<Begin Segment 31>

AI: And Joe, did you go to Japanese school also, while you were in grade school?

JY: I did. Not very successfully, but I had to go. I think it was equivalent to the grade you were in, in regular school. So I must have gone through the fourth grade.

MY: Fourth grade, at least.

JY: I, and later on in years -- well, not later on, actually, a couple years later when we went to Crystal City -- they had a Japanese school there. And apparently I was so bad that they put me back in the first grade again. So I must not have learned too much at Beacon. But I do recall going to, walking down with them after school, going down the hill from Beacon Hill, going down into the valley and up across. And then we'd stop and get a ginger at a little store on the way.

TY: Oh, that's right, yeah.

JY: And then we'd go to Japanese school and so forth. So I remember things, things like that. And we had to walk down past the Marine Hospital.

MY: We went across the bridge, sometimes. Yeah, it was a Marine Hospital --

JY: Yeah, we did go across the bridge, and then right in front of that Bailey Gatzert --

MY: Bailey Gatzert School, yeah.

TY: By the bridge, yeah.

JY: -- School we'd go down the street there, and that's where that little store was, that we used to stop and get ginger. Little piece of sugared ginger.

TY: That store was across the street from the Japanese School on Rainier Avenue.

JY: Was it?

TY: Yeah, right on the corner where right now there's a sports store there, I think, where it used to be.

MY: You know that Marine Hospital was -- do you remember when it wasn't there? We used to fly kites up there.

JY: Really? I thought it was always there.

MY: No, I remember -- go all the way back.

JY: When you lived there?

MY: Yeah.

JY: Huh. You mean they built it while we were living in Beacon Hill?

MY: Uh-huh.

JY: I'll be darned.

TY: I think, no I think it was -- well, as I recall, they were building it when we moved there.

MY: Yeah, maybe.

JY: So maybe that's why I don't remember it.

TY: And there was --

MY: And then there was, and then they put that fence there. Remember that fence that they had?

TY: And they called it, it was the Marine Hospital. Huh?

MY: But the fence was not there. That was not, the fence wasn't there.

TY: No it wasn't. Just the trees. And they put the fence in.

MY: And so we used to go to the, to the area there to fly kites. Because it was on top of the hill, and there was a lot of wind.

TY: Yeah, I remember that.

MY: Yeah, and then the, and then the hospital --

JY: It's still there, isn't it?

TY: Huh?

JY: Is it still there?

MY: It's not a hospital anymore. Marine Hospital.

TY: The...

MY: Some kind of a community center.

TY: No, it's a -- oh, gee. What is it now?

MY: Employment center. Veterans center?

TY: No, that, no that book, e-mail... what is the name of that? Oh, shoot, I can't remember now.

AI: I think it's the Amazon --

TY: Amazon dot com. Yeah, they're there. They have their big shop there. And they store their books --

MY: A shop?

TY: Big, they store, they store all --

JY: They converted the hospital into an office building, basically?

TY: Yeah, they've taken over most of the building, I think.

JY: Hmm.

TY: Well, before it was Marine Hospital, and then it was a public hospital, public health hospital, and then I think it was a private hospital. Pacific Medical something hospital, at one time. And then they got, Amazon dot com bought it out and bought the whole building. I think they remodeled it, and I think they, their whole operation is there, now. Isn't that right?

MY: Mmm. It's kind of a -- so the original building is still there?

TY: Yeah.

MY: So, it's kind of a landmark, right? Because you could see it from anywhere in the city.

JY: Yeah, I can remember the park also, that --

TY: Beacon Hill Park.

JY: -- used to, right by the Higanos'.

MY: Yeah.

JY: And I used to walk down there and play in the park. And I used to think it was a huge park, you know? And when we drove by there a few years ago, it's just a teeny weeny little park. [Laughs] Middle of a city block. But the reason I could go there by myself is because the Higanos lived right there. So I felt like if something happened, I could just go right across the alley there, be with the Higanos. So I spent a lot of time in that park, when I was really young.

TY: They had a wading pool there.

JY: Yeah, they did. I remember that.

TY: And they had a handball court.

JY: And they had a basketball court that I was trying to learn how to play basketball, but I couldn't get the ball up to the net. I just couldn't heave it enough to get it up to the -- it used to be really frustrating.

MY: They had a tennis court there, too.

TY: Yeah.

JY: Yeah, I don't remember, I wasn't old enough to play tennis.

TY: They had two tennis courts and they had a handball court, just a concrete wall?

JY: I remember that.

TY: You remember that?

JY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We used to play that.

TY: The court on both sides of it.

JY: Yeah.

TY: Yeah, yeah.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.