<Begin Segment 18>

MA: And I wanted to ask you about your wife. How did you meet your wife, Chiyo?

SO: In the bowing alley. See, during the war years, our recreation facilities were limited in a way, 'cause we couldn't just travel, now I want to go to Seattle, or I want to go, you couldn't do that. So most of it was usually at a bowling alley or roller rink, those were the two main (pastimes), or if you, if you were entertaining privately, well, you'd go to your friend's home and play pinochle, things like that. That's where I met her, in a bowling alley.

MA: Was it like big groups of people would go together?

SO: Yeah, there was, I think there was a, if I'm not mistaken, there was about six girls in her group, and I think equal number of boys when we went, yeah, that's how we met. Five or six of us.

MA: Did you talk to her when you saw her? How did that happen?

SO: More or less, uh-huh. We kind of divided up, and I talked to her and my other friends talked to somebody. Most of 'em got married to the same girls, too.

MA: And, now, your wife was actually born in Seattle, right?

SO: Seattle, uh-huh. She went to Seattle, and I think she said she went to, what, Bailey Gatzert school or whatever --

MA: Bailey Gatzert?

SO: Yeah.

MA: Was she one of those people that moved to Spokane during the "voluntary evacuation"?

SO: Yes, yes, rather than going to camp, they voluntarily moved over here. I think they moved to a place north of Spokane, that'd be that way, north, northeast of Spokane. I forgot what they called that area, it was some little farm, hakujin farm, they moved there for a while. What was the name of that area? Now, I can't even remember. That's where she lived for a while.

MA: So you then met during the war, right, during the war years?

SO: Uh-huh.

MA: What did the two of you do for fun, like for a date, for example?

SO: Well, like I say, you either roller-rinked or you bowled. [Laughs] And if she wasn't with me, I'm out playing pinochle. I was a pinochle fiend, so that's where we made our rounds. Play pinochle here, and the next day you'd play pinochle over there, and the next day you'd play pinochle at somebody else's house. And once in a while poker, but I didn't know anything about poker. I lost every time I played, anyways.

MA: And when did you get married?

SO: I knew you were going to ask me that.

MA: Well, was it kind of during the war or after?

SO: Oh, no, it's, let's see. Sixty-one years ago, what would that be? What year would that be... is it sixty-two?

MA: '40-, sixty-two years ago? '44? 1944, 1945? It's okay. It's okay.

SO: It's, it's 194-, let's see, the war broke out in 1941, '42, '43, I think it's 1943. 1943, I think.

MA: 1943?

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.