Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Kay Aiko Abe Interview
Narrator: Kay Aiko Abe
Interviewer: Shin Yu Pai, Tom Ikeda
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: December 2, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-akay-01-0003

<Begin Segment 3>

SP: Do you remember the family having many activities or things that you would do for fun in Selleck?

KA: Let's see. We went to school, Selleck elementary school. It was within walking distance. We walked through the sawmill, and there was a mill pond. But anyway, after school, we went to the Japanese language school from about four to five p.m. And then the children in the community would play ping pong or baseball, hide and seek, tag and things like that. That was our childhood. [Laughs]

SP: So what was it like going to Selleck elementary school? Were there many Japanese or Caucasian students?

KA: No, not that many. It was mostly Caucasian. I think maybe the student body, there must have been about a hundred students from grade one through eight. And then after the eighth grade, the children were bussed to Enumclaw high school.

SP: And how did the different racial groups get along, the Caucasians and the Japanese?

KA: Oh, we got along just beautifully. In fact, even as late as just a couple years ago, we had a reunion with our Caucasian friends, amazing. All in their eighties.

SP: The seventy, eighty year anniversary?

KA: Yeah. We were just gathering, but since then, we've lost a couple of our friends, you know. So one of our friends was saying, "We just have to get together again before we all pass away."

SP: Now, do you remember having any jobs when you were growing up, things that you might do to help out the family?

KA: Oh, yes. Let's see. A couple summers, we went to Sumner to pick berries and beans and blackberries for the summer, at the Shigio farm.

SP: A Japanese-owned farm?

KA: Uh-huh, Japanese. And we earned enough to buy school clothes, and the Shigios had housing for us, so we stayed there all summer. But I think that was just for two summers because that was when my mother wasn't pregnant, those six years in between. [Laughs]

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.