<Begin Segment 5>

TI: So let's kind of just go back to now your life. And what were some of your earliest sort of memories of growing up in Seattle? What can you remember doing as a young boy? Like playing, where would you play?

TK: We used to play down where Uwajimaya's parking lot is now, on Fifth and Weller. And that used to be about four or five feet below the street level. There was an empty lot there and we made it into a baseball playground. And there was a whole bunch of kids, and we were called, we called ourselves the Seattle Indians, and we had a baseball team. And then there was a bunch of kids that lived on Dearborn Street area. We lived in the north side of Weller Street, and they lived on the south side of Weller Street. They called themselves the RF Giants. And we played baseball against each other.

TI: Where did these names come from? The Seattle Indians and the RF Giants? How'd you choose these names?

TK: Seattle Indians came from the Seattle professional team and then the RF Giants, I don't know. There used to be a comic strip called "A Regular Feller" something. And I think the RF was from that. That's all I can surmise from thinking about it. At that time, they would never tell us what the RF was. But anyway, we played against each other all the time.

TI: So describe how you would know when a game was going to start. Did you guys have a scheduled time that you would play?

TK: No, I guess we just happened to meet there. I don't know. I can't remember that part. But, those were, one was the Dearborn Street gang, and one was north of Dearborn. We were the RF, or we were the Seattle Indians.

TI: Now for instance, your team, did you have a coach, or did just the players --

TK: No, no coach or anything. We just got together, that's all.

TI: And then how about things like equipment? Who brought the balls, the bats, the mitts?

TK: Oh, most of us had our own stuff. The hardest thing was the ball. We used to use the old taped ball, the leather covering had been worn off, so we put tape on it. I remember throwing the taped balls around. But at first they were nice, new balls. But that's all I can remember about it.

TI: And you know, so I read someplace that your older brother was quite a good baseball player.

TK: Yeah, he played for high school, Broadway High School.

TI: So did he play with, in this Seattle Indians? Was he on that team, too, with you?

TK: No, no. He was four years older.

TI: Okay, so this was just your age group. So tell me how many kids were about your age when you played like this? How many kids were in the neighborhood that would play together?

TK: Gosh, I don't know. We both got almost, I don't know how many kids we had on our team. It didn't make much difference, nine or seven or whatever we played with. But there was a group, I don't know how we got assembled like that in separate groups. That part, I'm not sure. One of them just died recently, Sat Matsuda, and he was about the last one that I can remember. The others, they're all gone now as far as I know, remember.

TI: So you mentioned in this lot, this empty lot you played baseball. How about other sports? Did you play things like football and other things, or was it just baseball?

TK: No, at that time I can't remember playing any other sport, just baseball. Football, stuff like that, came much later, I think. We may have thrown a football around, but I doubt it.

TI: And then in the wintertime when it would rain a lot and the lot would get all muddy, then what would you guys do?

TK: Gosh, I don't remember now. I can't remember what we did during the wintertime. I know that later on, if it froze up, we could go ice skating. There were all kinds of pond, oh, then there was a big pond behind the immigration building, today's immigration... the building wasn't there then, it was just a vacant lot with a great big pond on there. It was actually about four feet deep maybe. I fell in once and went over my head. But I was only a kid then, but I remember that part.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.