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AI: Well, tell me, tell me about going to Chicago. You said that how reluctant you were to leave, and that you had this big debate with Pat about where to go.

PB: I had to go before a counselor, and of course, I had to say, "Well, I'll go," because Pat was so intent on going to Chicago. I didn't want to go, but I lost, and I, she said I should go. Well, Pat was all excited and got on the train and everybody that was on the train, they were in a pretty good mood. We weren't the only ones going. And the young people were singing the "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and all that, and they were just having a grand time. And I didn't feel that good, and we were, we were riding on a regular train now, but we were in the lower bunk and kept hitting our head on the top bunk all the time. And we were kinda careful, there were Caucasians on the train and they were curious and would ask questions. But we kinda stayed by ourselves, and we didn't want to say too much because we didn't know what kind of a reaction we were gonna have getting out into the regular world again after being in camp. So it was... well, we got off in Omaha, Nebraska, just to get off the train for a little while, and almost missed the train because we were shopping. And we did pick up some souvenirs and got back on the train in time.

And finally, we did get to Chicago; it seemed like an awful long trip, but my sisters were there, well, my, Fan, I think, was there to meet us at the train. And, 'course, she lived on the south side, so then we had to take the streetcar or Elevated back to go south. And then we got off at, I think it was Thirty-ninth Street. My, then the, then we were supposed to get on another streetcar to make it to the apartment where she was staying. But she was living on the ground floor in a basement apartment because she was separated from her husband, and she had the two boys with her and she didn't have no room to put us up. But we had to stay somewhere, 'cause we didn't even have no destination when we left camp. But we did move in with her, and oh, I hated Chicago. I thought, "This is terrible." Riding, I hated streetcars in the first place, and to ride that Elevated we had to stand up and hang onto the straps and straddle our suitcases, and we, standing all that, because it was just packed. Then when we came to the, where we had to transfer, we couldn't make the transfer because the streetcars were loaded with people. I never saw so many people and I thought, "I don't like this at all." I hated crowds like that, and I hated streetcars. In fact, I would much rather walk than riding the streetcar, and I didn't know how we were gonna get on those things because they were so packed.

[Interruption]

AI: -- about Chicago and your first impression, and how you really disliked it. And then, and it sounds like you were really squeezed in a small spot with Fan in her little basement apartment temporarily.

PB: Well, we had no other place to go, so we went there and she was living in this basement. So... well, anyhow, we had to stay there for the night, so we just all slept on the floor, and well, the only thing was that we had this wonderful surprise that my boss had sent me a dozen American Beauty roses, and Father Clement, the Catholic priest, had sent my daughter and I each a corsage. It was such a wonderful thing to get, when we were so depressed after the trip and everything, and no place to go to, really.

And well, this Jewish friend did take us out to dinner; we went to a little tiny building, it was just a house, a regular house that had been, I guess, converted to a Japanese dinner place. And it was nice; he treated us to Japanese food which was so good, but it was funny when... we had tendon. And usually they have shrimp and vegetable in a big bowl on top of the rice with some kind of sauce over it, and there was just one shrimp in there. Open the bowl up and we looked in there and there was one little shrimp sittin' on top of the rice. And we thought, "Oh, my, this is some tendon." Never seen anything like it. But it was good; after camp food and everything, it was really delicious, and we thought that was very nice. This man was also Jewish. He was a crippled man; he had polio in his youth, and he got around very well, but he was crippled. But anyhow, we did manage that night, and really fell asleep because we were tired, but the next morning woke up and I heard the patter of feet running around, my nephews were running around in their bare feet and we got up and had coffee. I noticed cockroaches running around the kitchen, and it was kind of a real depressing feeling, coming to Chicago. Everything was depressing to me; I thought Chicago was an awful place right from the beginning.

<End Segment 47> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.