<Begin Segment 8>

DN: So what kind of, what kind of activities would you have with these, with your Japanese neighbors? You've mentioned baseball.

EH: Well, Jerry, in high school, he was one of our star basketball players on the Bainbridge High School team, and also was, another one was Mitsu, but we called him "Lefty" Katayama. He was, he was a great basketball, they were both fantastic basketball players.

DN: How'd the team do?

EH: Oh, I can get my annual out. [Laughs]

DN: [Laughs] Little, little hazy now, huh?

EH: Yeah, oh, yeah.

DN: How about football? Did they play that?

EH: Oh, I'll tell you, you know one of the best football guards that Bainbridge ever had was... Koba. Harry Koba. And he was about that wide, not very tall, but man... Pop Miller was our football coach, and he just admired Harry. He said, "That was one hell of a football player." And then Bear Omoto was a, I think he was a tackle. And he was, he was much bigger than Harry, but man, he, he could plow through that line like nothin'.

DN: And these were all hard-working kids who...

EH: Oh, yeah. Well, you know, for them to turn out for football, they had to do double-duty because the strawberry fields, you had to get out and hoe them, and keep 'em well-weeded, and they had the most beautiful strawberry farms in the world. And the plants, gee, they were big. And every Saturday, they had to put their time out in the fields. And they would be all lined up out there, with their fork hoes, and doing the weeding.

DN: Did, did the farmers also bring labor help over, at, strawberry picking season over from Seattle?

EH: Oh, no, they came from Canada.

DN: Oh, really?

EH: They, they were the... somewheres up on Vancouver Island, I think, was a, an Indian tribe, and they would bring them down, and, to help pick strawberries. And so they were, during the strawberry season, there were, ooh... I know that the Sakumas and the Okazakis, they had quite a few. And they lived in tents, if I remember. And where they got their water, boy, I don't know.

DN: How long, typically, did a picking season last? A couple weeks?

EH: We... well, we graduated May the 27th. And on Bainbridge High School, the Seattle schools and all the other schools, like spring vacation, winter break, and so forth, they would get usually a whole week off. We would probably get maybe one day off. Because to get our 180 degree -- degrees -- days in, that would back it up so we could, we could get out early to, so that the Japanese could go work their strawberries.

DN: And, and, but it would usually last two weeks or so? With the picking and...

EH: Oh, it lasted... by the Fourth of July was usually the end of the strawberry season.

DN: So over a month.

EH: Yeah. I'm guessing -- and that depended on the weather, because the Marshall berries were very, very susceptible to rain. Like we got here today. They wouldn't, they'd rot right now. Or turn to mush. And there were years when they had pretty low quality berries.

DN: And those, of course, would inflict hardships on the, on the families.

EH: Yeah, it did.

DN: Did, when you, when you'd work on these farms, did, did you find that, that it was a camaraderie-building sort of thing? Friendship-building?

EH: Oh, yeah. Well, you know, you, when you go to school with these kids, they're, they're just like everybody else. And some of them, they would put up a, kind of a little shack type of a deal, usually built out of shakes. And at least, though, it had a roof, where they could pile up their berries. They were put in crates. And, and we had carriers... I would venture to say six boxes. They were, I don't know, probably about that square, and they were quite deep, for the cannery berries. And one of 'em would stay there, because we had punch cards. For every hand carrier that you brought in, they'd punch your card. And the more punches you got, the more money you made. [Laughs]

DN: Sure.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.