14] Wow. Daniel: [00:04:18] Can I ask what inspired you to write the book? Nona: [00:04:24] My husband. He was a social worker, and he thought my story was just something to share and I go, "Who would want to read the book?" And then a friend that teaches Asian studies, he encouraged me also. So that's how it came about. Grace: [00:04:48] Ok, and this is your first one, right? I understand you have about three more? Nona: [00:04:52] That cover was done by my nephew. Grace: [00:05:00] So does it say Ming Quong here. Nona: [00:05:02] By China books. Grace: [00:05:06] Does it say Ming Quong in Chinese? Nona: [00:05:09] Yeah, that says Ming Quong. And then you can barely see it on this one. This says Ming Quong also because I wanted to get Ming Quong in there. There. Grace: [00:05:21] We might have we might have a second edition coffee at the library, too. I know that we have a few. Yeah. And so how many years did you live in Los Gatos in the Ming Quong home? Nona: [00:05:36] Los Gatos was about 2 to about maybe 13 years of age. Then I transferred up to the Oakland home closer to Oakland Chinatown, which was supposed to be better for us. So we get some kind of education about our background. But it was like not a very good experience because from quiet Los Gatos to living on the corner of a busy street was pretty chaotic. Grace: [00:06:13] And so when you were in Los Gatos, then you did you go to the grammar school on University Avenue? Nona: [00:06:24] Mm hmm. Yeah, I think it was university, you have to imagine it was. Grace: [00:06:29] I think that's what it was. Nona: [00:06:31] Yeah, I'm not sure what street it was, but it was an old Spanish building where they have some restaurants now or they did have restaurants. Grace: [00:06:40] Yes, that's right. So what was your experience like going to school? Nona: [00:06:47] Bingo was something else, too. She's the one that made the most money of all the girls. She's famous for her paintings and they sell for thousands of dollars to the De Young Museum and so forth. Grace: [00:07:01] What? What's her name? Nona: [00:07:04] Bingo. Bernice Bing. In my book "Ten Thousand Flowers." I wrote four books, actually. And so in "Ten Thousand Flowers," there's a good chapter of about Bingo. Let me see. She painted this picture. There's Lolita, her sister, she painted that, but it wasn't for sale because she copied it from a book but reminded her of her sister, Lolita. So that's why it's on the wall and under each one I have a haiku. I love haikus. Grace: [00:07:42] Oh, when did you start writing haikus? Nona: [00:07:49] When I met Jerry, which was about 15, 20 years ago. Nona: [00:07:54] Oh, yeah, it's in my first book. Haikus start about that time and so before that time, actually, so I did all the traditional five, seven, five. Now I'm into the more of the modern haiku where it doesn't have to have all the exact syllables. We call that modern. Modern haiku. Daniel say something. Daniel: [00:08:29] I did have a question, I was wondering how you as you moved between Los Gatos and Oakland, were you still with the Ming Quong home? Nona: [00:08:41] Oh, how I moved out of the Oakland home? Daniel: [00:08:44] Or between. So from Los Gatos to Oakland. How did they make that decision? Nona: [00:08:49] Oh, each person's situation is different. Depending on your background and if you have relatives that say where you want to or they might want you to go, they follow those rules, too. So with me, I have nobody. So it was time for me to go. That's it. And from Oakland, you lived there until you're about 16 and then you're too old for the system, so you're you're out of it and you might be they try to find you a home, though, where you can live and do housework. Nona: [00:09:28] They always ask you, do you want to be in the family? And by that time, you're so independent, you don't want to be in a regular family. And so then you do housework. So you make money every week, every month. Nona: [00:09:43] So that's where I ended up in Palo Alto. 'Cause that's where I was born. Not Menlo Park. Daniel: [00:09:53] And so you ended up doing housekeeping at a house in Palo Alto? Nona: [00:09:57] I was working in Palo Alto for a family that had a well, whatever, Palo Alto family. On University Avenue. Oh, that's kind of funny how I ended up on University Avenue. Daniel: [00:10:12] Yeah, that is funny. Nona: [00:10:13] I guess University Avenue, where I went to school in Los Gatos, was that University Avenue? Daniel: [00:10:19] It was, yeah. In the old town area. Yeah. Nona: [00:10:28] It just donned on me. University Avenue. Daniel: [00:10:30] Yeah, you moved from University to University. When you were with that family was it a generally good experience? Like have you spoken with them-- Nona: [00:10:45] When I was at the home in Palo Alto? Is that what you asked? Daniel: [00:10:47] Yes, so when you're at the home in Palo Alto, it was a good experience with the family? Nona: [00:10:52] When I was doing housework? It was good. Good enough. Grace: [00:11:01] Did you live there? Daniel: [00:11:03] Yeah. Oh, yes, 24/7. Nona: [00:11:06] Every time I put money in the bank, they put money in the bank for me. So when I got married, I was about three hundred dollars at three hundred dollars more than my husband. So I would tell people he married me for my money. Grace: [00:11:22] Was it a pretty good experience with them? Nona: [00:11:26] Yeah. Good enough. Yeah. Because I wasn't treated like a maid. My sister lived in another home in Palo Alto and she was treated like a maid. She had to eat out in the kitchen and they would ring the bell for her when they wanted something. With me, I always sat there. I was with them at dinnertime. So that was good. Daniel: [00:11:47] Around what years was that? Like, what years were you working in Palo Alto? Nona: [00:11:53] When I was going to high school. Mm hmm. I was a teenager. Grace: [00:11:59] Right. So you said that you had to leave the orphanage at age 16. Nona: [00:12:10] Yeah, about that time. I was a teenager living in Palo Alto at that time. And not far away was our, the place where I was supposedly born on Parkinson Avenue in Palo Alto. So it was kind of nice to be back in Palo Alto, even though, from... See, first it's Los Gatos to Oakland, then Oakland to Palo Alto, so it's all kind of a culture shock because it's so extremely different, each area. So I had to get used to Palo Alto again, not again, but it's like being back in Los Gatos, but little different because it was busier. Grace: [00:12:58] And so when you went to school, going back to Los Gatos, when you went to school in Los Gatos, do you remember a lot of the friends that you encountered there, or were you mostly friends with the Ming Quong girls? Nona: [00:13:16] Well, there were no Ming Quong girls around, I'm the only one around, so I had to make new friends. That was also a problem that I happened to meet a Kwong family that lived just a half a block or so away from me. And so I would get rides to school from her or else I'd have to probably walk. Grace: [00:13:42] So how long was that walk? Nona: [00:13:46] So in case people know the Kwong family, he's pretty well known, he's got the Zen Mountain Center in Santa Rosa and he's a Zen master. Really different from you know, it was because of my husband that he they became friends because he was always enthusiastic about Bill Kwong. But now he's a roshi Zen master with people like he knows people like Thich Nhat Hanh and maybe Dalai Lama by now and all the other people that are in the other world. So it's interesting. Nona: [00:14:34] My husband was more outgoing than I was. I was more the quiet one. Grace: [00:14:40] How did you meet your husband? Nona: [00:14:41] Through a party. An after college party. He went to college. I didn't go to college, but he asked me to dance. And so that's how it started. Nona: [00:14:54] And he said to me, "What would your parents say if I wanted to date you," and I go, "I don't have any parents." So he was lucky. Grace: [00:15:07] So after after you left the Palo Alto family, what did you do and where did you go? Nona: [00:15:19] What did I do? What? Grace: [00:15:21] Where did you go after Palo Alto? Nona: [00:15:23] Oh, let's see. I probably got married, I got married when I was 19, so. Where did I - oh, I know, yeah, that's right, I moved up to Oakland. Grace: [00:15:36] Ok, so back to Oakland again. Nona: [00:15:38] Oakland was, and roomed with my sister and roomed with a girl named Rhoda near the lake, near Lake Merritt. So that was nice. Grace: [00:15:53] And what made you decide to go back to Oakland? Nona: [00:16:00] I don't know. Just because I'm more familiar with Oakland and my half sister lived in Oakland near Chinatown and the home's in Oakland, so you might go back there for Christmas time. That's when the girls gathered at Christmas time. So that was that was nice. Grace: [00:16:21] I see. And when you say "the girls," you mean the Ming Quong girls. Nona: [00:16:27] That means that the MQ girls. I always call them girls, but they're really women. MQ gals. That's what we call them at the home. Grace: [00:16:38] There's probably about how many of them that you still keep in touch with? Maybe about 20 of them? Nona: [00:16:47] What did you say? Grace: [00:16:50] You keep in touch with them still. Nona: [00:16:53] Oh, yeah, Grace: [00:16:54] And there's probably about 20 or 30 of them? Nona: [00:16:58] Yeah, there's quite a few. But they're all quite younger than me. Guess how old I am 87. Jeepers. So I'm one of the oldest ones around and almost everybody in my age group has passed on, or is sick or something. I'm still here. Grace: [00:17:17] That's great, and the Ming Quong home was Presbyterian, was it? Nona: [00:17:33] Presbyterian Occidental National Board of Missions Presbyterians. Oh, this reminds me, this is Laura Birch, Laura Birch, do you know Laura Birch? She came down and talked to the Uplift people, which is now call Uplift Families First. But she came down when it was Eastfield Ming Quong and she contributed her artwork for Ming Quong home. Grace: [00:17:57] Oh. And so that's one of her artworks on the sweatshirt? Nona: [00:18:04] Yeah, Laura Birch is around. In fact, I still sell some of her goodies at the store. Not too many. A few purses and I used to sell silk scarves and stuff of hers. She named after me once, it was called Ming Quong for Nona and I said, "You really did. You named an earring after me." And I said, "What does it look like?" And she says, "An Egyptian flower." And I said, "I've never seen an Egyptian flower." And she says, "Neither have I." We just have fun. Grace: [00:18:39] That's awesome. Nona: [00:18:41] She's a good woman. Nona: [00:18:44] She's had broken bones in her life. Grace: [00:18:47] Oh, wow. Nona: [00:18:50] She had this rare bone disease. They didn't expect her to live until she was about 40 something, but now she's, passed away when she was 62. Daniel: [00:19:03] I was going to mention that she's a she's a famous artist, so that's a very cool. I was mentioning that she was a famous artist. So that's it's very cool that you interacted with her. Nona: [00:19:15] Yeah, she was. She was really, really nice. In fact, one time I was talking on the phone to her and I said, let's just zoom in, I used the word zoom, let's just zoom in on some object. And then all of a sudden my phone felt really, really hot and I says, what's going on? I looked around the room. I thought jeepers, that's weird, and everything was nice and cool, but not my end. That's because she was so powerful, it was amazing. She's the only woman that was like that, that had that power within her. At least with my friends. Isn't it interesting, though, that my phone got hot because we were zooming in? Grace: [00:19:59] Yeah. Nona: [00:19:59] Let's try the phone up. Just kidding. I don't think it's going to be hot. Grace: [00:20:05] And so when did you when did you start your store? When did you open that? Nona: [00:20:12] Oh, that was out of necessity. OK. My husband, who very controversial. Won a case against. Oh, yeah, so this is such a long story, it's not funny, but. He won the case against Mt. Diablo School District, so out of necessity with the money he got, he rented the place and it started out as a coffee house and for about one year. Nona: [00:20:42] And then it didn't turn out that well. So that's how the store started, around 69. So that's we've been here at the store now for over 50 years, going on fifty one years now. And that's what my book Born on the 8th is about. All the different experiences, all my books relate somehow to Ming Quong. Daniel: [00:21:09] May I ask what the lawsuit was about? Nona: [00:21:13] What? Daniel: [00:21:14] What was the lawsuit about with the Mt. Diablo School District? Nona: [00:21:19] Excuse me, talk a little louder, please. Daniel: [00:21:22] Sorry, my microphone is quiet. What was the lawsuit with the Mount Diablo School? Nona: [00:21:29] Because he had all kinds of materials like John Birch Society, the Black Panther, Black Panther were real rebels in those days. And but then he had also. And the Berkeley Barb, remember that Berkeley Barb? No, that was way before your time, but anyhow, he had that kind of material, plus all the other conservative ones. And so he has a combination of things, and so the parents got. Parents got upset and I guess it went to the. There was a lawsuit against him that he won the case and got whatever. The money that was awarded him, that's how he opened up the coffeehouse, so started out as a melting pot, then it evolved into Ming Quong. Which was good, because then there's the history of Ming Quong. That's did I answer your question right? Daniel: [00:22:35] I think so. Was was he a teacher? Was he a teacher at the school? Nona: [00:22:41] Yeah, he was. He was with educationally handicapped children. Yeah, that's what it was called back in those days. And it's something else nowadays. And he also taught the fifth grade and he taught basketball and football after work. And I took care of his ... as supervisor, and so I go around. "You're going to the principal's office." I'm just kidding. Nona: [00:23:17] So I took care of children to supplement the salary of a teacher. And did a budget. I was pretty good at that. Nona: [00:23:30] And that's more or less my life. Grace: [00:23:34] Well that probably came in handy when you were running your own business at the store, right. Budgets and. Nona: [00:23:42] What did you say? Grace: [00:23:44] The budgeting and all of that probably came in handy with running your store. Nona: [00:23:49] Oh, yeah. Handy. Oh, I see. More or less. It's a mess now because I had surgery on my knee, about two years ago then I fell on our deck that was. The screw was left up, so I walk with a limp. So. Everything's kind of a mess now at the store, and then when you were when it was a pandemic thing, you know. I wasn't there for three months and then going back to the store, you got like I was like lethargic and the place is a mess, but people work around it. I work around it. And my customers understand don't really care. Just like coming into the store, which has been there so long. And if you ever look us up on Facebook, you see different things about some of what customers say. Did you want me to read something? Grace: [00:24:57] Sure. Do you have a favorite passage? Nona: [00:25:00] Well, I mean, you know, my books are kind of like long-winded. So it's called "One Pink Rose," and beginning with each chapter. This is this this book. And what you have is the original. One of the originals. And and and it starts with the haiku. And the child asked, Is my mother still living? But no one answered. Nona: [00:25:30] So on Mother's Day, you were given a pink, no, a red rose if your mother was alive and a white rose if your mother was dead. And so I never knew what my if my mother was living or dying. And here is a passage. Nona: [00:25:55] "As I approach the garden, I could see a glow of colors. Blooms of brilliant red, warm pink, and startling yellow contrasted alongside the clean white roses. Each red, no excuse me, each rose rich and full, reached out for the sun's nurturing caress. Dre glistened on each hearty bush. This section of our very garden was Ms. Hayes' pride and joy. She nourished and lavished love on each bush like a doting parent. Ms. Hayes is in charge of the home in Los Gatos. That's my ad lib, OK. I sense Ms. Hayes would have been happier if she had been a full time gardener. Ms. Hayes, tall and angled form bent over carefully sniffing the fragrant red and white roses. The sharp clicks of her snippers were heard clearly in the morning silence. Each prize rose was laid carefully in their flat rattan basket. Standing on the perimeter of the garden was akin to being on holy ground. The gentle breeze captured the essence of her treasured roses. Its delicate bouquet lingered in the air just long enough for me to enjoy." Nona: [00:27:18] Ok, I'll just skip some of it, because I'm very descriptive. Nona: [00:27:24] Ok. "On Mother's Day, it was Ms. Hayes' ritual to pin a special rose on each girl's Sunday dress. Girls whose mothers were living wore red roses and girls whose mothers were deceased wore white roses. As usual, this was always a dilemma for me. I'm afraid this Mother's Day, I was wearing a red rose and felt a sense of closeness to my invisible mother. So this morning before so this Sunday morning before I asked Ms. Hayes my usual question. I greeted her, "Good morning, Ms. Hayes." And then I asked her, you know, this is ad lib again. "Ms. Hayes, can I wear a red rose because I don't know if my mother is dead or alive." And she said, "I told you before, Nona." So I asked her, "Is my mother dead or alive?" "I told you before, Nona, I don't know. Did you ask your relatives?" I nodded yes. She replied and replied, "They don't know either." So as I pleaded with Ms. Hayes, "Can I please wear a right rose, a red rose?" Ms. Hayes scanned, paused and scanned her hopeful face, she then walked over to another part of the garden and she picked a pretty pink rose, pinned it to my Sunday dress and felt content. And all the girls looked so festive with their own rose pinned snugly in place. Lots of I thought I felt lucky because I thought my pink rose looked almost red when Carol walked up to me and questioned, "Why are you wearing a pink rose?" I craned my neck to smell my rose and matter of factly quipped, "Because I don't know if my mother is dead or alive." She looked at me wordlessly. I saw Carol's red rose and bent over to inhale the fragrance. "Like it?" she bubbled. "Oh, yeah, it smells so good. I love roses. They're my favorite flowers." Carol was lucky. Even though her mother never visited her, she at least knew her mother was alive." So that's one of my favorite passages. Grace: [00:29:51] Thank you. That was beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that. I, I don't know how much more time you have, but I wanted to ask maybe one or two more questions. How did you like how did you feel about your Chinese heritage when you were growing up? Nona: [00:30:15] Oh. That's the question that you're going to be asking about, if there was any discrimination, huh? Grace: [00:30:25] Yes, you could share if you want to. Nona: [00:30:28] There wasn't any for me. That was easy. How did I feel? I felt proud because there's was once a year parade in Los Gatos. I don't know what the what Fourth of July or Labor Day or whatever it was. The whole park was filled with people because they were dressed as cowboys. And we were always dressed in a really nice Chinese costume. And Paula and I were the little boys and we carried this great big banner that said Ming Quong Home I guess. That's what it said. I can't remember. And actually I probably couldn't even read because I was just a little child. But we carried this banner and so we were... We were proud. I mean, I was proud. But I know that other girls like Dolly, they got teased and they would say things against them, like they would say sticks and stones will break my bones but names can never hurt me if they called them China Chinaman or something. But I didn't go through that period. So I was fortunate. Nona: [00:31:41] I don't know what I would have said, I probably would have just stared at them, and the only thing embarrassing was the fact that when we were at the park, all the food was laid out on a great big table because there's probably about 30 of us girls. And then we had to say our prayers. So we had to bow our heads and the teacher say a prayer. And I feel all embarrassed because everybody that was there was silence around us and everybody would listen to the prayer that was being said. And so that was the embarrassing moment because we were from the home and were Chinese girls and. Nona: [00:32:20] I don't know that I really felt like we were the Chinese girls, I just said that, but but that's what it would seem like to the onlookers, that these are the girls in the home and they're they're all Chinese girls, that some of the girls thought that we were the wealthy Chinese girls that came over from China because of the war. So we were being protected by the Ming Quong home. That was different. I found that out as an adult. Grace: [00:32:49] Hmm, interesting. Nona: [00:32:51] The little rich girls from Ming Quong. Didn't realize we were little orphans or half orphans. Nona: [00:33:03] We never called it the orphanage it was. If that came to me after I was being interviewed for Chopstick Childhood, and I go and so I looked up the word, orphanage and it said, it answered all the questions. Yeah, we were really orphans and we lived in an orphanage. But the teachers at the home, or Donaldina Cameron, the one that, more or less founded the home, call it Ming Quong Home. So that made it better for us girls because we always called it the home. That was really nice of her to see years ahead of us, how it would affect our lives. So it was never called an orphanage. In fact, some but some kids, not some kids, some people wanted to come and adopt some of the girls and we all cringed and said, we don't want to be adopted because we have to leave all our friends. So that was a good upbringing and long term care. For us, Ming Quong people, girls or women. Daniel: [00:34:10] Did you know anyone who was adopted, like did you have friends at the home that were adopted? Nona: [00:34:16] No, nobody. Nobody wanted to be adopted. So I guess they paid attention to us or. No, no, that's amazing huh? That nobody wanted to be adopted. The home was that was our home. Security, always well-fed, you know, just well mannered. Grace: [00:34:44] But were there were there are lots of people who came to adopt? Was that common or was it just sporadic? Nona: [00:34:50] Well how could we know that they were coming to be adopted. They were looking at us anyhow?And I don't think there were that many children that were really available because some of them still had parents. Yeah. And so but they;'dstill come because they knew about the Ming Quong Home. So I guess that's what it was. Grace: [00:35:16] Was there any did you speak any Chinese? Did you speak any Chinese with any of the other. Nona: [00:35:26] Oh I know a lot of Chinese Bible verses and Christmas songs that they didn't teach us how to really converse just everyday conversation. But we knew what our name meant. My name means gold and silver. And I wanted to be called a beautiful flower or lotus or something, but not gold and silver like what the heck is gold and silver? And then I found out from a couple that came in from Hawaii, his name was Dr. Mock, and I go, he got the same last name as me. And he says, "Did you know that we're from royalty?" and I go, "Royalty? Whoa." And so the sister sent me the genealogy and we are from royalty. It's it's amazing. So one of my books was going to be called "From Orphan to Royalty," but I changed it. Grace: [00:36:33] Wow. Nona: [00:36:33] Can you believe it? Genea for the genealogy. I found out that a lot of my relatives moved to Hawaii and I go, wow, because all my life people says, are you Hawaiian? Are you from Hawaii? And I go, oh, my goodness. Then I found out years later that. That's where part of me is from. Hawaii, my relatives. Isn't it amazing what you learn in life? I've learned my education, my life is about education. Nona: [00:37:09] And when I tell a customer that is named after the Chinese Girls Orphanage, I was raised and that means radiant light. Then they'll buy an outfit or something, and I'll go, you will be the radiant light. Don't forget you're the radiant light, the ming quong, and they go out all happy. So it's nice that Donaldina Cameron had the foresight to not call it an orphanage. Daniel: [00:37:36] Since you know so much about genealogy and what? Nona: [00:37:46] I can't hear you. Daniel: [00:37:49] Sorry. Since you know so much about your genealogy, have you been able to contact any of your family in Hawaii? Nona: [00:37:55] No, just the Mock family. The ones that came in and then one sister already passed away, unfortunately, because. There's Bingo. You know. No, because they're ancient, you know, like I found out that one of them was on the jury duty, not jury, one of the judges, and. And then he printed a book of poems and I go, oh, ... [truncated due to length]Collection
Represent Los Gatos Oral History ProjectOral History Details
Interviewee
Mock Wyman, NonaInterview Date
Sep 9, 2020Primary Language
EnglishRecording Media
MP4Oral History Notes
Creator: Los Gatos Library
Publisher: Los Gatos Library
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