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TI: So before we go to the end of the war when the Japanese started coming, anything else during the war years, any other stories or memories that we should talk about?

BS: Well, later on you think back and you remember, a lot of the hotels along the edges of the International District were military establishments. The Downtowner, the Downtowner Apartments on Fourth Avenue, between Main and Jackson, that was the old Richmond Hotel, one of the high class hotels in Seattle built at the turn of the century. And that became, the navy took that over, or I think the army took that over, because don't forget the railroad stations were at the end of the line. Cross country lines, they stopped at Union Pacific or Northern Pacific, and so all these troops would have to go somewhere, so the military would buy all these hotels in the area. The new Richmond Hotel was one of 'em. The Frye Hotel on Yesler was another one. So we had all these military coming in through the International District-Chinatown area night and day, so the businesses started to cater to the military and open up their establishments late at night to serve the, to cater to the service people. So that was really a hot, hot time to be running around International District when you're a little kid 'cause of all the shit, stuff going on.

TI: Yeah, so you're like ten, eleven. Ten, eleven, twelve years old and just, and really without very much adult supervision, too.

BS: Yeah. That's right.

TI: You were pretty much on your own.

BS: Yeah. And I remember being at the NP Hotel with my dad, and I'd always be ashamed to bring my schoolmates to the, we lived in a room that was nine by thirteen. All our possessions were in that room, and we had to share the bathroom, the toilet and the showers and bathtubs down the hall, right? So everything was there, and you had one chair and you had a bed, took up two thirds of the room, you had a radio, and that's what we'd do. We'd sit on the bed and listen to the radio. And I would be ashamed to bring my kids there, my playmates there, but they always wanted to come down to Chinatown because all this activity going on, so I said okay, we'll come down and then we'd visit my dad. And I'd show off my dad's cauliflower ears and the scrapbooks with my dad being a boxer, so it was a popular place for my schoolmates to come. And then we'd hang out in the Chinatown area, go to these different little places where we could, where we were allowed to go. And then I'd point out to these kids where the gambling halls were, Rudy's place and the Bataan Club, the Corregidor Club, and almost every building on the second floor of the International District-Chinatown area was a nightclub and either blacks or Filipinos played the music in these nightclubs. I remember performing at one the nightclubs, doing the tinikling. You remember the bamboo dance? Us kids when we were growing up had to learn all the cultural, the Filipino dances, and so when we were kids they'd bring us to the nightclubs in the International District to perform during intermission, when the jazz musicians would take their breaks. We would come up and we'd do our little dances, Filipino dances, and get paid a dime or a dollar, I don't remember what it was. But we were all involved in that whole war scene.

TI: Wow, this is a whole story I've never heard. It's really interesting.

BS: Vera Eng has those stories, too, because it was her dad that owned the Eight Immortals restaurant, and she was a little girl running around the District at that time. We shared a lot of little stories together when...

TI: And so is Vera about the same age as you?

BS: She's a little bit younger.

TI: Okay.

BS: Maybe a lot younger. You know, when you're between sixty and eighty, we're in one lump group.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.