<Begin Segment 4>

MA: Was that Trent Alley?

MM: No, not Trent, it's the next one over. Okay, there was three or four Japanese restaurants and there was hair, where you get haircuts, and there was a tailor shop and there was a laundry shop. They were all in that one block, that's where we used to play, 'cause we didn't have any place to play. But you know, you never even heard of such a thing as... of course, all of us kids had to be home before it got too dark, but we never had any problems.

[Interruption]

MA: What sorts of things did you do in the alley?

MM: Pardon me?

MA: What sorts of games did you play?

MM: Well, we'd always, during, when it was marble season, you know, we'd make our own places to play marbles, and then we used to play, I don't know if you've heard of it, but jintori. Oh, we really liked that.

MA: Can you explain a little bit about jintori?

MM: It's been a hundred years ago and I can't explain it. [Laughs] I can't, I can't remember, but I remember we played the game, and we had all kinds games. See, none of us, none of us girls had bicycles. The boys had the bicycles. In those days, our mothers didn't think that girls should be riding bicycles, so as a result, I never got a bicycle. [Laughs] But that's okay, that was their belief, you know.

MA: Was it sort of against the rules to play in the alley, or was it sort of...

MM: No, nobody said anything. There was one policeman that used to come around all the time, and his name was Johnny Sullivan, and he used to come around all the time, just come around to see how we're doing and all that. But you know, we never had, we never had anybody even going through the alley that looked suspicious or anything like that, because like I say, in those days, it was really different. Now you wouldn't think of going in there, because gosh, just walking down the street, you see the newspaper and be careful of this person and that person. There just wasn't things like that happening.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.