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TI: So now I want to talk about just other activities. I mean, when I think of that portion of Alaska I think of the outdoors. There's fishing, hunting, crabbing, all those types of things. Did you do a lot of those kind of activities?

RO: Not really. We were into swimming, especially during the summer. We had a special swimming hole called Rainbow Falls.

TI: And so this out, out...

RO: Beaver Dam, I'm sorry. It's Beaver Dam.

TI: Beaver Dam.

RO: Rainbow Falls is also there. And we were just young guys then, and it was an area that you had to walk quite a ways up in the hills, and you had this little tramway road about that wide, then we'd see berries and stuff coming back and forth. But it was an area where only boys were allowed to swim. [Laughs]

TI: So you mean you guys would just go kind of skinny dipping and just go?

RO: Exactly. Exactly. Strictly boys.

TI: And I'm also, when I go to Alaska, especially in the summertime, the days are just so long. I mean, you could be outside at ten o'clock and it's still like daylight when you're walking around.

RO: I think a tourist seriously, if they wanted to get a good idea of Ketchikan, they should go over the Fourth of July weekend, because there's a lot of activity there.

TI: So describe, when you were growing up as a kid, Fourth of July weekend in Ketchikan. What would happen on that day?

RO: What they did was, for the kids, they had races and such like that, but you'd win money, like maybe one dollar for coming in first or whatever. But, oh gosh, there were a lot of small businesses like in these, say, Georgetown or such, that have these food malls. But in wintertime the town, whole town closed down more or less. They roped off this one Main Street, which is the name, what it's called, and everybody would be sledding, everybody.

TI: And so when you say closed, so closed down for activities, not closed down actually in terms of businesses?

RO: No.

TI: Just, just...

RO: It was usually in the evening, but it was a wonderful thing.

TI: Yeah, I would, I can imagine how the Fourth of July would be a big holiday because the days, at that point the days are kind of the longest, so people are really...

RO: They had a parade. I wish I had a video or something from those times.

TI: And any really kind of particular incident or activity that really comes to mind that you would want to capture?

RO: The one thing, in our swimming hole, we had this pastor from the Saint John's Church, Episcopalian Church, and he was a big, heavy guy, and he used to come up there with his German Shepherd dog and he'd go skinny dipping like us, Father Warner. [Laughs] But like I was telling you, we first went to this Native American Episcopalian church. My classmate was the son of the minister.

TI: And when you went to that church, was it just you or your whole family?

RO: My mother used to go. I don't think my dad did.

TI: And then earlier you told me that after a while you went to then Saint John's?

RO: Right, exactly.

TI: Do you know why you switched from one to another?

RO: Well, I think it was closer in town, but I think Saint Elizabeth actually closed down. It's now a mortuary there.

TI: When you were growing up in Ketchikan, did you ever visit outside of Ketchikan? Like did you ever visit, say, Seattle for instance, or other towns in Alaska?

RO: Metlakatla was the only one. That was the Native American community.

TI: And how far away was this?

RO: Sixteen miles. That's where they had this army base that kept the Isseis, Issei men.

TI: During the, when the war broke out?

RO: During the war, yeah.

TI: But for you, so you were really kind of a small town boy.

RO: Definitely.

TI: I mean, you pretty much didn't have much experiences outside of Ketchikan.

RO: I never thought I'd ever want to leave there. Really.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.