<Begin Segment 18>

MN: Now, Poston had this huge strike in the fall of 1942. Did you participate in that?

DM: I vaguely remember the strike, but I don't remember joining it or anything. 'Cause when you're a young teenager, I was in my twenties already, those things don't interest you.

MN: Let me ask you about sports then. What sports or activities did you get involved in in camp?

DM: Gee, since that area was so small, they had enough area to build a softball diamond. So we had a softball team which we later named as the Blackbirds. And we got to be pretty prominent in the camp as a softball team. We were in the B class. A class were the higher up teams, mostly from L.A. and Orange County. Of course, they were older boys. And we did compete with the teams in other blocks in other camps.

MN: When you say "other camps," you're talking about Poston Camp II and III?

DM: Yeah.

MN: What was the name of your team? Oh, you said Blackbirds.

DM: Uh-huh.

MN: How did they get that name?

DM: [Laughs] Blackbirds was a common name in Imperial Valley 'cause blackbirds, well, they were prevalent in Imperial Valley. Because I remember in the evenings we could, used to see these flocks of blackbirds flying by. There were such huge flocks that it would dim the day, thin the light from the sun. That's how thick they were when they fly by. And the blackbirds mostly fed on the farms, eating the grass on the farms. They were called blackbirds 'cause they were black.

MN: I also understand the Block 59, you folks also built your own gymnastic equipment?

DM: There were, mostly the Boyle Heights kids were into gymnastics, so they and their parents built things like bars, chin up bars and that kind of thing.

MN: Did you work out on those?

DM: They taught us. I mean, we followed them. Of course, most of the stuff was built with lumber scraps salvaged from the dumps or around the administration area where they threw out the wooden boxes. So everything was salvaged from scraps.

MN: So I want to ask you some weather-related questions. Poston had sandstorms. How did you protect yourself from the sandstorms?

DM: You couldn't. The barracks had screens on the window, but nothing to cover it. So I remember my mom would hang towels or tablecloths to cover the windows. Of course, the sand would seep in. Block 59, being next to the desert, we got the brunt of it.

MN: So when did these sandstorms usually hit?

DM: You couldn't tell when they come. When the wind starts blowing hard, then the sand would come with it.

MN: So this is not something you can prepare for?

DM: No. You breathe it.

MN: And then I imagine it's really hot during the summer. How did you keep cool?

DM: [Laughs] Summer in Arizona desert, you'll get into the hundreds. And I remember people building these excelsior water coolers they called them in those days, which was excelsior packed in between two screens, and a pipe of water running, pipe running over it to drip water onto the excelsior, and the fan behind it to pull in the cool air. That was the extent of our air conditioning in those days, if you were lucky enough to have a fan. 'Cause I think that's what our milkman brought in for us. Those kind of things came in handy because he would buy 'em and bring it to us.

MN: How about like, did you have a pool nearby, did you make a pool nearby?

DM: There was a central swimming pool made in the center of the camp, which was just a hole dug in the ground and filled with water.

MN: So it was muddy.

DM: Water was kind of muddy.

MN: Did you sneak out of camp and go over to the Colorado River?

DM: On occasion we would. Pack a lunch and... the river was, it was around two and a half, three miles to the river, the Colorado River, where fishing was possible by just tying a hook to the string. We didn't have nylon in those days, I don't think. Throw it out and we'd catch mostly catfish, which we'd bring back and the cook would cook catfish. Or catfish would be lower grade of fishmeat, but it was fish.

MN: For your fishing bait, what did you use for bait?

DM: Gee, I can't remember what we used. I think the worms we would dig up at the river, or snails we caught, things like that.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.