Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Peggie Nishimura Bain Interview
Narrator: Peggie Nishimura Bain
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: September 15-17, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-bpeggie-01-0002

<Begin Segment 2>

AI: Well, now, tell me about, your parents then eventually moved to Vashon Island, and your older sister was born there.

PB: My older sister was born here at Green Lake.

AI: Oh, I'm sorry. In Green Lake?

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: And that was Nellie?

PB: That was Nellie. Nellie Fumiko.

AI: And she was born, I think you had mentioned in an earlier conversation, in 1907?

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: So then, and then two years later, you were born.

PB: Right.

AI: But by then, your folks had moved to Vashon.

PB: To Vashon.

AI: And tell me, then after you were born, you had other, your brother and younger sisters?

PB: Well, at the time I was born, my dad was employed, I believe, at Beal Greenhouse, that's in the town of Vashon. And then we moved to Portage, called Paradise Valley, and that's where my brother and other two sisters were born. But I was born in the town of Vashon.

AI: And what kind of early memories do you have of Vashon?

PB: Oh, I remember we lived with -- I think she babysat me -- a Caucasian woman, and I remember so distinctly the house with the big pillars in front. And we went out there recently and took pictures. That house is still there, and the Beal Greenhouse is still there, but it's all broken down now. It's been a good many years, they operated for years as one of the biggest shippers of roses and orchids in the United States.

AI: And again, at that time, Vashon Island was quite rural.

PB: Mostly farmers, orchards and farmers.

AI: And, now, you had mentioned that your, your younger brother, Henry, or as you sometimes called him, Hank, I think you had mentioned that he was born in 1912?

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: And then you had two younger sisters, Fannie and Emily, born about two years apart after Hank, and then a bit later, your youngest brother Tom.

PB: Tom was born in Des Moines.

AI: Right. I think you had mentioned in about 1922?

PB: I don't know exact year, but... [laughs]

AI: I think you were estimating that from, in our earlier talk. But, and so then, speaking of Des Moines, that was where -- oh, now, before we move on to Des Moines, you actually, as a very young child on Vashon Island at your home there, tell me a little bit about your home life. Did you speak Japanese in the home? How did you communicate with your parents when you were very young?

PB: Well, we all spoke Japanese. We didn't speak English until we started school, and we spoke very little English when we started school.

AI: And that was about... let's see. When, did you start kindergarten on Vashon Island?

PB: I started when I was five years old, but I guess I cried too much -- [laughs] -- so they said I better wait another year. We had to walk, you know, to school, and it was quite a distance. And, well, we thought it was far. The wintertime it was quite a walk, and it was uphill, and we thought it was such a huge hill near our place, but in later years, we found out it wasn't that high a hill. When we were kids, we thought it was a big hill.

AI: And was that, that was still on Vashon Island, then?

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: And that would have been about maybe 1915 or so that that you started kindergarten then?

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: What, do you recall starting to learn English as you were going to school in those very early years?

PB: I don't recall especially any... well, any difference. It just comes natural, I guess, as we went to school, and associated with different children, why, we just more or less picked up English as our main language from then on. 'Cause we never studied any Japanese, except at home.

AI: Right.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.