Oral History Interview with Anitra Haapa Mercer and Priscilla Haapa Hawkins

This oral history is provided free by the Archives of the Interlochen Center for the Arts (ARTICA). It has been accepted for inclusion in Interlochen’s audio archive by an authorized administrator of Interlochen Center for the Arts. For more information, please contact archives@interlochen.org.

00:00:00    BRAD BAILEY
Today is July 3rd, 2024. This is an oral history interview with:

00:00:07    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Anitra Haapa Mercer.

00:00:08    BRAD BAILEY
And..

00:00:09    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Priscilla Haapa Hawkins.

00:00:12    BRAD BAILEY
Conducted by Brad Bailey on the campus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts. So now that I have you all together, is there anything you want to share collaboratively about your experiences here at Interlochen that we may not have covered in your original solo interviews? Especially, you know, about your time here together? And I think, Priscilla, there was something you had mentioned that you would want to chat about. I think your favorite place here on campus or what was that?

00:00:34    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Oh yes. A place that I really liked. When they would let us go down there. I probably had a kind of, oh no, I think I had a class when I was in the high school division. I had a class down like below Kresge, where you're right by the lake, you know, it's so beautiful down there. So that's a place that I always like to go now when I come back to visit.

00:00:58    BRAD BAILEY
Do you remember that place, Anitra?

00:01:00    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Yes. That's where I talked earlier, where I met Van Cliburn.

00:01:04    BRAD BAILEY
Okay.

00:01:05    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
The same area.

00:01:06    BRAD BAILEY
So tell me about some things that you- I think you all mentioned. You don't like Monday challenges. So what are your both experiences with that? I would love to hear that briefly again.

00:01:14    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Okay. Well, I definitely never challenged anyone because I was hoping no one would challenge me. I was the- she's [Priscilla] a lot more outgoing than I am. I just wanted to sit there and no one would look at me, but I was- I just didn't like Bloody Mondays because I didn't know what was going to happen, and I don't remember if I was challenged. I blocked that whole memory out. Okay, Priscilla?

00:01:38    BRAD BAILEY
Priscilla, what are your thoughts?

00:01:40    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Well, I didn't particularly like the challenges either, but I do remember, for sure, at one point I moved back a chair. And then I remember the whole next week thinking, oh, well, now I really should challenge. Should I challenge? Should I not challenge? What are they going to make me play, you know? And and then thinking things like oh, but you know, since it's the students who vote in your section, then oh, I don't know. Do they like me or not? You know, stuff like that. And to this day, honestly, I don't remember if I did challenge or not.

00:02:20    BRAD BAILEY
So. Well, let's talk about that. Let's talk about collaboration, you know, because that's sort of what a challenge would be in a way sort of competition, but also collaboration with your peers. What did this place teach you both about collaboration with people, musically and also personally and or professionally in any capacity?

00:02:36    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
We're talking about friendships?

00:02:37    BRAD BAILEY
Anything, collaboration in any way, professionally, personally, in any capacity.

00:02:43    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Yeah. Well, personally, it was a fun summer because I met a lot of good people and we had some fun times together. And, you know, like I talked about earlier, of course, the music and playing in a big orchestra was one of the highlights of being here, because our high school orchestra, we had a good high school orchestra, but not as big as we had here, and just playing with so many other talented young people. That's a big plus for Interlochen.

00:03:08    BRAD BAILEY
And Priscilla?

00:03:09    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Yeah, Anita and I being different personalities, but definitely having the music in common. I think in those days we didn't collaborate too much.

00:03:21    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
You andI?

00:03:21    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Yes.

00:03:22    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Well, we did one time, remember?

00:03:24    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
What was that?

00:03:25    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
The socks.

00:03:26    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Oh, she wants me to tell about the socks.

00:03:29    BRAD BAILEY
Okay.

00:03:29    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Okay. Yes. The relationship that Anitra and I had, this is very true, is of my being more of the person going outside the boundaries. And Anitra was the one that, oh no, we can't do this. Here's the way it it has to be. And so then what would happen is that I would try to talk her into helping me go outside the boundaries. And one of those things was, well, for one thing, I wanted to be able to have some toffee squares that my mother made and set up- send us to Interlochen. But of course we couldn't keep those in the high school girls cabins, but Anitra could because she was in the University in the dorm there. And so I did talk her into giving me some navy blue knee socks, because, you know, high school girls have the light blue knee socks and the university, the navy blue. And she didn't really want to, but that's kind of the relationship we had then, which now has changed, I think quite a bit. Yeah. Has changed, has changed quite a bit. So anyway, in the middle of the woods somewhere, you know, I changed into the navy blue knee socks and went trotting into Anitra's dorm, you know.

00:04:51    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
And I was complicit in it because I gave her a pair of my navy blue knee socks. So I hope Statue of Limitations is over.

00:05:00    BRAD BAILEY
Yeah, I think you're safe.

00:05:01    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
I think you're because we are defined by the color of our socks at Interlochen.

00:05:04    BRAD BAILEY
Yeah. Seriously. So what did you end up doing with this newfound, you know, how old were you at the time, Priscilla?

00:05:09    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
I guess I was 16 or 17. Mhm.

00:05:13    BRAD BAILEY
And the University socks were for those folks who were above 18?

00:05:17    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Or counselors were navy blue. Okay. And University women wore navy blue. Yes.

00:05:23    BRAD BAILEY
And so what did you do, Priscilla, with your newfound status?

00:05:27    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Oh, I just-

00:05:27    BRAD BAILEY
Ill-gotten.. Newfound, ill-gotten status.

00:05:30    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
That I could walk into Anitra's dorm whenever I wanted to. And I probably tried to convince her to let me sleep in there, but, you know, no, that never happened. Because I knew I couldn't be missing from my high school girls cabin at night. You know-

00:05:46    BRAD BAILEY
That wouldn't be good.

00:05:47    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Then I'd be in real trouble just to do it. That's just, you know, the way I was and somewhat still am. Let's just see if we can go beyond this little boundary. And nobody's, nobody's.

00:06:00    BRAD BAILEY
Irreverent, irreverent. So any other shared experiences you all would like to share that you've had together here on campus? Favorite places or people or just sort of concerts or anything that sort of sticks out to you?

00:06:14    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
I mean, we really didn't- we weren't together at all because she was doing her high school stuff and I was doing University stuff. So really our paths, I don't even remember seeing you that often unless it was in the dining room, dining room at lunch or dinner or something.

00:06:28    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Yes. Probably not. And, you know, and as I said, we weren't really close growing up just because different ways of thinking. But yeah, I do want to mention that I think especially now in these last, say, 20 years, our older sister was killed when she was 20, and both of our parents are gone now. And so now we have become much closer because we realize we're the only ones left in our family, you know? And if we're going to have any relationship, you know, we need to have it now. And so, you know, we realize that we have to overlook the things that we don't agree on and, and mostly not talk about them and, but talk about, you know, the things we do agree on. And so in Anitra and I talk a lot about music, how we played together, we had a family trio when our older sister was still alive.

00:07:24    BRAD BAILEY
Oh, wow.

00:07:25    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
My dad played the piano and Anitra and Kathe the violin, and me on the cello, and we practiced quite a bit and we gave little concerts at the end of each school year. My mother made the cookies. We had the concert at our house, our teachers and other friends, and everything came. We had little programs my dad had printed out for many years. We did that and we all took private lessons all through the years.

00:07:53    BRAD BAILEY
What are your thoughts on that, Anitra?

00:07:55    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Well, exactly the same thing. I think I told you the same thing too about we took from Detroit Symphony players. That's who our private teachers were. So my father got the best that he could find for us, and he always got the best instruments that he could afford for us. So yeah, like I said, music was really our whole life. That's where we spent all of our extra time and. But yeah, we agreed to disagree on some things, but she and I are the only ones that have memories of our family growing up. There's no one else. Can't talk to any of my kids. She's the only one I can talk to about that. So she's very special to me right now.

00:08:30    BRAD BAILEY
No, I can see that. I can see that. When's the last time you come here together?

00:08:36    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Long time ago.

00:08:38    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Yeah, when was the last time you were here?

00:08:40    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Oh, it could have been when Shanda graduated

00:08:43    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Shanda graduated, 1990.

00:08:45    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
1990.

00:08:46    SPEAKER_S4
Oh, wow.

00:08:47    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Yeah, when Shanda graduated from the Arts Academy. And another nice thing then, too, was that Anitra really got to know Shanda quite well because Shanda was here for her sophomore, junior and senior years in high school, and so it was a long way to go back home. So she didn't come back home for every holiday. And since Anitra and her husband Chuck live in Houghton Lake, I think you would come and get her.

00:09:13    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
I did. I came and got her many times in winter snowstorms coming here for Thanksgiving, and that's when we had one of our exchange students that year. And she always said, I like coming because it was like a big family. And she was an only child. So. And I think she told me once, not too many years ago, she was up there with her boys and we were staying in the kitchen and she said, you know, she said, I just really feel this is like home for me. And I just made me get tears in my eyes because I'm glad that we could be there for her. We were just an hour and a half away rather than 6000 miles in California. So we did get to know her and loved her. She was my, my niece.

00:09:54    BRAD BAILEY
And so what brings you on campus today or this week. What brought you on campus this week?

00:09:59    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Third generation and our family now coming to Interlochen. And that is Shanda, one of her sons, Elliott, who's 13, and he plays violin. We got him to come to Interlochen with a lot of persuasion for the three weeks, and by God, we're coming to visit him. If he's here, we definitely are, because we're, we're very close to both our grandsons, because even though we live in California, we did go back to Michigan for eight years when those- the boys, they lived there when they were very young, just born so that we could establish a relationship with them in Michigan. And then since my husband is a Californian, we moved back to California about six years ago.

00:10:53    BRAD BAILEY
Wow. So how has this week been in terms of like rekindling some of those memories that you all had together and then, of course, separately in different, different occasions.

00:11:03    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Well, together, of course, we always talk about the, the knee, the knee socks.

00:11:07    BRAD BAILEY
Yes, yes, yes that part.

00:11:10    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
But we just we weren't involved in the same music groups or really, I don't think I really saw you that much. I think when we got letters from mom or dad, we probably shared them. And when I got cookies and things that I could keep in the dorm, you'd come and share those, too. But she just likes me for the cookies. But, you know, other than that. And that was 62 years ago.

00:11:33    BRAD BAILEY
Yeah.

00:11:34    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
So I told him, this is 50 years too long for an interview to remember some of this.

00:11:39    BRAD BAILEY
I think you remember it just fine. Just fine.

00:11:43    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Yeah. Yes. I think that even though Anita and I weren't necessarily that close when we were at Interlochen, we both had very similar experiences here. And if you combine that with our family growing up playing our instruments, you know, together. And of course, we weren't always happy about having to practice. Of course not. But we are so glad that our parents did insist that we do this. And because, yeah, we feel like this is our life. And I feel like it's like music just encompasses me. And that's how I stay alive.

00:12:26    BRAD BAILEY
That's a powerful quote. Do you want to expound on that?

00:12:32    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Because music is just inside of me and outside of me. I feel that it just keeps me going and keeps me, for example, wanting to keep teaching students. So many people say to me at- now I'm 79 and they say, oh, do you still play the cello? And I said, how could I not? How could I not? It is my life. And I know some musicians, even, who play in major symphony orchestras when they retire. That's it. So everybody has a different experience there. But I think because we had all this background already at home and then were sent to Interlochen for more background in a totally unusual experience, like Anitra said, playing music that we weren't playing anywhere else at a higher level.

00:13:30    BRAD BAILEY
Anita, what are your thoughts on what she just said?

00:13:32    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
I completely agree, I can't imagine life without music. And here I am, 80. I'm still teaching because I love it. I've never not liked teaching. And I have just a few students. I really retired from private students in '06 because my husband had retired and we wanted to travel, and at that time I had 40 private students. I had about 20 string students and 20 piano students. And then we got to the point we weren't going to Florida anymore in the winter. We did that for several winters. So violin people find me and they say, hey, we hear you teach the violin. So I now have seven students and I love teaching. I just I love it, and music has been something your entire life you can enjoy. I tell some of my students if they quit for some reason. I said, you know what? You know enough that when you hear someone playing the violin well or the piano, you know how much work it took to get to where that is because you didn't stick with it, but understand what it took to get to such a high level of playing. But yeah, I can't imagine. I play in a community orchestra in Cadillac, and I also have a string quartet I play in, and I'm also in a group of acoustic instruments, hammered dulcimers in guitar and autoharps and yeah, violin. And it's just fun, just different kinds of music. And I play in the praise band at church every Sunday.

00:14:53    BRAD BAILEY
Oh, wow. So at 80?

00:14:55    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
I'm still playing.

00:14:56    BRAD BAILEY
You're still actively involved?

00:14:58    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Yes, I'm very actively involved.

00:15:00    BRAD BAILEY
Yes. Great. Wonderful. And so you mentioned that you had one. What were your, what were your-

00:15:04    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Oh, I just wanted to add to that, that Anitra and I wrote this book. We wrote two of them together, and I did the water color and Anitra did the dialogue. So with that book, we also have performed it. So we figure out for this character and that character, you know, and work it out. So we read the story, and then we play music that goes along with parts of the story, and it's just like, so natural. Yeah, because we have such a backlog of music that we know, right? And so if you think of the scary cat, oh, I know just the piece for that, you know.

00:15:48    BRAD BAILEY
Hold that thought, one second.

00:15:50    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Yeah. We presented our book at two libraries in the county I live in, in a montessori school down state. We were going to do it in California. So we ended up not just reading the story and having the watercolors in the book up on a screen for the children to see. We added music. So one part of the book. The frog was in the fern they were in for the winter, and he was getting bored and he wanted to do something exciting, so I played. Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum- I played the Star Wars theme. Just things like that, that we put in different parts of the book. Sometimes I'd read and she'd play the cello, or she would read and I play the violin, or sometimes we played together.

00:16:29    BRAD BAILEY
Thank you. Wow. So. So your book. When did this book come out?

00:16:33    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
It's been.

00:16:34    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Oh, it's been.

00:16:35    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Five years.

00:16:36    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Or more than that. I think it was just self-published.

00:16:39    BRAD BAILEY
When's the next one coming out?

00:16:40    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Well, we did a second one.

00:16:41    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
We have the second one. Yes. And that's a good question because Anitra came to me more than a year ago and she said, oh, I want to do another book.

00:16:50    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
I want to do a third.

00:16:51    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Book, a third book. And it's going to be about, I guess, in the Upper Peninsula and the copper mining in the Keweenaw Peninsula. And I said, sure, but now nothing's happened.

00:17:04    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
I haven't been.. I started making notes on it. That's where my grandfather immigrated from Finland in the late 1800s, worked in the copper mines up in Hancock. And that's where my father was born, up there in 1910. So we have family history up there, and there's a lot of history with the saunas and the, the foods. And so I want another- I want the frog and the fern to go up to the Keweenaw and experience some of the stuff. These books were written primarily for our grandchildren, but then we have shared them with friends. We've sold a lot of books just having these programs. Some of our friends have bought the books. So. So after our first book, then the way the second book came about is that my husband and I had a motorhome for many years, and we had taken the motorhome down to Florida, to the park we stayed in, and then we came back for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then we'd go back after that, spend the winter down there. So we got down there on New Year's Eve and it was dark. I went in the motorhome, put the light on, and I went- I screamed and my husband came and said, what's the matter? I said, there's a frog in here. So he's looking. He said, Anitra, we've been on the road. You're tired, you're seeing things. So I went to bed. I know I saw that frog. I am not seeing things. So I woke up in the morning. We were going out to eat breakfast, open the door. And on the top step was that frog. And he was a frog from Michigan. I think he hitchhiked under the carriage of our motorhome and went to Florida with us. So we thought, you know what?

00:18:25    BRAD BAILEY
Can you blame him?

00:18:27    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
He wants to travel with us. And my husband and I have traveled. We've been in every state, Hawaii. We've been in Alaska for several weeks. There have been a lot of Canadian. I said, I think he wants to go to national parks with us. So our second book, The Frog and the Fern, traveled to five national parks.

00:18:42    BRAD BAILEY
With the frog?

00:18:43    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Yes, of course, the fern and the frog are not in the motorhome. The fern is huge. We could not-

00:18:49    BRAD BAILEY
Of course, of course.

00:18:50    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
So anyway. Yeah, the frog and the fern experienced. Or the frog is the one who went and experienced it.

00:18:56    BRAD BAILEY
National park.

00:18:56    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Five national parks. Yes.

00:18:58    BRAD BAILEY
Wow, what a story. Wow ladies. Well, thank you so much. Do you think there's anything we haven't didn't get a chance to cover in the time we spent with you this afternoon?

00:19:08    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
No, that one other part where I almost did get sent home in the high school division. We're going to. We're going to leave that to maybe another time.

00:19:17    BRAD BAILEY
Well, you could share it now, if you wish.

00:19:19    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
I'd like to hear it, too.

00:19:20    BRAD BAILEY
I think we have. We have. I mean, you know, no time like the present, if you wish.

00:19:25    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
You know this, Anitra. Okay.

00:19:28    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
I just know about the knee socks.

00:19:30    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
So I was good at rowing a boat. I always have been. And I passed the swimming test there and the high school girls. And again, I think I was just trying to push the limits to see, you know, what I could do. So what I did one day, and this is all true as I went out, they knew I had signed out. I'm in the row, rowing the boat. I just headed right for the other shore, right across the lake. And of course they eventually, when they saw I was out there, they eventually came after me. But I'm sure I was out there at least an hour and a half. I never got to the other, the other side, you know. So I'm sure they thought I was crazy. And I have no idea what I thought I was going to do when I got there. But, you know, I was a teenager and trying to push the limits. And so, you know, I'm surprised they didn't send me home then, but they said, okay, now come on back. They didn't say too much, you know. And then we had to go- I had to go to the high school girls headquarters. The head lady there, who I remember was not particularly warm and fuzzy. And so she makes me sit there and I don't know what she, what it was she said to me, but my punishment was that they took away my badge for a whole week. Now, you're supposed to have your badge in order to get in to eat meals, you know? But I knew the people in there were going to not have a problem. They were checking badges, though, much more in those days than they do now. I've been going there. Now you just go. It looks to me like you just go running in. And so the ladies there, I had to tell the ladies who worked in the cafeteria, they already knew me. And I said, I don't know what to expect me to eat. And so they let me through. And I guess that all kind of died down. I have no idea if they have it on my record or whatever, but.

00:21:36    BRAD BAILEY
We could always find out.

00:21:37    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
I'm sure.

00:21:38    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Yeah. Please check the police records.

00:21:41    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
1962 if you want to check it out.

00:21:45    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Oh, my. I didn't know about the rest of the story.

00:21:48    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Really?

00:21:48    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
About them taking your badge away or no.

00:21:51    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Oh my goodness. Okay.

00:21:53    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
See, I learned something new today.

00:21:54    BRAD BAILEY
You learned something? This is why we do oral history. This is why we do oral history so well. On that note. On that irreverent note.

00:22:02    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
No, no.

00:22:04    BRAD BAILEY
Ladies, it's been such a pleasure and such a privilege. I want to thank you so much for joining with me today and telling your stories. It opened my eyes to quite a lot of things. So thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Thank you Anitra.

00:22:15    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Yeah. Thank you. You are a wonderful interviewer. I mean, you're so easy to talk to and it was a very pleasant experience.

00:22:21    BRAD BAILEY
Thank you, I appreciate that and thank you, Priscilla.

00:22:24    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Yes, and I totally agree with Anitra. It's a very relaxed atmosphere. So if you're ever asked to do this and you really want to share, come on in, let them know you'd like to do it.

00:22:38    BRAD BAILEY
Thank you for that plug. Thank you for that. Today is July 3rd, 2024. This concludes the double interview with:

00:22:45    ANITRA HAAPA MERCER
Anitra Haapa Mercer.

00:22:46    BRAD BAILEY
And.

00:22:47    PRISCILLA HAAPA HAWKINS
Priscilla Haapa Hawkins.

00:22:49    BRAD BAILEY
Conducted by Brad Bailey on the campus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts.