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TI: So you're all in, so you're, you're born in Portland, but as a young girl you go to Brooks, Oregon, for this farming.

ES: Yes.

TI: So tell me a little bit about Brooks. What was that community like?

ES: They did have a post office, and I know there was a gas station and a, like a grocery store with everything, and a merchandise, hardware merchandise store, but it was a small school district but we didn't go to that school district. We were in another. Hazel Green is the school that we went to, but only because the farming land separated Brooks from, from Hazel Green. But it's strange, our mailing address was Brooks, but we, our school districts were different.

TI: Was it more of a convenience thing because the farmland --

ES: I think it was. The farmland was in between.

TI: So it was just easier to get to Hazel Green. Okay. So tell me about the school. I mean, who were your classmates? Were there very many Japanese?

ES: Well, there were several who worked for my father, and so my father tried to get Japanese to come to help, but most of his male workers on the farm were Filipino fellows, young, young, about teenage Filipino fellows that came by themselves just like the Japanese did. And the Japanese, many of them came because they, and they worked on the railroad, but the Filipinos, they just were, most, majority of 'em seemed like they were on a farm, that I know of.

TI: Now, did these workers stay there year round, or was it more migrant where they moved?

ES: My parents had these little houses, and they, most of them stayed year round. They were, they had... my father had some work for most of them to do. But during the most, the harvest time he would have about twenty, thirty people working on the farm because he grew celery and lettuce, which was all hand work, and there's really not too many people who could do that.

TI: 'Cause it's pretty backbreaking work.

ES: Oh, yes. Get on their hands and knees to plant these little celery plants. They're only like that, you know. [Indicates a few inches] And so that was very tedious, and unfortunately when the war broke out the, that industry that he had, growing celery and lettuce and so forth, was gone when he got home.

TI: Let's go back to the farm. I want you to describe the farm. You mentioned the houses for the workers, but why don't you first describe your house. What did that --

ES: Well, our house seemed like it was the, it was a large home. We had upstairs and -- but we had to pump our water, but my dad made, built furo right next to the house and we always had to start a fire under the furo to make hot water. And it was very convenient for us. I think we were the first family in that neighborhood that had any kind of, we had carbide for lights. I don't know if you know about that. Anyway, it was, my dad had a big tank of, it was a white, I'm not too sure what it is. It's, anyway, he had to pump it out every so often so that we'd have enough gas to burn, so that there's enough power for a light over our kitchen and in our living room. Most of the people had kerosene lamps, that type of thing, but we had what we call a gas light and it was carbide. That's what they called it.

TI: I've never heard this. So it sounds like some kind of, but it's some kind of gas that you could pump into the house that would light all the lights?

ES: Yes.

TI: So it wouldn't be like individual lamps that most people did, but it was built into the house.

ES: Right. And we were the only house that had a telephone about... and so anybody that wanted to get any kind of telephone message, they'd come, have to come to my house, to our house and get the message. It was primitive compared to what we have now.

TI: Primitive now, but relative to the times it was like, it was a very advanced house.

ES: Oh yes, it was. It was, we had running water eventually in our house, but our neighbors would have, still have to pump their water. And then of course we had to pump our water into the bathtub, furo, 'cause that had to have lots of water, and my mother would have that changed every day.

TI: How about indoor toilets? Did you ever do that, or was it still outdoor toilets?

ES: Outdoor toilet. But my dad always had concrete for our toilet, for our building, and he always had that pumped out too. I don't know how he did that. But it was amazing that we had toilet paper, most of the time, and then when we'd run out, well then I know we'd use, like Sears & Roebuck or Montgomery Ward catalogs. [Laughs] This was just normal.

TI: I love, I love these stories. [Laughs]

ES: We had to go outside, if we had to go to the bathroom at night we had to go outside.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.