<Begin Segment 33>

AI: Well, also in August, I guess in some of the papers that David had collected, there's a copy of a telegram from Frank and a telegram that he sent to you while you were in Detroit and it says, "Come back to Seattle."

MF: Who?

AI: From Frank.

MF: Oh really?

AI: Telegram to you. It says, "Come back to Seattle."

MF: Oh, is that right? I forgot that.

AI: Yes. And so then you have mentioned earlier that you and Bill and David left Detroit by car, that you drove when you left Detroit.

MF: Yeah. Well, we went home but my folks were still in camp while we were going home to Seattle when the war ended. We stopped in to camp to see them. And we stayed there about two nights, I guess, in camp. While we were there, somebody stole four tires that were on our car and we had a hard time buying a car, tires at that time, at the wartime. But we finally got it and then --

AI: In fact, I have a copy of the letter that you wrote. David got this copy and I'm going to ask you if you could read part of this for us.

MF: [Laughs]

AI: It's dated September 17, 1945.

MF: Uh-huh. "I'm writing this letter in anger. We reached Hunt last Wednesday afternoon and today we were to leave for Seattle when we found out that car was damaged. Two tires, both wheels were stolen and also the clock and the dark, oh, dashboard is gone." I don't remember that. Dashboard was gone. I can't read what I wrote. "The windows were also broken and few minor things are gone. The accident, oh, assistant director says he is sorry and won't take no responsibility when we came in the visitor's" -- I don't know what it says.

AI: The visitor's parking?

MF: I don't know what it is -- "Park, your car outside of the project on the parking lot, we don't know when we can return to Seattle now. I know it is impossible to buy tires, so many red tapes we have to go through. I wonder if I should write to Director Myers and tell him the situation and ask for the damage. There is no one here to advise in this order." September 21st, that's my birthday, 1945. Who did I write to?

AI: At the top it looks like a Miss --

MF: Yeah.

AI: Satterfield?

MF: It says Miss Saterford or something like that. [Laughs]

AI: Shall I take your glasses?

MF: Oh, yeah.

AI: So, as you mentioned, it was impossible to get tires.

MF: But we finally did get a tires from Twin Falls or somewhere. Bill went around and kind of inquired other people and, but we lost -- we didn't get any money from relocation.

AI: And the reason it was hard --

MF: And then after that we were in camp couple of days and he got tick and then he couldn't drive anymore.

AI: The insects? The ticks?

MF: Yeah.

AI: Oh, no.

MF: So we were in the hospital there. Gee, where was that hospital, where did we get stuck? Gee, those people. They were Mormon people, they were so nice. So he got sick and so we stopped in this motel and this motel man was very, very nice. I said, "My husband is very ill. Is there a hospital near here?" He said, "Yes," he said, "right across the street." I didn't notice it when we were driving in. And he took my husband to the hospital and then we had to stay in the motel 'cause we couldn't stay in the car. And he asked us where we were going. And he didn't charge me for four days or something like that for the motel that I stayed with David because his wife's mother was very ill in some other state and she was away, and I said, "Well, could I help you?" And I did all the washing the sheets and I didn't know how to use the man-, what do you call it?

AI: The mangle?

MF: Yeah. But he taught me how to do that. And oh, I tried to help as much as I could because I wasn't doing anything. And he didn't charge me anything for our staying there. And Bill was in there about four days. And you know that hospital bill was only eighty dollars for four days. And the doctor was eighty dollars. And we didn't have that kind of money with us, I don't think, 'cause I wasn't able to pay. And they trusted us until we came back to Seattle.

AI: Is that right?

MF: So right away I borrowed some money from my mom and I sent a check there to them. They were really nice people.

AI: That's wonderful to hear.

MF: Yeah.

AI: So you had some interesting experiences on your way back

MF: Yeah, really. I didn't think that he would be so sick that he couldn't drive anymore and those people were so nice. He said, "We're Mormons."

AI: Well, is there anything else you recall about that trip from Detroit back to Seattle? Anything else that stands out in your mind?

MF: Well, we didn't have any discrimination. 'Cause I think David had a haircut one time on the road. And we stayed in a motel and a lot of those motels had little kitchen so we, I remember going to Safeway and David said, "Oh Mother, there's watermelon," so I bought a half a watermelon and in the motel there was a real big knife so I just cut in half and he says, "Mother, this is very good." He was still a boy.

AI: Things like that make such a difference to children.

MF: Yeah. He was such a good boy when he was small. He minded everything and he was very polite to people and everybody loved him. And then when he was very small I made a bunting with a hat, with a kind of a, with a hood that attached to the clothing. And it was red. And everybody thought he was a girl. [Laughs] So I said, "No, he's a boy." 'Cause we used to go every Friday to Japanese town to eat Japanese food. And when we were working and we lived in Montlake. And they would, I would bring him in the crib, a basket. And he would sit in right beside me in sort of a kind of a bench at the Japanese restaurant there. And everybody said, "Oh, what a cute little girl," because I had him in red. [Laughs] I said, "No, he's a boy." And they said, "Oh." He's very delicate face and very light complexion. He was almost white. For a Japanese it's very unusual, but he had a very lotta hair when he was born. I could remember that and Mother was so surprised. She said most of the children don't have that, baby don't have that much hair. But he was just full of hair. [Laughs]

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.