<Begin Segment 19>

AI: Well, now how did you find out about, that you needed an appendix operation? What happened?

AS: One day I woke up at six o'clock in the morning with stomachache and it was during the wintertime. And the barracks were like camp so we had a pot belly stove right in the middle of the room. And I was standing right next to the, to the stove and I had chills and I was perspiring at the same time because I was right next to the stove. And so then, but the pain got so bad that they took me to the infirmary in Seabrook and when the nurse checked me there she said, "Oh, we better send you to the hospital." And the ambulance took me to the hospital in Bridgeton, which was a city next to, oh, about five miles from Seabrook. And I had a surgery that day, appendix removed.

AI: And then, so did you have to stay in the hospital?

AS: I had to stay in the hospital a few days. And going back to when I was in the infirmary room... no, at the hospital, I guess. My mother came in and, and so we were, I can't remember, I can't remember exactly, but I think we were in the same room for a while. And that's when my mother had my brother, George was born.

AI: So you were there at the same time?

AS: Right.

AI: Oh, my goodness. Well, after you got out of the hospital, how long did it take for you to recover?

AS: Well, the doctor told me I have to take it easy for six months. So then I couldn't go to work at the bulb garden because you had to bend over and go down on your knees and things like that. So then they gave me a job at the greenhouse. So then, there I just watered the plants.

AI: So, and then, and George was born so then you had a little baby then living there with you and the whole family. Oh, my goodness. So during this time then, what did your family find out about where you were going to go next? Your father was still hoping that you could go back to Peru.

AS: Right.

AI: And what, what did you find... what happened?

AS: So we were there for two and a half years and then finally my father gave up about going back to Peru and we moved to Chicago.

AI: When was that?

AS: 1940... March of '49.

AI: And tell me about why, why he decided to go to Chicago?

AS: Well, he had friends in Chicago. In fact, a few families went to Chicago from Seabrook. So then it was, he had a friend at, he had a friend in San Diego that wanted us to go there, too. So he couldn't decide to go to San Diego or Chicago, but somehow, I don't know why, but he decided to go to Chicago.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.