<Begin Segment 14>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: So after you finished high school, then what...

SA: Well, actually, during high school, I think -- I have to connect with your aunt because Ish and I were painting (chairs and) those things, and I think we did it when we were working. I think we, some of us had enough credits to graduate and I think that's why we went half-time. And I think in that half-time, we were doing this painting the numbers on the chairs.

TI: Painting numbers on chairs?

SA: Well, these are the chairs that they had brought in from Seattle, and you know, like if it's Baptist church we would put "JB" and ("JM" for Methodist, etcetera, and) one, two, three, so they would get it back.

TI: I see.

SA: And we had the Methodist church, we had about ten (different denominations) churches. I don't know if every one of 'em had enough chairs, but the bigger churches did.

TI: This is a side, a tangent, but after returning to Seattle, did you ever see these chairs?

SA: No, I haven't. I don't think I did, but I thought it was a funny thing for us to do at the time, but I see now the rationale behind it.

TI: And you were doing this with Irene Kinoshita.

SA: Well, Ish and I were doing it. But I don't know how many others were, we were working under Abe Hagiwara who worked under George Townsend, and he, again, was one of the truck drivers, I don't know how many they had.

TI: I just have to do full disclosure, so that is my mother's sister, my Aunt Ishii.

SA: Ish might remember more, 'cause when I last saw her, she was, she wrote a letter and she said, "Remember? We were the Gold Dust Twins," and I had forgotten that, so I was kind of glad she had brought that up.

TI: So do you know why you were called the "Gold Dust Twins"?

SA: I don't know, ask Irene. I don't know how that was. The dust I could see, we were always covered, I think. But it was something, I thought it was something on a, like a, I think on the cover was a moon and two people sitting on it. It's something like that.

TI: Okay, I'll ask her. So you and... so do you call her Ish or Irene?

SA: Well, I called her Ish, they called Ish-ka-bibble or something, it was a nickname. We all seemed to be having nicknames. In camp, this was quite prevalent. I don't know why, we had Mole Face, some were not very complimentary. You know, the Hubba-Hubba Girl and Tangerine. [Laughs] I mean, it was really funny, and White Christmas was a very pretty girl from Portland, she wore white. It was interesting. But they had a group your father belonged to, the OT gang. I don't know if he ever referred to it.

TI: Yes.

SA: And I said, "What does that stand for?" and I think they said, "Odorless Toe" or something like that. You could ask him.

TI: I think it's "Odorless Turds." [Laughs]

SA: Oh, I don't know what it was -- "toe" sounds better to me. [Laughs]

TI: But anyway, did you have a nickname?

SA: Well, the closest it came to it was because my last name was Tanagi, there was a song out, "Tangerine."

TI: So your nickname was Tangerine?

SA: Well, yeah, (...) that's what they (called me). I don't know (why). They had Prune Face, it wasn't very complimentary. [Laughs] That was the boys. I think your father could tell you more. We weren't as prone to it as some others.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.