<Begin Segment 12>

JA: And what was life like during the winter months?

MH: During the winter months it was a little different story because it was cold, and so we had to make sure there was plenty of fuel inside so we can keep warm. And then, sometime the snow was so deep we couldn't get to school, because school was canceled that time and things like that has happened. And we had a long ways to walk out, because we were the furthest one in, in that Midlake area. And so, we had to walk all the way out to the end to the Northeast Eighth and it was quite a ways for us, but we all walked it together with all the neighborhood Japanese friends that we had, seven families living there. And, well, we made snowmans in the winter. And we went (...) skating, I should say, on the lake, Midlake, because that froze, so we skated on there, and we took sleds on there. There were all kind of things that we did for excitement in the winter. And there was actually no work to do. But we kind of look forward to mochi season so we can make mochi in the backyard on the fireplace Dad installed, and so we made mochi (for) New Year's. (We were also busy sorting strawberry plants to be ready to plant in March.)

JA: The mochi, was this a family activity or did the various farms get together?

MH: Various families get together and the relatives get together, they come, too, and they drink and have a wonderful time singing and whatever and make the mochi. It's a miracle they don't hit anybody's hand when they're kneading this mochi.

JA: And the implements you used to pound the mochi, was this...

MH: It was all made by this carpenter that we knew. He made it because you have to have a certain type of wood. And the thing you pound into was made with certain wood, otherwise it will get the smell and everything onto your mochi so a certain kind was made by this carpenter, too. So we had it for the longest time until we got home from war days. (These mochi pounders and such were made with the trunk of a cherry tree.)

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.