<Begin Segment 11>

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

TI: And so you said you did this for what, five, six years?

FT: I went (...) six years.

TI: And so did you always have kind of, so first you were a slimmer, then you were a butcher. Did you always stay as a butcher then?

FT: Yeah. And then after the fishing season ends, (...) about the middle of August, (...) we'd all work in the warehouse, and (...) no more overtime. It was eight to five, (and) we'd work labeling the cans and (...) packing them in (...) cases and so on. And like yesterday, I was talking to one of the guys that worked with me (...), and he said, "Remember, we used to go out and catch crabs and we'd just flip them into a washtub. And we'd boil them right on the (beach)." [Laughs]

TI: So this was more at the end when you had more time?

FT: That was (before and) after the season. (After we got out all the) canned stuff out of the way, (...) we'd come home. And then we'd go to the company to get paid, (minus the chits we spent at the) company store (at the cannery).

TI: So in the summer, how much would you make?

FT: You know, the first, I can't remember (...), but in the first few years, we only made (...) two or three hundred dollars clear (...). And I think the last year, we must have made about six or seven hundred dollars.

TI: And then when you make that money, what would you do with this money?

FT: Well, we paid our school tuition (...). When we were in high school, we just (gave) it to our parents, but when we started going to college, we paid, like I stayed at the Japanese Students Club 'cause my folks were in Montana, so I had to pay for (that).

(Narr. note: We never had an injury incident while I was at Hawk Inlet. However, we heard there was a case at Hidden Inlet, near Ketchikan, in which a worker lost two fingers when his hand was caught in a machine that seals the lid on the cans.)

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.