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TI: Well, let's kind of fast-forward a little bit. Say you're like an older teenager, say about fifteen, sixteen. In the summertimes, did you ever kind of work or help out?

SM: Well, I used to. I used to go out during the summertime.

TI: Okay, so this is kind of interesting to me. I've interviewed people about the fishing industry up in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm curious to know what it was like down here in terms of fishing. So what would be kind of a typical fishing trip for you?

SM: Well, see, there were several types of fishing boats. There were some of the small ones, and we used to call them "jig boats." And they used to jig for albacore, and then they used to go out for bottom fishing with set lines. Then you had your medium-size boat, which went out for barracuda, skipjack, yellowtail, and so forth, with taking live baits and fishing with a pole. Then you had your purse seiners that used net.

TI: So that'd be more common in the Northwest, they used lots of nets up there.

SM: Before that, before they got into purse seining, all the big boats, they used to go bait fishing down to Mexico, you know. And maybe you've seen pictures of where they haul in these tunas from the small to the bigger. When it's small, it's a one-pole operation. When it gets a little bigger, it's a two-pole operation.

TI: When they say "two-poles," that's two men, then, doing it?

SM: Two men connected to one line, and then they hauled it in. Then when it gets bigger, they use three poles, three persons using one hook and then hauling that in.

TI: And when you say "one-pole," a small fish, about how heavy would it...

SM: Well, it'll be up to about twenty, twenty-five pounds maximum.

TI: And then a two-pole one would be...

SM: Maybe in the forty-pound range, and then when it gets bigger...

TI: And what would be like the largest you would see?

SM: Well, I think the largest yellowfin used to be in the four to five hundred, but those were unusual.

TI: Thank you, that was interesting. Growing up, I'm curious about just your kind of normal, like fun activities. When you got around, got together with your buddies, what kind of things did you do on Terminal Island?

SM: Well, I think we did the normal things, played sandlot football, baseball, you know, whatever.

TI: Now, did you ever participate in, like, organized sports? Besides sandlot, were there, like, more organized, like, track or football?

SM: Well, not in elementary school. But when we went to junior high, then we had more organized activities.

TI: And so which ones did you do when you got in junior high school and high school?

SM: Well, I played a little bit baseball. And, well, then, even then, we did some sandlot organized football.

TI: Now, as a community, did you ever have a, like, community baseball team that played other communities?

SM: Oh, yes. Well, see, up to the World War, we were on the younger end. And so, you know, the older kids had a team we used to call the San Pedro Skippers, and they used to play with different... in fact, they were pretty good, considering all the opponents they used to play with. It was more like a semi-pro team.

TI: And so if the war had not broken out, would you have eventually maybe played on, like...

SM: No, I don't think I was good enough. [Laughs]

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.