<Begin Segment 19>

LH: So what do you remember of, sort of, arriving at Minidoka? When you first got there, what did you see?

FG: Sagebrush and dust and dust and sagebrush, a lot, and then the barracks. And we, let's see. We got off at Twin Falls and then we were trucked into Minidoka, and again it was army trucks. And let's see. Was it a bus? No. I think it was an army truck. And then they dropped us off at the block that we were, and it was a long ride because we were at the end of camp. There were forty-four blocks and we were in Block 42 so it's the next to the last one. [Laughs]

LH: You were at the end of the line.

FG: End of the line, right.

LH: So once you got into your barracks, what did you think? I mean, obviously it must have been somewhat similar to what you saw in Puyallup.

FG: It was a little better. The construction was a little more permanent. It was a little... it was raised and we couldn't, we didn't know why the stairs go up and the reason why was because there were rattlesnakes all over the place. And we used to find rattlesnakes underneath the foundation, not the foundation, but underneath the floor until they closed it up, and then we wouldn't have them anymore. But when we first got there it was still on stilts and so the snakes would... we didn't know what rattlesnakes were. [Laughs] We would kind of follow the sound, the rattle. It wasn't too terribly safe.

LH: So I mean, yeah. It does sound kind of dangerous with having rattlesnakes.

FG: Doesn't it?

LH: Do you remember anyone getting bit?

FG: No, I don't.

LH: Pretty lucky then.

FG: I think we were. I think we were, sometimes innocence is a very safe way to be. [Laughs]

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.