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TI: Yeah, we're going to get to that later, so let's go back to sort of playing with kids. What were some of the activities that you did?

YN: Very simple. So different than my children's experience. We played where things were not of material cost. I think I've said, I think the most important item that may, cost my parents money was marbles. But milk tops, that we would play in a circle, were free. They were the tops that were on milk bottles. And playing Kick the Can, (etc).

TI: Well, going back to the milk tops, I mean, explain how you would play this game with milk tops and why it was similar to marbles.

YN: Well, as the milk tops hardened, when they dried out, they were like a chip. And you put milk tops into a circle, and you would throw the milk tops and hit those chips, and if it went out the circle, you got to keep 'em. That was our way of saying, "I'm the champ; I got all these milk tops."

TI: So these were milk tops that were...

YN: Circular.

TI: Circular, they were free, because they were just on the top of milk bottles.

YN: And they had the little tab on 'em that you pulled off, and when you were through... and I probably got more of 'em because they come back for their milk, and they would have the milk top on the empty bottles, and I'd collect the milk tops.

TI: Oh, so you, you had a source.

YN: I had a source, absolutely.

TI: [Laughs] And, and this was used instead of marbles, because marbles you mentioned was the cost.

YN: Cost money. Cost money. And we, money was not something that we had an abundance of as children, but it did not stop, if we found a baseball bat, broken, we'd tape it together and try to play baseball at the school field. But never in the sense of economics. Children are very versatile for play. It's only the institution that says, "You have to regulate." And in my days, that's why we got together, because our parents could never come together.

TI: So you would play milk tops, you played baseball with broken bats. What are some other activities?

YN: We played, we played touch football with a, not a football, but a cloth wrapped in rubber bands. (When) we played (...) football later on, if one had a helmet and one had the shoulder pad, the one that carried the ball got the helmet, and the one that had to tackle wore the shoulder pads. It was all community, but that's because we didn't know any better.

TI: And this was all happening amongst the neighborhood kids --

YN: Neighborhood kids.

TI: -- who were, who were, again, mixed. It wasn't just Japanese, it was Chinese, Filipinos, whites.

YN: It was your community.

TI: And this was, when you describe sort of where you lived, right where Seattle University is, where their large playground, or their large field is, around there.

YN: And the amazing part is, we were the start of that which today among our people was called the Asian American community, and we never knew it.

TI: The start, because of the mixing...

YN: Together.

TI: ...together.

YN: Coming together. Everything needs a starting point.

TI: So that's interesting. So the older Niseis, you don't think, mixed as much with the Filipinos and the Chinese.

YN: No. Children. You have to be innocent. They're the fairest of all, because you don't pick up the hang-ups that we each get out of becoming adults.

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