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-01-0008

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AI: Well, and then, you, so you did finish your grammar school, and that was, graduation from grammar school was a fairly large event for many people. Can you tell me about your graduation?

PB: Well, we had a small class; there was only nine of us in the class, there were two boys and seven girls. And I remember distinctly their names and everything about 'em, and I didn't want to be valedictorian, because I says, valedictorian's got to get up in front of the class and make a speech, and that was one thing I hated to do. I hated to get up in front of the class and do anything. I was kind shy that way, and I didn't like history and current events. In those days, we had different names for classes, I think. We had history and current events, and we had agriculture, and algebra, and geometry. We had, I think, different names, and we had to pass the state examination, and we never knew what questions they were gonna ask, whether we'd even studied about 'em. So it was quite a hard thing for us at eighth grade when graduation came, because we had to pass all these tests before we could graduate. But I turned out to be salutatorian, I had to make a speech anyhow -- [laughs] -- which I didn't like because I thought I was getting out of that. That's why I wanted somebody else to be the valedictorian, and William Camp was the valedictorian, and I heard later that he went on to become a pharmacist, but got killed by a holdup man. And reading back to the old Des Moines book that they gave me, there's a name Thornley, and the other boy was Van Thornley, so I went to school with the kids of the, lot of these kids that were mentioned in this old book that was given to me.

AI: Some of the pioneering families of the Des Moines area.

PB: Lots of 'em that I knew by name because of the children that had the same name.

AI: Yes. Well, and so I think you had mentioned in some of your memoir that, that you had written, some memories of things that you received on the occasion of your grammar school graduation.

PB: Oh, yes. I, that was quite an event, because Mrs. Clayton gave me a huge bouquet of pink roses, and our neighbor gave me a compact and other gifts, and I thought that was really wonderful, because we didn't have occasions where we got gifts, other than possibly New Year's. We didn't even celebrate Christmas, so it was really quite an event, especially knowing that I wasn't going to go to school anymore. Because they told me, my parents told me that, "Well, now you've graduated, and you're going to stay home and help around the farm." So the younger the children were, the more education they had.

AI: In your family.

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: Your younger brother and sisters were able to continue on.

PB: Yes. My youngest sister was the only one that went to college. She went to Griffen school.

AI: Was that Emily?

PB: Yes, Emily did. Tom could have gone to, gone on, but -- he had a scholarship -- but he finished high school and he didn't, didn't want to go to college. And my first brother, I think he went only through sophomore. And next sister, Fannie, went through high school. She graduated valedictorian. We all graduated with honors, 'cause Dad says, "You better get good grades." [Laughs] And we, we did, we did very well in school.

AI: Well, so tell me about, after your grammar school graduation, then you were continuing on with farm life there, and was, I think you had mentioned that your parents' farming, your family farming was going quite well in those days. And were you able, or were you able to then hire some farm workers to assist? And also, was there another property that you began farming?

PB: We always had help on the farm, even when we were on Vashon Island. We had Indians then. In those days, the Indians were the main help on the farm, then after we moved to Des Moines and up on Berto Hill, we had Japanese boys, and later we had Filipino boys. So Mother was very, very careful, and very strict with us girls. She never let us even go as far as the barn to milk the cow or anything alone, because she was always afraid of these young men that were employed. She was very, very watchful, and very careful, and always had brothers or sisters go with us. We had a number of boys working, that's why we had a house we called the "boy house" where they, they slept.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.