Densho Digital Archive - Peggie Nishimura Bain Interview (denshovh-bpeggie-01-0059)

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AI: Well, you also, I understand, were able to take some vacation along the way, and that in particular, that you had a long trip that you took with your sister and her family, coming back out west.

PB: Yes, about once a year, we tried to get out and see Mother and Dad, because they're getting quite elderly. But this one time when we, my brother-in-law drove, drove us out, my sister had just had an operation, and we didn't think she should make that trip. But she said she could make it if we took it leisurely. So at that time, the boys were quite small yet, and we went, took the northern route. We had a lot of trouble with the car, because it was an old car, and we had to make stops, we stopped at Sleepyeye, a place called Sleepyeye, and we had no place to rest, so we had to sit on the floor in the garage while car was repaired. And we had to make other stops, stopped at motels. In those days, the motels were not what they are now.

AI: What were some of the differences? What would a typical motel be like?

PB: Oh, it was terrible. It's just like going into an old country shed or something. The beds were all pushed together, and it was just a little cabin. In order to keep warm, one place we had to build a fire, and by the time we got the fire going, why, it was so late at night we'd have to go to bed. And then as far as the eating, we could go to the restaurants and get good food, but I know one place we went, we barely got the fire going and then, of course, we had to go to bed. Another place we went, it was, we wanted to take a shower, we had to go to the next building. We had to go over to the manager's building to take a shower, and, of course, the outhouses, they were the old country outhouses; they were terrible. And it wasn't anything like the motels nowadays. My goodness, you go to a motel nowadays, you have all the modern facilities. But in those days, it was like going out in the country and sleeping in a woodshed or something. [Laughs]