Interview with Fung Scholz

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES

ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM

Interview #1868

SCHOLZ, FUNG

SCHOLZ, FUNG (1926-)

Interviewed: 2019

Interviewer: Lea Goldstone

Index by: Lea Goldstone, Sophie Clark

Transcribed by: Teresa Bergen

Length: 43 minutes

First Interview Session (2019): Digital File

00:00:00

LG: So today is April 10, 2019. My name is Lea Goldstone and I'm interviewing Fung Scholz, and this is a phone interview. This is being conducted for the Madison General School of Nursing Alumni Oral History Project from 1905 to 1982. And for sound quality purposes, could you please say your name and spell your last name?

FS: Fung Scholz, S-c-h-o-l-z.

LG: Perfect. All right. So, just give me a little bit about your background of like where you grew up, what it was like when you were growing up.

FS: I came from the small town of Beloit. Are you familiar with that? It's right on the state line between Illinois and Wisconsin.

LG: Got it.

FS: It only had a population of about three thousand people. A lot of agricultural, a lot of manufacturing at the time I grew up. I came from a family of seven children. And I lost my father when I was at age twelve. I'm the oldest 00:01:00daughter, and I had an older brother. The rest of my siblings are younger. So my mother being of Asian descent had a little problem with the English language. So it was up to us children to try to keep the family together.

LG: And where did your parents emigrate from?

FS: Say that again.

LG: Where did your parents emigrate from?

FS: China.

LG: Oh, got you. Okay. So what kinds of things did you do growing up? Like did you work? Did you have any jobs when you were younger?

FS: (laughs) I was all over the place. When I was twelve, I was ironing shirts for a man across the street. At that time you starch with the collars and the cuffs and the bib down the front. And so it was really hard to iron shirts. And 00:02:00at age twelve I was ironing shirts for ten cents a shirt. It took me half an hour to iron one shirt. We all worked. My brothers did newspapers, of course. And from there on, I went to [unclear] worked I think it was age fifteen you could work with a special permit from the city or something like that. And from there I was hired over to Penney's, which was across the street, by the manager of Penney's, because he liked my industrious work, I guess. And that was during the war, of course. And when I was a junior in high school, the gal that was doing the tailoring for men's clothes, at that time, whenever you bought men's clothes, the cuffs were undone. And you would do the tailoring free for the 00:03:00price of the merchandise purchased. So the lady that was doing the tailoring, husband was called into service. So the manager called us all together one day and said, "Does anybody here sew? We need somebody to fill in for the tailoring."

So I raised my hand, and he couldn't believe it. I said, "Sure, I sew." So in three weeks, this lady taught me how to tailor men's clothes. But that was really interesting. I really enjoyed that. So I did that until I graduated from high school.

LG: And so did anything in your background kind of guide you towards a nursing career?

FS: My brother was playing football, that was probably when he was 13, 14. He ran into a goal post and cut his lip quite severely. And at that time, of course, we didn't have a car. So we went to a neighbor's house and the neighbor 00:04:00took us to the hospital. And the hospital people, at that time they didn't have an emergency room. So we went upstairs to the operating room. And our physician, Dr. Smith, sewed him up. But the place was so clean, so white and so pure. And the nurses were all so friendly. They let me go in and watch and see what was going on. And right then I decided I wanted to be a nurse.

LG: So what motivated you to go to Madison versus any other nursing school?

FS: I had a friend that was in that particular school at that time. And she said, "Why don't you come to Madison?" And I thought well, that's great. I'd like to go to a larger city.

LG: And did you have any perception of nursing school prior to your attending? Like did your friend tell you anything about it?

FS: Oh, she said it was great here. She said we had nice accommodations, and the people are sweet. You know, everybody was friendly. So that's why I went there.

LG: And did you have any experience with the nursing cadet program?

FS: Oh, yes. I was a cadet nurse.

LG: Oh. Could you tell me just a little bit about that?

FS: Can I tell you, what?

LG: Just tell me a little bit about that.

FS: Well, we were issued uniforms. Beautiful uniforms, they were great. In fact, I have the insignias and pictures of me in them if you'd like to come and see them sometime. But it was a [rayon?] uniform and very military looking. We had a raincoat. We had this nice heavy winter coat. And then we just wore an insignia on our sleeve to signify that we were a United States cadet nurse. And in the summertime, we had kind of like a seersucker, pinstripe outfit. And we had 00:06:00matching hats. So we looked really nice in our uniforms. And the one thing about the uniform was during the war, if you wore a uniform, you were given free transportation. Like I'd take the bus home, and I had my uniform on, I didn't have to pay.

LG: So what relationship did the cadet program have with the military?

FS: Oh. When we signed up for the cadet program, our obligation was to either serve in a veterans hospital or sign up with the military for two years. But I hadn't finished my three-year study yet. I was still a junior at that time. And the war ended. So I didn't have to finish my obligation.

LG: Oh. Interesting. So what years did you attend nursing school?

FS: Nineteen forty-four to 1947.

LG: Okay. And what were your first impressions of Madison when you got here?

FS: Well, I had been to Madison before. I thought it was just a real busy place. Lots of students running around and bicycles flying all over the place. I liked Madison. Had been there many times to go to the zoo. The zoo and Vilas Park was very close to walking distance from where we were. And many of our hours there either going swimming at the beach or at that time, they rented canoes. We could paddle a canoe in the lagoon.

LG: So what was it like moving into your dorms with all of the other nurses?

FS: Well, we made friends real quick. We lived in what they called Rest Harrow. 00:08:00It was an old home behind the new nursing home, which is McConnell Hall, of course, for probably the first year, I don't really remember. But it was four floors. And we had what they called a house mother who would keep us in line. And we didn't have telephone service at that time. But they had copper pipes that went from each floor down to the main floor. And when we had a phone call or we had a guest, the house mother would buzz our floor. And what you done was you just talked in the tube. They'd say you have a guest down here or you have a phone call, or will you girls upstairs quiet down, it's bedtime, or something like that. But it was interesting. We just talked in a pipe.

LG: That is really interesting. So what kind of recreational activities did you 00:09:00and your friends do during that time?

FS: Well of course most of the time we went down, I talked about the Vilas Park. We'd walk down to the zoo or go swimming or rent bicycles and go biking. Or we'd walk up to the square and have a meal or something like that. A lot of times I'd go to the university and go to the Asian club to try to meet somebody. But that never happened. (laughs) Not anybody that I was interested in, anyway.

LG: So did you have any experience as during wartime, being of Asian descent, did you experience any kind of negative reaction from people in Madison? Or was it generally pretty positive?

FS: It was positive in Madison. I experienced it at home in Beloit, because we were the only Asian family in the town of Beloit. [unclear]

LG: What kinds of things would you and your family deal with?

FS: How did we deal with it?

LG: Mm hmm.

FS: Well, we just kind of ignored it and did the best we could. We [unclear] none of us got into trouble. All of us ended up with higher educations. I can tell you what my family ended up with. Would you like to know?

LG: Sure.

FS: Okay. Two engineers. One of my brothers was a civil engineer, the other was an electrical engineer. I have one brother that's a doctor. He was an anesthesiologist. Had a sister who was an occupational therapist. And another sister who ended up teaching handicapped children.

LG: Wow, that's incredible. I'm glad your experience of Madison was positive, too. (laughs)

FS: Oh, yes. I didn't have any problems in Madison. Another interesting thing. 00:11:00You interviewed Alice Kanagaki, haven't you?

LG: Yes.

FS: Yes or no?

LG: Yes.

FS: Did she tell you about me getting called into the nursing office the first day I was there?

LG: No. Please tell me about that.

FS: Well, the first day I was there, I got called into the nursing office. I thought, what did I do already that I got called in? It so happened that Ida Collins, who was our director of nursing, said to me that there was a Japanese girl that would be there at the dormitories, and can you get along with her? And I kind of looked at her and I thought well, you know, I've never met a Japanese girl. Why wouldn't I get along with her? She thought because you know, the Japanese are fighting in the war against the Chinese and against the United 00:12:00States that there'd be some hard feelings or something. Well, as it ended up, we became the best of friends. In fact, I just talked to Alice on the phone yesterday.

LG: That's awesome. And were there--

FS: There's only, one, two, four of us remaining in my class. And we have a round robin letter that goes around. Are you familiar with that?

LG: No. Feel free to describe. (laughs)

FS: Well, a round robin letter is you write a letter, you put it in an envelope. And there's that regular routine that you mail it around the United States. When we first started, we had something like twenty girls in it. Well they either got dementia or have passed away. And so then you mail it to the next person that's on the list. And they put their letter in and mail it to the next person on the list. And as it comes around to you, you take your whole letter out and put in 00:13:00the fresh letter. And it's very interesting. We try to limit it to, don't keep it any longer than one week. Otherwise, the news gets pretty stale.

LG: True. All right. So getting back towards kind of your technical training, just describe like what classes were like.

FS: Well, classes were small, I think. You know, there was only probably 15, 20 girls started with my class. And our class was called the C class. And there was a B class that was in the spring that started. Ours started in the fall. And oftentimes I worked [unclear] as to who did the lecturing. And it was usually a nurse who lectured either on nursing arts or on chemistry or on dietary needs. Oh, the one class I remember a lot was professional ethics, which I don't think 00:14:00they teach anymore.

LG: What was that like?

FS: Oh, professional ethics was that you behaved in a professional way when you spoke with each other. At that time, when a doctor came into a charting room, we had a little narrow room where the charts, you'd chart on each patient, you know, write what you did to the patient. And if a doctor came into the room and we were sitting there at the desk, we had to stand up to respect our doctors. Well that no longer matters anymore, because we're on equal grounds with doctors now.

LG: And so can you describe a little bit, like what kind of things would they teach you in class? Just what kind of nursing curriculum was there?

FS: Well, nursing arts was how to make a bed, you had to make the square 00:15:00corners. And then we had to learn how to sterilize equipment. And at that time, we used the syringes and the needles over and over again. And we sharpened our own needles. And had to clean those out. We put [stylus?] through the center of the needle after you sharpened it to take out all the extra little burrs. And we'd sterilize our own equipment. We had, at that time, we had to clean our own beds. When a patient went home, we had to strip the bed and we had to shake with a whisk broom. We cleaned off the mattress. We brushed off the mattress, made the bed, put it all together again so it would be ready for the next patient. At that time they didn't have people come in and do like they do now. It's called housekeeping, I guess. Sweep the floor, make the bed, clean up the room. Nurses 00:16:00did all that.

LG: And did you have any, like what kind of scope of medically trained, I don't know, I'm trying to figure out a good way to phrase this. What kind of like medical-wise education did you get? Like did you learn how to do IVs, did you learn like, I don't know, sutures?

FS: At that time, we didn't do IVs. That was up to the interns and the doctors. We didn't do that. We'd set things up. We'd give enemas. We were allowed to give shots. Oh, at that time, insulin was invented during that period, too. And the interesting thing about that was it was given in beeswax. So it took a long time for this insulin to absorb. What you'd do is you drew an X on somebody's buttocks, so into quarters. And so each time you gave an injection, you'd give 00:17:00it in a different site, of course. That was interesting!

LG: So do you remember any faculty who played an important role in your education?

FS: Any faculty. Well, all the faculty did. My nursing arts teacher got to be very, we just got to be very friendly and I kept in contact with her after she retired and moved to Indiana. That's the only person that I, after I left training, kept in contact with as far as the faculty was concerned.

LG: And what was one of the like first real exciting things that you did as a student nurse that made you just excited to be there?

FS: Well, I ended up being an operating room nurse and I loved it. (laughs) I 00:18:00think that was the most exciting part. It was fun to be in the surgery and seeing what was going on.

LG: And were there any particularly challenging aspects of your education that you remember just struggling with?

FS: Well I remember I struggled with chemistry. I took chemistry in high school. But we had, was it chemistry, yeah. We had several instructors. And it never really followed through with me. So I had trouble with that. Yes.

LG: Interesting. Like through your technical training, was there anything that they taught you differently than the nurses outside of the cadet program?

FS: No, I don't think so. I think at that time, most of the girls were in the cadet program. You know that that was paid for by the federal government.

LG: Mm hmm. So most of the girls in your class were actually in that program with you.

FS: Yeah. Yeah, they all were.

LG: So are there any practices -- oh, sorry, give me one second. I'm just going to pause this really quick. [pause] And we're back. Okay, perfect. So, were there any practices or methods that you learned at school which would be kind of unusual to practice today?

FS: That's a question. I'll have to think about that one. I can't think of anything.

LG: Well like because you mentioned, let's see, like you reused the needles and stuff like that. Was there anything else kind of along those lines that was just a little bit, I don't know, that would be considered strange today to put into practice?

FS: Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, because everything is disposable now. The medication's a lot different, too. The medication is all packaged for the nurses. Whereas we would go to a, the pharmacy would send up the prescriptions. However, the narcotics were locked in a cabinet on each floor. And whenever you used a narcotic, usually the supervisor would have the key. And if you were working at a particular floor, you'd ask for the key, find the narcotic, take out whatever you needed, and you'd have to sign your name in a book and tell what you took out of the cabinet, of course. That was it.

LG: Mm hmm. Interesting. Anything else you can think of that kind of stands out about your training that you can remember? Just anything interesting.

FS: Well, we did have chapel. And at one time, they did have a dance for us. I'm just trying to think of other activities they had. Otherwise we were pretty much on our own in our off hours. We did have a curfew of ten o'clock during the week. And lights out, too, whether you were finished studying or not. But luckily, both Alice and I had closets that were outside of our room. So I would crawl in my closet and put a rug underneath the door and keep on studying if I hadn't finished studying yet.

LG: Oh, so you weren't even allowed to finish studying at that point?

FS: No. They'd turn your lights off. They were very strict back then. Oh, the food was excellent, too, the cafeteria. I remember that. And on Sunday nights, we had a wonderful, wonderful potato cinnamon roll. And if I was home, I would 00:22:00make sure I'd get back by five o'clock so I could have that cinnamon roll.

LG: And was there anything else that you could think of that just kind of stood out for you?

FS: Well, everybody was, I just thought everybody was so friendly. It was nice. They had a group of girls that all enjoyed each other, and we did things together. Each floor, see, there were ten girls on the first floor. Of course we all got to be very friendly and each group would have their little activity. But we all were kind to each other.

LG: Oh, and could you describe, I think that's what we were kind of talking about before we got cut off. Could you describe any ceremonies or anything that 00:23:00you guys got to take part in?

FS: I don't remember ceremonies at all. No.

LG: That's okay. I was just curious if there was anything you remembered.

FS: No. I remember having chapel service on Sundays. But back then, we had what we called a rec room or solarium or something like that, and we played bridge. And the girls would come up, that was one thing that was fun. They had a 24-hour bridge game going. And you'd come off of duty and pick up a hand and play. And then if you had to go and study or go to work, you'd put the hand down and somebody else would come along and pick it up. So that's how I learned how to play bridge.

LG: And while you were a student at Madison, did you get a chance to visit any 00:24:00hospitals outside of the city, or were you mostly just stationed here?

FS: No, we went to Cook County. We went to Cook County for six months, in Chicago.

LG: Oh, really? Oh, could you describe your times there?

FS: Oh, that was kind of scary. We had psychiatry and pediatrics because there wasn't that much of it in Madison General. So they always had, to have a round education, of course, they'd send you to Chicago. Well, Chicago, what you had in their psychiatry, I remember going to class one time and we went to visit the morgue. We had to see this man who'd been in the water for something like ten days. And it was a bloated body. It was terrible to look at. And the other thing that I saw down there was hydrocephalic babies. Are you familiar with that terminology?

LG: No.

FS: A hydrocephalic baby is, the spinal fluid stays in the head instead of going--I hope I'm saying this right. Anyway, the head's exceptionally large in proportion to the body. And the eyes are real squinty, you know. So you've got this big old forehead that's huge. On a poor little baby. I said, that was so pathetic. I remember that.

And of course that area where Cook County was was in a real, how should I say, unsafe neighborhood. So they always told us to be sure and not to be alone when you're going anyplace.

LG: And where were you lodged when you were studying at those hospitals?

FS: In Chicago?

LG: Mm hmm.

FS: There was a dormitory there.

LG: Oh, I got you.

FS: Women's dormitory, yeah. We had a tunnel--

LG: Oh, sorry.

FS: We had a tunnel that they walked from the dormitory to the hospital when you went to work.

LG: And were you mostly just with nurses from your class, or was it mixed with nurses from other--

FS: Oh, it was very mixed. It was very, very mixed. In fact, the one thing that did happen to me was I was in the library one time, you know, looking for books between the stacks. And a couple of girls came up to me, and they said, "Would you like to come to a meeting today in room so and so?" They introduced themselves, they were from Iowa. And I thought well, this is strange. I didn't know them at all you know. So I told my friends about this meeting. And one of the girls was a lot wiser than I was. Those girls were lesbians! I never knew such a thing as a lesbian before that.

LG: Interesting. So how did you study while you were there? Were there classes? 00:27:00Or was it mostly just in practice?

FS: Oh, yeah. It's the same thing as they had in Madison.

LG: And how long were you at those locations again?

FS: We were there for six months in Chicago. And we kind of rotated. Not the whole class went at the same time. I think the class was probably split in two. And so we didn't go down there with the same group of friends that we had back in Madison, of course.

LG: Mm hmm. And especially when you came into contact with students from other schools, did you feel like Madison General was kind of set apart from other nursing schools? Or was it pretty much on par with everywhere else?

FS: I think it was pretty much on par. Because I think most of the girls were cadet nurses, too.

LG: Oh, right. Interesting.

FS: (coughs) Excuse me.

LG: No worries. And so is there anything else that you'd want people to remember about your training or time in school at Madison General?

FS: No. But one thing that was kind of important in my life, though. When I got back to Beloit, I went back to Beloit to work because my mother and my brother were going to go back to China. And I had five younger brothers and sisters. I was working at the operating room in Beloit Hospital when the director of nurses said she wanted to start an emergency room. And I was selected to start the first emergency room at the Beloit Hospital. So I opened it in, it was May of 1948.

LG: Wow. That must have felt pretty amazing. (laughs)

FS: Well you know, it was very strange. The director of nurses said, "Well, we've got to find a room for you." Well the first room, at the back door was the morgue. So we moved the morgue down the hall, and that was my office when I first moved there, was right there. And then she said, "Now go to the service clubs and get some donations." And so the Kiwanis helped donate money for, I think it must be a table or something, examination table.

LG: Interesting. And--

FS: There was no protocol for how to set up an emergency room. So it was kind of [unclear] you know.

LG: So you kind of set the precedent, then.

FS: Yes.

LG: Interesting. So kind of building off that, what was the process from transitioning from nursing school to the professional world? Like what kind of 00:30:00opportunities were given to the nurses?

FS: There were oodles opportunities for nurses. We could have gone on a cruise. You know, they have nurses on cruises. And there was industrial nursing, which I did, too. Which at that time, a lot of the factories had their own first aid. So nurses were supplied for that, to take care of workers that were hurt, you know. And you could go into the office and be an office nurse. You could work in the hospital. There were all kinds of options. You could do private duty.

LG: Interesting. So did you keep in, or in conversations with your friends kind of during that transition period, how did you guys decide what you were going to do?

FS: Well, of course I wanted to be a surgical nurse, and that's what I decided. 00:31:00Because that's what I was interested in, of course. The last six months of our training, you were allowed to select any specialty you wanted to go into. Now, Ellen [unclear] Drury that we write to in the round robin ended up being a public health nurse.

LG: Interesting. So tell me about your career in nursing after you graduated.

FS: Well, I did a little bit of everything. I went to, after I was in Beloit, I went to Milwaukee. And Alice and I were both roommates there. And we decided to go after our, we ended up with an RN, and we decided to go after our bachelor's. So we signed up at Marquette University and took classes part time. And we 00:32:00worked fulltime, of course. I worked at Mount Sinai Hospital, and Alice worked at Children's Hospital. And that lasted for what, maybe a year and a half, and I decided to get married. (laughs) So that ended that. Alice went back to California where she is now. And I got married and moved back to Beloit. Then after that I had my family, of course. Three children. And worked just part time after that.

LG: And was there any kind of lasting impression of the war, post-war? Like what was the attitude like during that time?

FS: It was wonderful after, postwar. We just couldn't believe it. The spirits were so high. It's hard to describe. The men would all come back. There were 00:33:00about three women to every man at that time. And a lot of celebration. It was just a wonderful feeling.

LG: And did you know anyone who had gone and participated in the war?

FS: Oh, yes. My brothers, I had two brothers that did. And my boyfriend at that time was in service, too. So it was nice to have everybody come back home again.

LG: So, sorry, going back to post-Madison life. How long did you work as a nurse?

FS: Well, I worked fulltime for three years after I graduated. And after that, just part time, I did industrial nursing, which I told you about. I did private duty nursing. And then I would fill in a lot at different times for people's vacations.

LG: So just tell me some memorable moments that you experienced in your career, if anything stood out to you.

FS: You're really wracking my brain, you know. I'm an old lady. I'm 93 years old! (laughs) It's hard to think of all those things now. So, what? What do you mean?

LG: Just any, if you remember any kind of anecdotes or anything that really stood out to you? Anything kind of touching or jarring or anything.

FS: I guess I remember, I appreciated making friendship with all these girls, I guess, was more than anything. We had such a nice group of girls. It was nice to 00:35:00have so many friends.

LG: And was it interesting to follow their experiences in nursing, like as you passed around the round robins?

FS: Oh, absolutely. Everybody picked a different field, of course. A couple of my friends went in to work at veterans' hospitals. A lot of the girls married and didn't go back to work, too. Just depended on what choices they made.

LG: So did you ever return to Madison for any reunions or anything?

FS: Oh, yeah. We had a lot of reunions back in Madison. But of course they've kind of petered out now, because none of us [walk?]. There is a reunion coming back in May, where all the alumni of MGH.

LG: Have you met kind of any of the alumni from other graduating classes?

FS: Oh, yeah. Uh. Huh. Back when I went to the reunions. I don't drive out of town anymore, so I don't go anymore. But there is one the first week in May that I got the notification about it.

LG: And so what advice, if anything, would you give to future nursing students? Or nursing students who are kind of of the modern class?

FS: I think they should go into nursing. Anybody that has any interest in the medical profession. The variety is terrific. Not only that, the salaries are way up there compared to my ten-dollar days that I got paid for. (laughs) Because I think I, when I first graduated from training in Madison, I got my room and 00:37:00board and a hundred dollars a month. Can you imagine?

LG: No. (laughs)

FS: That's forty dollars a week. [unclear] dollars a month and my room and board.

LG: Wow. That is a lot different now.

FS: Definitely.

LG: So is there anything else that you would like people to remember about your time, either as a nurse or as a student nurse at Madison General?

FS: Well, I thought it was a great opportunity that they offered the United States Cadet Nurse program. Because what happened was, that many of the nurses that were working at the hospital joined the service because you were automatically given a second lieutenant, what do I want to say, a second lieutenant commission is the word I'm looking for. So the reason they had the cadet program was to fill in for the nurses that all left. They needed help in 00:38:00the hospitals.

LG: Right. Well, and is there anything else that you can remember that you'd like included in this? Otherwise, we can push it up to the follow-up interviews.

FS: No, I think that's about it, Lea.

LG: Great.

FS: Unless you have more questions.

LG: (laughs) I have endless questions. I'll conclude this interview for now. And just so you know, and that it's recorded, we'll be sending you a release form which has kind of different levels of, you get to choose like how you want this interview to be published, which will eventually be on a website database. But just so you know, you'll be getting that in the mail.

38:48

[End first interview session]

Second Interview Session (2019): Digital File

LG: So today is June 6, 2019. My name is Lea Goldstone. And I'm follow-up 00:39:00interviewing Fung Scholz. This is a phone interview being conducted for the Madison General School of Nursing Alumni Oral History Project, 1905 to 1982. And for sound quality purposes, could you say your name and spell your last name?

FS: Fung Scholz. S-c-h-o-l-z.

LG: Perfect. Okay. Let me pull these up. All right. So just for clarification, can I get your birth date and your maiden name?

FS: 2/24/26. My maiden name was Wong, W-o-n-g.

LG: Great. Okay. So in our original interview, you said that you had had a cousin that was in the cadet nursing program.

FS: Correct.

LG: And that's kind of how you got to know about it. Do you remember like anything specific that she mentioned about the program? Or how she felt being in it that made you interested?

FS: One of my classmates was, a classmate was in the upper class, that was in 00:40:00the cadet nurses plan at Madison General. And she and I had kept contact. She says, "Why don't you apply up here?" And I think I told you previously, too, that I wanted to become a nurse after I'd visited the operating room at Beloit Hospital. Did I ever tell you that?

LG: I don't think so. Tell me a little bit more about that.

FS: (laughs) My older brother Jim was playing football. And apparently he was really going to make a goal. And he ran into the goalpost and cut his lip quite severely. And I went up to the hospital with him to have it stitched up. And when I was there, they invited me, at that time they did not have an emergency room. And you went directly to the fourth floor to surgery. And that's where they stitched up these patients that came in for emergencies. And I was so 00:41:00enthralled by the cleanliness and the whiteness of the operating room. It just impressed me so much that I just decided I wanted to be a nurse right then.

LG: Great. And could you tell me just a little bit more specifically about the cadet nurse program? I know you mentioned a little bit of detail in our original, but just kind of to get a more full understanding of what it was all about.

FS: Oh, I just loaned my cadet book to a professor, too. Okay. It was a Bolton act they had in Congress that was called a cadet nurses plan by a Bolton act that was, I can't remember the year it was passed. It was shortly after the Second World War started. And many of the nurses in the hospitals joined the service. And they needed nurses in the hospital to replace, the nurses had all 00:42:00left for military duty. So this new cadet nurses plan went into effect and it covered all our expenses and we were issued uniforms during the period that we were in the cadet nurses plan. Does that clarify it for you?

LG: Yes. That was perfect. Thank you. So, did your family have any like opinions or feelings about you going to school to school to be a nurse?

FS: No. I had an older brother. And of course he was in the service. And my mother was a widow when I was twelve years old. My older brother was, what do they say? He was classified as a, what was it? A different classification because he was the head of the family at age fourteen. And he was working, I was 00:43:00working, and we were helping raise my, I have five younger brothers and sisters, and my widowed mother, who had low, what should I say, little knowledge of the English language. So it was kind of a difficult childhood.

LG: So do you feel--or, sorry. I'll start kind of chronologically. You mentioned also that you went from Arizona to Madison. How did that come about?

FS: From where? No, I was not in Arizona. That was Alice Kanagaki.

LG: Oh, I'm so sorry.

FS: She was the Japanese girl that was put into one of those relocation camps.

LG: Got you. Okay. Sorry about that.

FS: She was a dear friend of mine, too.

LG: Got you. So were there any, I mean, obviously the war was going on. But how, 00:44:00I guess how did that world event affect you as a student? Like did you feel that you were kind of tuned into it? Or that it was kind of just going on in the background of your education.

FS: I was still in high school. And many of the fellows, the men, the boys, men, boys, joined up the service. So there was probably 50 percent of the boys had left. So when we graduated as seniors, there were weren't many men in the class. That's how it affected us one way. You know, and we had rationing. We had books for each family member had a book. And things like, let's see. What was rationed? Schools were rationed, gasoline was rationed. Certain types of food. Sugar was rationed.

LG: And as you transitioned from high school into your student nurse life, did 00:45:00any of that carry over? Or did it kind of transition into something new?

FS: I don't understand your question. Transition into something new. We had to take our ration books to nursing school with us. They got our books.

LG: Oh, interesting. Okay. So speaking of, I guess, transition, was there any aspects of your nursing career that changed significantly as the years went along?

FS: Anything changed. You mean about nursing? Or about myself?

LG: About like your nursing career. Like as technologies got introduced or anything, did things change a lot? Or did it kind of stay the same?

FS: I guess I don't have anything to compare it with. The only thing I do remember is that was when penicillin was discovered, when I was in nurses 00:46:00training. And penicillin was given. It was technical, and it was locked up in the narcotics. And we had to do it, there was a specific way to give it. And I remember making an X on somebody's buttocks. And we would rotate where we'd give the shot each time. So it would be upper quadrant, you know, the quadrant to the left and the quadrant to the right and the lower quadrant, and the right quadrant. So it was always given in a different spot. Because penicillin was put in beeswax, the medication. And therefore, it took a long time to absorb. It caused kind of a lump on your buttocks, I guess. I was never given penicillin that way. Afterward, it was given differently, of course.

LG: Were there any other medicines that came out in the years after that were so 00:47:00kind of intense like that? Or did it just kind of--

FS: The rest of them are all kind of general. We didn't have the amount of medication that they have now. I mean, everything was pharmaceutical medicine. We never had the, I don't know what to call these other ones that come out now. I can't think of the word. There's another, medicines all have a patent. And after ten years, the patent expires. And therefore, any pharmaceutical house could pick it up and make it, too. That's why you get the two different names for medications.

LG: Mm hmm. Got you. So was there anything about your education that you feel kind of lacks in nursing education today?

FS: Well, yes, I would say so, because I've talked to nurses that are graduating now. They don't have the clinical experience that we had. Most of their work is done by book or computer. So they don't have the practical application. But nurse, what do I call them? Practical nurses have taken over the duty of the RN from way back then. Or what else did they call them? Nurses' aides have taken over the practical experience. Most nurses now are supervisors or head nurses.

LG: Mm hmm. That's true. So I guess more generally, was there anything about your identity or your background that you feel kind of shapes the way that nursing kind of panned out for you? Like do you feel like your background really 00:49:00influenced how your nursing career went? Or was that more just you as an individual?

FS: That's probably more just me as an individual, I think. It was my determination to become a nurse. And when the cadet nurses plan came along, it was just a great opportunity for me. Because I never would have had the money to go into nurse's training.

LG: Mm hmm. And did you hold any positions in your class? Like, I don't know, like vice president or treasurer, you know how they had like--

FS: Well I ended up as president of the class.

LG: Oh, right. Okay, I don't think that was in the first interview.

FS: And I think Alice was vice president.

LG: Interesting. So how was that? Like what were your duties as president of your class?

FS: (laughs) There were no particular duties. I guess it was just an honorary 00:50:00position, really.

LG: Oh, got you, okay. Interesting. That's good to know. Glad I got that one in there. And I guess is there anything else that you would want to mention before we kind of close out the interview aspect of this? Like is there anything more that you'd want to say about your experiences?

FS: Well, I'm more than gratified that they had this program at the time that I could take advantage of it. Otherwise, I never would have probably become a nurse. I'm just so grateful for the opportunity.

LG: Well, great. Okay. That was really all the questions I had, just because our interview at the beginning was very successful. But I will make sure that my boss knows that you want to keep updated with how all the interviews have gone. And if you have any more questions for me, feel free to ask.

50:58[End Interview.]