<Begin Segment 15>

AI: As, before the break, you had just mentioned that you decided to take Jimmy and go to Eatonville.

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: And at that time, Eatonville must have been a very rough, rough sawmill town. I don't know, could you even call it a town?

PB: No, it wasn't really a town, it was just a place by the roadside, I guess. And it was kind of a, real country. We lived in... well, kind of a house, but adjoining, there were several houses in a row, it was just a row house. And had wood stove, you had to heat, I had a very difficult time, because I had to heat water on this little country stove to bathe the baby and to have milk formula. I had so much breast milk that I had to pump it out, and I didn't pump it enough, and I got infection and I had to have surgery. I breastfed my son for a little while, and then I had to have this surgery, so he grew up on powdered milk. And I think that probably stunted his growth; he didn't, I think he would have gotten taller otherwise.

AI: Well, it sounds like, really, the conditions out at Eatonville were very, almost primitive.

PB: Yes, it was. It was really bad because I had to bring in the wood and start a wood fire, and heat the water on the stove to give the baby a bath. It was really, really hard.

AI: So were you out there, then, for the summer months and the fall of 1927 or so?

PB: I wasn't out there too long, but let's see... I was, I was young, too, that's why I could stand it, I guess. I know that... I met some of the women there and we became great friends. This one girl that... I don't know whether I knew her previous to that or not. She was the one that was shot and killed by her husband in Kent years later. I met several women that we used to go together. One of the joys we had was going to the camp store. Everything was run by the people that had the mill. You bought your car or whatever, and you bought your groceries and you, everything was the company store, and my girlfriend and I used to go to the company store and eat cream puffs. [Laughs] We thought that was a great treat.

AI: Well, what I've heard about the Eatonville living area was that, was that separated, that the Japanese Americans were all in one area and separate? Was that the way it was at the time you were there?

PB: I don't remember any Caucasians being there. I think, all I remember is the few Japanese families that were there.

AI: And then a number of the single Nisei men also?

PB: Oh, yes.

AI: And some Issei.

PB: The single men were there, like I remember one of the fellows was, a Takayoshi boy was there. That was a pretty well-known family, the Takayoshi family. It was Kimi Takayoshi and Yoshi Takayoshi and some of the boys were good baseball players, so they were known for their baseball playing.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.