<Begin Segment 11>

BK: I had mentioned, Mary, earlier, that I'd like to come back to the time that you had to start packing up for leaving. What were your feelings, at that time, about having to leave your house?

MH: One thing I always thought was, my mom would have to think about all these extra things like, she always made sure we had, each of us had a pair of sheets and each of us had, we had, we're supposed to bring one cup, one plate, knife, fork and spoon. Supposed to be tin, so that it wouldn't break. And she had to make sure we had all that. And for me, actually, I don't even remember what I threw in my suitcase, my bag that I was carrying. The boys, I believe, carried duffel bags. But I'm sure that I had to carry something. I was, probably just brought whatever clothes I thought. And now, I would never be able to make it. [Laughs] In those days, you're... and I don't even know what happened to our clothes. I do know that, like I say, all the furniture and everything was there, so...

BK: And you were about what, fifteen...

MH: Fifteen.

BK: ...at that time? You also mentioned earlier, that you left your favorite doll.

MH: Right.

BK: Your only doll.

MH: Yeah.

BK: And you did not take that with you?

MH: No. It was kind of a big baby doll I had gotten when I was, well, I was living in Rock Island, I must have been in the second grade. My brother-in-law had made me a little cradle, and the doll, and so, I of course carried the doll with me everywhere... or we always had it in the house. So that's the one thing I've always remembered, is leaving that... and Mother's sewing machine in the corner, where it always sat. I really think that for children of my age, fifteen, it was an adventure. For the older people, like my brothers, I really have always felt bad, because, for them, one of the brothers had just graduated from Franklin. Oh, he was out a year, he worked at Hardy's Jewelry Store. But he was out a year at Franklin, and Teddy just graduated, he had gone back for some postgraduate stuff. For them, I think it was hard. But, like for fifteen, you think, "Oh boy, we're gonna go someplace." And although I feel guilty now that I've grown up -- [laughs] -- I didn't have more, worrying about it, but we just tagged along with the rest of them.

BK: And did your brothers just shut the gas station?

MH: They sold what they could. They had a car. I know that there was very little money when they went. So, Mom and Dad were, like they have always said, Mother and Dad always said, "We have to do as we're told." Even with the curfew, we all had to be home, the gas station had to be closed at 8 o'clock, I believe it was. And we all did it without even thinking about it, because that was the way it was to be.

BK: With Pearl Harbor happening on December 7, 1941, and the actual evacuation didn't take place 'til later on the spring of 1942, did you go to school during that interim time?

MH: Yes, we all went to school.

BK: What was the feeling?

MH: I don't remember ever feeling real... no one, anyway at Washington School that I remember, made any comments that I remember. And that's where I was going, I was in the seventh, eighth grade, I guess. And so, we just went off, off to camp, and went to Puyallup, is where we went.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.