<Begin Segment 31>

AI: Tell me about some of your early days there at Tule Lake. What were the things that just stick in your mind about...

EH: Well, it was, it was interesting because again, things were better-organized. And by the time we found our location, and then within a week, I'm sure, we all had to go to placement offices and be, we were able to say what kind of work we'd prefer to do. And there were probably lists of the kinds of jobs, and I said I'd like to work in recreation. And I didn't know -- I knew I wasn't (going to) be any kind of coach, or... I'm a terrible sports person. But group experiences were kind of important.

One of the things I did in Sacramento before, before evacuation, before Pearl Harbor, as a freshman I took on a junior high school Christian Endeavor group. Just because I, I began to feel that they needed to have broader experience. And for some reason, we didn't have Girl Scouts and Campfire Girls, I don't know why. But anyway, I did that. One of the funny things that happened was, I was trying to, to get these kids to realize that they needed to do their share, even at church. And so in the fall, we had big trees around, and I had the, the kids raking leaves on church grounds, and stuffing 'em in, I forgot, some kind of bags. And my mother was, got furious. That evening when I left, when I went back to, to Garrittys' at the college, she was on the phone. And in those days, very religious, pious people, I suppose, you don't work on Sundays. In fact, you weren't supposed to go to movies, but, you know, I just figured Sundays was a day when the kids could get together, that we needed something to do, this was an opportunity for them to participate in some way. And she just, just harangued about how, what a wrong thing to teach twelve- to fourteen-year-olds. And I just, I got on the telephone and I said, "What's wrong with teaching kids to do their part for church?" And I'm just going on like that and she just kept on, so I had said, "Okay, I'm quitting." And it was warm and my window was up, and the Garrittys were just driving into, to the driveway, and they heard me through the window say, "I'm quitting." And Mrs. Garritty came rushing in and, "Elaine, why are you quitting?" Just, just in tears. And I said, "Oh, I wasn't talking to you, and I wasn't talking about you. I was so mad at my mother, she's always complaining about something." And, but that, that was funny. And I never heard the end of that. I think I continued to, I, the church had one car that they used for all kinds of transportation, and we'd take, I'd take 'em to William Land Park to see this and that and stuff like that. But that was, that was another, typical of a staunch Presbyterian woman, leader.

AI: Well, so anyway, before, before even Pearl Harbor happened, here you had started having this experience of, of working with some younger kids and doing some group activities with them. So once you got to Tule Lake, then you went to...

EH: I went to recreation.

AI: Recreation Department.

EH: And Martha went, signed up to be an assistant teacher, 'cause until Pearl Harbor, until that point, I think up and down, I don't know what it was like in California, but I -- in Washington state -- but I think anywhere on the West Coast, they did not hire minorities as teachers. I had friends who, who could not get a job, even out of San Jose State teacher's college. And, but when evacuation occurred, here were a bunch of, probably the biggest percentage of college graduates who could not get teaching jobs. And in the camps, they needed teachers desperately. So if you're a college graduate, you could get manuals, teaching manuals, and lesson plans and that kind of thing, and textbooks. So assistant teachers were, because here were a lot of inexperienced teachers in, in very crude environment, that friends of mine, I think I must have half a dozen friends who took teaching, assistant teaching positions.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.