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MY: So then the women got, the guys worked out on the farms and started working on the orchards there, orchards out there.

TI: And this is, I'm sorry, Weiser, Idaho?

MY: Yeah.

TI: Okay.

MY: And they started working out there, and then this camp was Camp Churchill. And this lady, she was an old lady like you read in the mystery books, tall and lanky and had gray hair, mixed color hair, she had it all brushed up here. And first thing that we found out was that she had 15-amp bulbs in the light sockets. So then we go to shopping, go get groceries or something, and we'd buy the 45 or 70 watts and bring it home and stick in there. And by god, she would find out right away and she'd come over with her 15 watt and put it back in there. And she said, "I don't want you to change the light bulbs." And so I thought, "Holy cow." And she brags about being related to Churchill, I thought, "I wonder what kind of life they're living." [Laughs]

TI: And she was just concerned about the cost of the electricity to run those things?

MY: Yeah.

TI: So I'm, so you were married, and in my notes I have that you had two children fairly soon?

MY: Yeah, I had Doug and... well, we were out of camp by then. And Ontario had a maternity home, and some of them would laugh and say, "Well, somebody had a kid at the hatchery." [Laughs]

TI: That's what they would call the maternity home, the hatchery?

MY: Yeah, called it the hatchery.

TI: And this was Ontario, Oregon, you're talking about.

MY: Yeah.

TI: So...

MY: So the boys were, both the boys were born there. And then Lou was born over here, right across from the mobile homes where I'm living now.

TI: So describe how you went from Weiser to Ontario, Oregon. What was the connection there?

MY: Well, it was, Ontario was a bigger town, and Tom had a chance to expand his business, so he found a bigger place to operate. And so we moved into this mobile home like Churchhill's campgrounds. And I don't remember how many cabins there were, but we filled 'em up. It was pretty bad because all she would let us have is our 15-watt bulbs and a two-burner... what do you call those? Camp stoves?

TI: Camp stoves, right. And this initially was to help work on her farm?

MY: Yeah, yeah.

TI: And how many Japanese were...

MY: I don't know, but I think that camp was... let me see. I don't, really don't remember whether, how many units there were. But we'd go to town maybe once a week or something and never had any trouble. But it was interesting because they were so far behind the times. This one store we went into was like walking into a movie lot, and it had these lanterns hanging from the ceiling. And what struck me was when we were kids, reading a book about the feather beds, and they had feather beds out there to sell. And I said, "For crying out loud," and they said, "Well, you just go jump in there and you get lost," because it's so fluffy and nice. And I said, "Well, that would be nice to sleep in," but I said, "Holy cow, never thought I'd see anything like that." And they had the buckets and all those things hanging from the ceiling. It was a typical, typical old pioneer days store. And they were very good to us, and we were lucky that way, that people were very good to us.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.