Interview Goes here

Tammy Hamilton is a second-generation American, a mother of two, and has a job in telecom. She lives in Southeast Portland and enjoys eating exotic foods. Her parents are Vietnamese immigrants who currently live in Hawaii. Her father is retired and currently renovates houses, and her mother is a lifelong psychic medium.

J: So, it’s recording now. The reason that I wanted to interview you is because you are in a certain age range, 30-50ish years?

T: Yeah, don’t remind me.

J: Okay, well in our honors project we interview people to learn about their life, and to listen to stories as well as learn lessons. The age you are in you have a job and a family, so that is what we are mostly going to talk about. So to kinda set the stage, let’s talk about your childhood in Hawaii...

T: Yeah, I was born and raised in Hawaii. My parents are immigrants from Vietnam and when they arrived in Hawaii my mom was nine months pregnant with me, and her water broke on the airplane. The first place she went to in America was a hospital to give birth to me. They almost had nothing, but there was a church that sponsored them. They helped my parents find a place to live, and work and places to buy clothes. My dad told me he never rode in an elevator, and he was stuck in the hospital elevator because he didn’t know how to work it. I grew up learning Vietnamese and living in small houses, and we always had a pet goose. It was really fun growing up. I am the oldest of four, and my parents had four kids in four years. My parents were always busy. There was a lot going on with all of the kids. When I grew up, I experienced the Hawaiian culture, and I love it.

J: So, can we talk about your mother? About how she was a psychic?

T: Yeah, my mom has been a psychic since she was eight, and when she met my dad on the boat (Tammy’s parents were refugees from Vietnam, they were on a boat from Vietnam to Australia) they fell in love. And when they were going to America, my dad told my mom that Americans might not know about psychics and that she should keep it a secret. She came to America and after a while word got around that she was a psychic, and many people went to see her. When my dad went to work my mom would see people in our house, and do psychic readings. Our living room was always full of strangers waiting to see my mom. So, waking up in the morning with a house full of strangers was weird. It eventually got to a point where it got so big, that she told my dad what she was doing, and they continued doing psychic readings. It was always so strange to have a living room full of people when I woke up, and there would be a line across the block. All of them came by word of mouth. She eventually had an appointment system. The first time I found out that my mother was a psychic was when I was eight, and my mom was in a room with an aunt. Me and my sisters both came into the room, and my aunt was sitting in the room with my mom, and my aunt introduced herself, and introduced my mom as auntie number nine. I said that was my mom not auntie number nine, and my aunt said that auntie number nine was helping my mom to be a psychic. My mom spoke a different dialect and didn’t know who we were. I was so freaked out. My mom was a different person, and over the years I came to know what my mom did to help people and I knew that what she did was a true gift.

J: And what did your dad do?

T: He was a jack of all trades. He did a little bit of everything. He drove taxis, opened up a grocery store, and he was a cook. So, he had a restaurant and now that he’s retired he renovates homes. While my mom did readings my dad cooked and cleaned our house and took care of us.

J: In Hawaii, were there a large number of Vietnamese immigrants there?

T: Yeah there was a big community.

J: What island were you on?

T: O’ahu.

J: Can you talk about that Vietnamese community?

T: Most of the immigrants were sponsored by a church, so whenever we went to church there was a large percentage of people who were Vietnamese immigrants. Our neighbors who lived upstairs were Vietnamese, so when our parents weren’t home we’d go upstairs and play with their kids and eat their food. When I started kindergarten I didn’t know any English, so I was in the ELS program and lots of kids in that area who were first generation were in the same boat as me.

J: Okay, so now can we talk about what you did in between you living in Hawaii, and you now living in Portland. What happened?

T: I went to college in San Diego. I got my undergrad there and I wanted to go to law school so I went to law school in San Diego where I met my husband. After I finished law school me and my husband, Jake, moved to Washington DC where he had a job doing legal stuff, so we moved there for six months and then we moved back to San Diego for a few years. Jake got a job in Portland near where his family lived. We lived in Portland for six months, then we moved to Washington state, then we lived there for two years, then we moved back to San Diego. We eventually got married and I had Vin (her son) and Jake got a job back in Portland. So I visited him in the summer, until I got a telecom job in Portland, and I’m still working here.

J: Okay, so now in Portland what is your family and home like?

T: I have two sons, Vin and Denali, and my husband Jake. We have a dog and a house. Every day is full of stuff we do: get the kids ready for school, drop them off, work all day, go to the grocery store, etc. Everyday is like that, but it’s fun.

J: So, what do you do for fun?

T: I like to explore Portland. So on the weekends we like to go around to places in Portland that we haven’t been to yet. We hike, or shop, or eat. We go out to a lot of restaurants to eat. We’ve been to a lot of food carts and stands, and me and my husband both like Asian food so we go to different dumpling places. So me and my whole family go out a lot to get food.

J: Is there anything else you want to talk about?

T: I just kinda wanted to say that when I was in my twenties, I thought I was going to be a lot more wise and mature, and I still feel kind of young. But the older you are, the more you have responsibilities, and as a working mom I have a lot of responsibilities but it’s very rewarding and I have a lot of fun. There have been good days and bad days but it all makes it worth it.

J: So I think that is going to be the end of the recording, so thank you.

T: Thank you.