<Begin Segment 29>

TI: So from Ontario, when did you go back to Auburn, and why did you go back to Auburn?

MY: Well, because... let's see, how was that anyway? Maki was drafted about a year, little after a year after the second one was born. So I found out that people in the house was leaving, and so I asked my mom if I could take the kids and go back, and she said, "Well, whatever you want to do, go ahead." So packed the kids up and came back over here.

TI: Okay, so let me make sure, so your husband was drafted after the second one, so you, and you heard that the people in the house in Thomas were leaving. So you asked your mom -- and where was your mom when you asked her? Where was she?

MY: My mom? In Tule Lake.

TI: So they're still Tule Lake, had not left yet. And so you went to the house with... so just you and two young children?

MY: Uh-huh.

TI: And so what was it like when you got to the house?

MY: Well, I think I was real lucky that I had my brothers to support me all the time, you know. And George, he was working on one of these farms, so he had a truck. And he said, "Well," he says, "I've got a truck," so he says, "I can load up your stuff and take you back." And they gave me twenty-five dollars for moving expenses. [Laughs]

TI: But you had your brothers to help you.

MY: Yeah. I don't know how I would have done it if I didn't have...

TI: So your brother George had a truck, all your belongings, and he drove you to the house. And what was the condition of the house, the farm, all that?

MY: Oh, man. It scared me to death because there were rats as big as a cat running through the house. I'm not kidding you, I've never seen anything like that before in my life. And so the closet doors and things that were shut against the wall, all the bottom corners were all chewed out, the rats had chewed it out. And so we had to get rid of them.

TI: And when you say, "we," so your brother was there to help you?

MY: Yeah. Then my mom and dad came over and stayed for a couple weeks and helped me get settled. And so we got along pretty good. But then, of course, we didn't know what it was to be like that. But I had made the jump, so there was no turning back.

TI: And how about neighbors? Were the neighbors very helpful, or what was the reaction of neighbors when you got back?

MY: Well, they were pretty good, because like I said before, all these farms are usually on a big ranch and they're broken up into small plots. But we sat on this 2 and a half acres that my dad had bought. And so all the neighbors were the same Caucasian neighbors that were there when we left. So we didn't have any problem getting acquainted or anything like that. And they would offer me their sewing machine and washer or whatever, they were real helpful. So we were lucky like that at that point.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.