<Begin Segment 21>

BK: As we then leave, as you leave Minidoka to go to Pocatello, this is another little card, it says here, "Citizen's Indefinite Leave Card." What was this about?

MH: If you were going to go out of camp permanently, this is the card that we got. And we had to carry it with us. So, I always had it with me.

BK: Like an identification card?

MH: Yes, uh-huh. So I left to go to school, I was in sophomore year, so I went in the summer. I guess I went, July, August. And I went out and registered for school right away, and then a friend found me the first job, my sister's friend. So I lived there for maybe five or six months, and then I just quit, and lived with Ida for, until I found another job. And I worked for a lawyer, Merrill, at his home, and I stayed there all the time.

BK: What was your job there? What were your duties?

MH: I was the, was "school girl" they called it. And I made three dollars a week, room and board. I had to do the ironing, and the washing, and the cooking, and the cleaning, and whatever. I can't remember any cleaning lady coming in. I know if she was having a party, she would have a cook come. But other than that, I used to have to, kind of keep up the house, being it was just two older people, it was just, make sure it was dusted, and got vacuumed once a week, and changed the beds, so it really wasn't, she wasn't that fussy anyway. I just kept the other doors closed. [Laughs]

BK: And you say you did the cooking. Had you cooked...

MH: No.

BK: ...I mean, you couldn't cook at camp, because they had a mess hall and they had a cook. Where did you learn?

MH: Oh, she'd just, would tell me what to cook, and I'd... or she'd come down and help me. Like I said, I was there for maybe half a year, and I found out from some of the kids at school. They say, "Who did you say you worked for?" And I say, "Artie Merrill." They said, "Oh, my gosh, what are you doing there?" And I said, "Oh, I'm the house girl." They'd say, "That lady's been in a sanitarium, because she tried to kill one of the twins." She had twin, twin children, and one of them died, so she went off and tried to kill the other one, a boy, Arnie. And she had a boy and a girl, but they were gone. One was in, the daughter was in school and the boy was in the navy.

BK: Oh, I see, by the time you had gotten there.

MH: Uh-huh. So they had a room in the basement for me. It had a sink, but I had to go upstairs to take a bath. I learned a lot, mostly I learned how to set a table. That's what my mother wanted me to learn, the niceties of growing up, and so... and they always, I joined them at all their meals, except when they had parties. If family came, I was, I sat down with the family. So I was very fortunate there, because they did treat me that way, so... and they had nice things, and she showed me how to do the things. And the cook was real nice that came, he came from the church. And she showed me how to make rolls and things.

BK: So it sounds like you were treated fairly well by your employer.

MH: Yes.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.