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TI: So, let's talk a little bit about school. Do you remember the name of the school, what school you went to?

FK: Yeah. From first to, first to third grade, we went to a school near, closer to me called Atkinson, A-T-K-I-N-S-O-N. But that school was demolished, so then third grade, I moved to Couch, but it's spelled "Couch." C-O-U-C-H.

TI: And so when you think of your classmates, what was kind of the racial composition of your, of your class?

FK: Oh, there were, see, three, three of us Japanese girls, but they were all Caucasians. And I don't remember any black people, especially in that Couch school. Now, Atkinson school was mostly Asians, but Couch school was a little farther, and it was more Caucasians.

TI: And so growing up, who were your best friends? Were they Japanese, or were they...

FK: Oh, Japanese, most of us. We had, you know, at school, Couch school, our friends, we used to go over at lunchtime to their apartments and things, you know, but we never, socially, we didn't associate with them. I think it was like that with most of us.

TI: And so what would be, kind of, a, like, in the summertime, for instance, when you're not going to school...

FK: Oh.

TI: What would be, yeah, what would be kind of a typical day with your friends, when you could just...

FK: When I got older?

TI: Yeah, when you got older and you played and stuff. What would that be like?

FK: Well, during the day, since my mother had a shop, you know, I used to help her. But for one year, when I was about thirteen or fourteen, thirteen, maybe, we were sent to the farm to pick berries, just like here. And my girlfriend, we had to cook ourselves, and so my girlfriend and I were in the one bunk, you know, it was like a... and then everything was, you know, outhouse, and one sink in the middle of the, the cabins, and the bath, bathtub was like a Japanese bathtub, you know, things like that. We went one year, we picked, I picked strawberries and raspberries, and after that, I told my mother, "I'm not going again." [Laughs] Because we had to, we had to cook and everything. And when we were about thirteen, fourteen, and then so I promised my mother I would help at home, at the shop, so I did. Ironing, and doing different things that she needed to have done.

TI: But going back to this farm experience -- this is interesting to me. Was it common for Japanese kids to, to do this?

FK: Uh-huh.

TI: But they, but rather than going on a daily basis, they would actually stay on the farm.

FK: Right.

TI: And where was the farm located?

FK: In Gresham, usually. I think that's where we were. Gresham and a place called Troutdale, too, but we were at Gresham.

TI: And so, to pick strawberries, how many, how many kids were there to pick, usually?

FK: Oh, gosh. There were quite a few. But in our cabin there must have been, I know my girlfriend's brothers were there, too, so there were quite a few. And I can't really say how many.

TI: So, when I was a kid, I picked strawberries, too. So generally, strawberry season started almost right after school ended, and it seemed like, like sort of in Seattle, kind of mid-June?

FK: June, yeah right.

TI: Is when it started, then you'd start with strawberries for a few weeks, and you would then transition to raspberries. Is that kind of the same?

FK: Yeah, and then they go to, well, blackberries, but not too, too many stayed for that.

TI: Yeah, we did, after raspberries, I think we did beans.

FK: Yeah, beans, too, yeah.

TI: Beans and then corn after that.

FK: Oh, really?

TI: So, if we wanted to, we could work all summer. But then we didn't have to stay. So I was curious, so, did they provide food for you to cook, or did you have to --

FK: No, we had to cook ourselves. But our parents, you know, the weekends, they come and they bring us food that we could, at least have food for the few days.

TI: And so was it, you didn't like it because it was hard work, or you were homesick, or what was...

FK: No, not homesick as much as, you know, working out in the field when you're not used to that.

TI: That sounds interesting. Again, I think about my kids today, and how much we spend on things like childcare and things like this. And I think of the Isseis, and they would send their kids out to the farm for weeks, and they would get paid. I mean, they'd actually make money.

FK: Right. But I was sent out to my mother's friend in Hood River, Oregon, had an orchard, and my brother was sent out there when he was a teenager. And so I was about eight years old, and my mother sent me out there with him, to stay with him, and I didn't work there, I just, just roamed around the orchard during the day and things like that. And I was there, and then one, first summer I was so homesick that I had to come home. [Laughs] But the next summer, I stayed, and Mrs. Tsuji, who was, later became a Japanese school teacher, but anyway, she asked me to... they cooked in the wooden stove, that wood, wooden stove. But she had two burners on the end, and so at lunchtime, she would send me to turn on the rice, and then I'm supposed to wait 'til it cooks, you know, lower it. But I was so scared, and I had this little dog with me -- their dog was, and I shut him in the house with me -- and I turned on the rice, and it soon as it came up, I turned it off and ran out of the house. [Laughs] The first time she said, she came back that evening, and the rice was still hard, you know. So she asked me, and I said, "Well, I just turned it off." So she had to re-cook it on the stove. It was real funny. So she never asked me after that to come back and...

TI: But you were only, what, nine years old?

FK: Eight.

TI: Eight or nine years old?

FK: Yeah.

TI: And again, that's amazing.

FK: So I stayed there... not all summer, I think about a month and a half or so with them, and they sort of took care of me, but that was the first experience away from home. [Laughs]

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.