<Begin Segment 16>

TI: Okay, so Mae, we're going to start the second hour of the interview. But before we go and talk about World War II, I wanted to see if there was anything else to talk about before the war. And you were actually mentioning school holidays and how today sometimes they have snow days. In Thomas, what kind of school closures or what kind of things happened --

MY: Well, it was usually the floods, because gee, sometimes maybe there'd be two or three floods during the month. And I don't know, nowadays the kids look forward to the snow and stuff, but I said, "That was nothing compared to..." I can remember a time, I think it was even around April already, and the peas were above the ground and they were about that high, and they'd been strung already. And they're just wading in the water, and I said, "My gosh, how is that ever gonna mature?" But it did. (Narr. note: My parents supported all the Nisei activities, so got to attend church and JACL activities since 1935, Northwest and National.)

TI: But describe these floods. So you said sometimes two, three times a month you would have floods?

MY: Uh-huh.

TI: And like your farm, your house, which was next to the highway, would that area get flooded?

MY: Well, we were real lucky because we were right at the, I don't know if you know where I'm describing, but there were a couple of bad, real bad curves on that East Highway. And so the one was, there was one that was real sharp, right around the, in front of our place. And so, and the kids would be looking forward to the floods, and I don't ever remember them really closing down on account of the snow, but a flood would come and we were the first ones to go under at the school.

TI: So the school would actually get flooded.

MY: Yeah, the school would go under, and right now they tell me that the Thomas school that stands now is the oldest building in the southern part of the county. So it's a... what do you call... (landmark).

TI: A historical landmark?

MY: Yeah, historical landmark now.

TI: And, but that building, that school...

MY: That brick building, yeah.

TI: Used to get flooded.

MY: Oh, yeah. The school was the first one to go under. So I don't know, times and weather and everything makes a difference, I guess.

TI: Well, I think what, one of things they did was, later on, they put a dam to stop the flooding, and actually, today, there are some concerns that that dam is not that strong, so there might be some additional flooding.

MY: I don't know. I hope they know what they're talking about. [Laughs] But we've never, we've never been flooded out of our house in all the years that I've been around. But there've been times that we've had several families come and stay with us. Because the curve was just beyond, well, probably right on the border of our property there, and then it was intersect like this. And they would come to this corner and just go over the, over the road and go to the other side. So the people on the other side was getting the water and we weren't. We were getting the water, but it never came high enough to get into the house or anything like that.

TI: Okay, so it was like, just on the other side it would get flooded.

MY: Yeah. So the kids think I'm crazy, 'cause every once in a while I'll be talking and I says, "How did these, the older generation figure out exactly where to build that house so that they wouldn't get under water." Because those people, the farmers, they weren't familiar yet, I guess, and that's why they went under water so bad.

TI: Oh, so the people who thought about that would, they wouldn't know where to build.

MY: Yeah. They would build a house...

TI: Like, for instance, your house was always, would never get flooded.

MY: Yeah, never flooded inside. Maybe it would come to maybe the first landing of the first step or something, but it never got into the house.

TI: Now, when you had floods like this, would everything just come to a standstill, people couldn't do anything, you just have to wait it out?

MY: Uh-huh. And so, and so some houses are, you'd go visiting afterwards or something, and they'll say, "Well, that's the one from last year." Because apparently, they just can't eliminate, they can't get rid of the stains on the wall. "And so, and this is from two years ago," or something. So I said, "For crying out loud," I says, "you made your, you can talk about the flood by just looking at the mark in the house, huh?" And they said, "Yeah." 'Cause that watermark just doesn't disappear with painting or anything.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, because that was in the flood plains, so they'd get a lot of that.

MY: I hope they got it right.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.