<Begin Segment 5>

AI: Well, so that, that was a little bit about the wintertime on Berto Hill, what about spring and summer? You must have been very busy with the farming.

PB: Oh, yes. It was always work. Summertime we, well, we raised lettuce and we had strawberries, tomato, and towards the winter we had a lot of cauliflower, broccoli, and, of course, the fruits we had. We had so many fruits that my dad used to go to Pike Place Market and sell the tomatoes and the cherries, and we were known for our tomatoes and cherries, because the cherries, the Royal Ann cherries there were so large and such bright color, because we were on top of the hill, we got a lot of sun. We had a marvelous view from there; we could see Vashon Island, Maury Island, and even the smokestack in Tacoma. And they used to even call it Tomato Hill after we lived there, because we raised a lot of tomatoes, lot of strawberries. I hated it in the winter, because we had to work in that cold, and we cut cauliflower, we had to tie up cauliflower, and our hands would freeze, and we'd build a bonfire, and we'd cut the cauliflower and lay it around the bonfire to kind of thaw them out. And then we had to crate them, and cut the leaves off of the top. And the, earlier we had lettuce. My sister, my older sister, was so strong, she used to pick up these lettuce crates and haul it on her shoulder. She was really strong; she was heavier-built than I was, and she was really a strong girl, so I don't know how she got sick.

AI: Well, before we get to that point, I wanted to ask you to show this picture of your place there, and tell a little bit about that.

PB: [Holds up photograph] Well, this is the house that we lived in.

AI: Up on Berto Hill.

PB: Uh-huh, and if you'll notice, there's a porch, I used to crawl out the second-story bedroom window. I used to crawl out of the window and slide down the roof, and jump down off of the porch. We were kind of tomboyish, I guess. [Laughs] And oh, we loved this house. We lived there for so many years, and I guess if the war hadn't come along, we'd still be living there. [Laughs] We had a well right next to the house, and eventually my brother and dad built a pump house, so we had a pump inside of the house, so we could pump the water, and finally, we even got running water.

AI: So over time, you got more conveniences.

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: Well, I think you, also you had mentioned in an earlier conversation of ours that you had mentioned about the berries, and the strawberries, that you actually had something called a stitching machine for making boxes. Could you tell a little bit about that?

PB: Yes. Well, we either had to buy boxes that were already made, or we could make our own boxes. And these boxes, you had to kind of fold them and bring 'em together, and then stitch it on the machine, but you had to push down with your foot each time. So we used to make boxes, our own boxes. It was kind of fun, because you stitch it and then you turn it, and then you stitch the other side. And we did everything in this one room when we were down in Des Moines, but later on, when we moved up on the hill, why, we had a lot more room, because we had a woodshed right next to the house, and... let's see, we had two bedrooms downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. And then we had a big living room and a kitchen. Of course, the bathroom was the outhouses, in the country.

AI: Right. I think you mentioned -- and speaking of your, your kitchen in your house -- did you mention in an earlier conversation that you once had a fire in the kitchen? That your mother...

PB: Oh, yes. We had a, kind of a... well, there was a hole there right next to the kitchen stove, where we kept the wood. And on top, there was kind of a shelf, and we kept the matches in there. And I guess there were mice up in the attic, and they came down one night and... or I guess it was in the morning. And I guess a mouse chewed on a rat -- on the matches, and set fire. And the fire reflected into my mother's bedroom window, so she jumped out of bed and she went in there, and she went into the kitchen, she put the fire out. She told us if you could get to it fast enough, to try and put it out. If you couldn't put it out, "You better get out of the house." But it was a scary... she, but she got the fire out.

AI: Wow, that was a narrow escape.

PB: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.