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TI: And when you think of the neighborhood, what kind of work did most people do in Fremont? What kind of, like did...

MO: Well, they were just ordinary everyday working people. Jim Durgin's dad was a milkman. He had a milk truck. He was my brother's closest friend. He was five years older than me. I didn't have any other friends close by the business. We were next door to the library, and then there was a Greek store at the corner and a grocery store at the corner, and a post office, a small post office next to it. There was a church up the street. What kind of, it was one of those, what do they call that, Tabernacle, at the end of the, it was a great big beautiful stone and brick building. Then there was empty lots, a big empty lot next to one of the store, the second store we had across the street. So there weren't very many residents actually on that street.

TI: So I didn't do the research on this, but I'm curious, I mean, Fremont's pretty close now to the, like Woodland Park Zoo, was the zoo there when you were growing up?

MO: Oh yes. Yes. It's about, almost two miles straight up Fremont Avenue.

TI: So was that something that you visited as a kid, the zoo? Was that a --

MO: We did. I remember my parents taking me up to ride on a pony up there and such when we were children.

TI: That's amazing, because I think when I was a kid they had the pony rides there.

MO: Uh-huh, I guess that's what we mostly remember. And the elephants and the, then they didn't have 'em for a long time, and then they got 'em back, I guess.

TI: Yeah, because Fremont's so close to the zoo, and then I think of Green Lake right there and the big park and all that, so it's interesting, fun place in terms of doing things.

MO: Yeah, it was. I remember some of that.

TI: And how about, I mean, this is a little farther away, but in Ballard, things like the locks and Shilshole, did you ever go visit those areas?

MO: No. We never really visited the locks or anything, but we had a couple of friends who lived, my parents' friends that had a dry cleaning business lived over there. The Kumakuras had a dry cleaning store that, we were friends with their family over the years and went to picnics together, but their children were all my brothers' age or older. And Katie lived over there somewhere, Katie, Frank, and Aiko, what was their last --

RO: Matsuda.

MO: Matsuda. Yeah. I didn't know them at that time very well, only as I grew up. See if there was anybody else... that's all I can remember right now.

TI: That's okay. So how about church? Did your family attend church?

MO: Well, there was a Baptist church right behind our house, and the missionary, Julia Bran, had come down and asked me to come to church there, so I went to Sunday school up there. It's right behind our house.

TI: And how did your parents react to you going to a Christian church?

MO: It was, I don't know, just took it as it came, I guess.

TI: Okay, so it was a Baptist church.

MO: Although, my parents were actually Buddhist and they supported the Buddhist church with activities and monetarily and visited. Later, after the war my mother went to the Buddhist church more regularly. Yeah, that's right.

TI: So before I go to the war years, December 7th, anything else before the war, like a memory or experience that we should talk about? I mean, at this point both your brothers are alive and they're doing well, was their life a lot different in Fremont than yours? You mentioned they kind of kept you on the block.

MO: Well, being that they were five and seven years older they, they were into different areas and friends, and I can remember my oldest brother probably had to babysit me all the time, so I followed him to places, but I remember when he used to take me to this little empty lot where we used to pick hazelnuts, and it was fun. It was, the only thing was hazelnuts, and you know what the outer coating is, real fine slivers on the outside?

TI: Right, right.

MO: My fingers would hurt for so long, but I just loved going with my brother, taking, what do you call, a wagon and putting a bunch of those in and peeling it, and later on we'd dry it all out and enjoy, I enjoyed hammering it and trying to get the seeds out. Yeah, my big brother was probably my main babysitter, was awfully good to me.

TI: It sounds like he not only took care of you but did fun things with you like pick hazelnuts. What would be another example of an activity with your brother that he would do with you?

MO: There was a place down there, what was their name? They had this elephant that you could climb up inside, and later they had it out on Aurora. Pietro. No, what was their name? Anyway, he used to take me down there and help boost me up and let me get up into the elephant.

TI: So this was just like a structure, kind of miniature --

MO: Oh, it was a life sized elephant, and it's out on Aurora now. You've probably --

TI: Okay. And so he would take you to that and you would play --

MO: To this place down not too far from our place. And the Pietro Monacles owned that, and he was friends with that family, or the children. They went to school or something. They were older than, but I remember my brother hoisting me up and letting me try to sit up there.

TI: Yeah, I'm thinking of that area, another kind of landmark for Seattle is now a park, Gas Works Park.

MO: It's not quite that far. It's a little, well, actually it's a little above it, isn't it? Yeah, because we're on Thirty-fifth and this is on Thirty-fourth, and then the canal goes right there.

TI: But did you, was there actually, like, a big gasworks there when you were growing up? I mean, what was in that area?

MO: There was that big, I don't know what kind of company it was, but it always had steam coming out of there and we could see it from our house and hear the whistle going all the time. I'm not really sure.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.