<Begin Segment 60>

AI: Well, well, so then you did go out and you saw your parents, and how were they doing? Were they still in Wenatchee with your brother?

PB: They were living in a nice house that my sister owned. She had, I think she bought this place, and then for very minimal rent, I think, or I don't know if they paid any rent at all. Anyhow, Mother and Dad were living there and they had, it was very nice for them because there was a cherry tree there, and they had a barbeque pit outside and they had a little pond where they had water lilies growing, and he had goldfish in there, and the water lilies would bloom every year. And Dad would pick the cherries; he was agile enough that he'd get on top of the roof of the house and pick the cherries. And they raised a lot of flowers.

AI: Excuse me, where was that place?

PB: This was on Fifty-fifth and Roxbury.

AI: Oh, so that was back here then, in the Seattle area.

PB: Uh-huh. In Seattle, city. And so we would come out and visit, and of course, Mother and Dad were always anxious, especially if we came by car, because they wanted to be sure that we made a safe trip out. But Dick was an all-around mechanic and carpenter and cook and everything else, so he liked to camp out, and on our way out, he would camp and make breakfast and everything. He was just a handyman, so even if the car broke down, he would fix it. And he said, "Well, I'll sell the car when I get out to the West Coast, and we'll go back in a new car," or a different car, but never did get any buyers, so we had to go back in that same car.

AI: Well, so, now on this particular trip, it sounds like then, after being in, visiting in Seattle, you went down to Portland and then drove out from there along the Columbia River Gorge.

PB: Yes, on the way back, we thought that we'd go, since we made the northern route, we thought we'd go the southern route back. So we were on this highway, and we got in a, hit by a truck that was coming down the hill. It just, the back end of the truck swung out, and it just, we didn't get hit squarely, the car behind us got squarely hit, and we thought that car was going to go over the bank, but fortunately, it didn't. And it hit our car on the side, broke the glass, and the children were sitting in the back. It was fortunate nobody got hurt, and the truck driver, of course, stopped and he said he would pay for everything, because it was unavoidable that the accident happened. It was fortunate that no one was hurt, so we did make it out safely.

AI: What a scare, though.

PB: And then we stopped -- since we were coming through the area where my brother lived, we stopped there on the way back.

AI: And he was still in Wenatchee?

PB: Yes. So we stopped there, and it was lucky for them because they had just bought a whole cow or... anyhow, and Dick is a butcher, so he said, "I'll cut it up for you." So he cut the meat up and we were busy packaging it so that they could freeze it. So we stayed long enough to get that done, so it was lucky for them, and it was nice that we were able to visit. And I was surprised to see that my sister-in-law was driving a car and everything. My mother said, "Oh, she'll never be able to drive a car." Here she was driving the car and oh, I never saw such beautiful apples. They were so gorgeous, the color was so much redder and everything, you know, than... being on Eastern Washington, they get a lot of sun and there were beautiful orchards. Really nice to see something like that.

<End Segment 60> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.