<Begin Segment 15>

DG: And the Welcome was on Jackson, the next street down, and so your play area was that area too, the kids and all got together?

TH: Well, Main Street kids stayed on Main Street. People on the other side of Jackson played around King Street, isn't it?

YM: Yeah, King and Weller. (Narr. note: There was an empty lot at Weller St. and 5th Ave. It extended from Weller St. to Lane St. on 5th Ave. and went half a block east. It was called "Yutaka" Ground and that's where kids in the area from Jackson St. to Dearborn St. hung around and played baseball, etc.)

ET: Because that was quite a number of open lots.

YM: When we were little kids we played on the sidewalk quite a bit. (Narr. note: We kicked the football, played catch with the baseball. We also went to ponds south of Dearborn St. and pretended were were Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn with rafts and BB guns. We used to skate around the Union Station, go fishing for Shiners down on the docks, go shrimping, go fishing at Smith Cove, etc. It is impossible to put down everything we did when we were kids.)

DG: What did you do playing?

YM: Played with a milk tops and marbles. (Narr. note: We also played handball and games like Buck-Buck, played marbles on the sidewalks or at the empty lots on the dirt ground. We also played Run Sheep Run, Benjo, etc.)

DG: What do you do with the milk tops?

(Narr. note by YM: You try to tip over your opponent's milktops with your milktop. If you do you win his milk top.)

ET: Played with marbles and then down around Chinatown there was a few open lots.

TH: There was a number of open lots, yeah.

ET: So they played baseball.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.