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-01-0033

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AI: All right, we're continuing our interview with Peggie Bain, and before the break, you were talking about Tule Lake camp, and about how, a little bit about life there in Tule Lake. And I was wondering, at the end of 1942, your first winter in Tule Lake, do you recall very much about that time, about whether, anything about the holiday time or New Year's at the end of 1942? I was wondering what camp life was like at that, end of that year.

PB: Well, Tule Lake, seemed like there was something going on all the time. There's so many people from all over, and it was interesting. They had, it was just like a small town. You had your dances, you had your church meetings, you had all different kinds of things going all the time. Band practice and people working, wherever they worked, they had different things going on. So it was a interesting place. We never got bored, because there was always something going on; baseball games, and in the wintertime they can go sledding, and summertime they'd go after rattlesnakes. Always something going on. And you could go for miles and miles, walking, you had to walk. Of course, going to work, we had trucks pick us up, but you're kind of more or less on your own if you want to visit somebody at one end of camp, you walked, and it was quite a distance. And then you'd have to notify the mess hall that you're gonna be there, so they'll have enough food for you, if you went to a different block. My parents lived quite a ways from me, so I didn't go over there too often. And, of course, my mother never came over to my place, 'cause she couldn't walk that far. But when I had surgery and I was in the hospital, my dad used to come and see me. I really appreciated that, because he'd walk that long distance to come and see me, and sometimes it would be after hours, but he would come in the back door -- [laughs] -- and sneak in for a few minutes, anyhow.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.