<Begin Segment 7>

TI: How about some other memories about Auburn? Before the war, what else can you think about in terms of strong memories growing up?

KT: Going fishing a lot.

TI: And this is in the, what, the Duwamish River, or the White --

KT: Yeah, some of it was. A lot of it was, like going after squid in the Sound, squidding. And one time, with my buddies, we went up to Point Defiance and rented a boat and rode out to, it was probably where the Narrows Bridge is now, I don't know. We used to go in that area. We saw a tako.

TI: So an octopus?

KT: Yeah, a big octopus, so we went and caught that. That was a big memory for me, was catching that. They gaffed it, but they said they gaff it, it'll come to the boat and it'll grab on the boat and then it'll go down and get away. So once you gaff it, then you got to push him. You got to sort of suspend him in the water then go on land, and that's what we did.

TI: So in the boat you would gaff it, but you'd keep it away from the boat and it would keep holding onto the pole, I guess.

KT: Push him away with one pole and be pulling him with the other pole, and you have one here and then you run the boat on the shore, then you run up on the shore and then you got a sack and you put his head in and lift it up.

TI: And so how big was the octopus?

KT: That thing was, gosh, I don't know. It was, must've been around thirty pounds.

TI: Wow, that's big.

KT: Pretty good size. Maybe tentacles about so long [holds arms out].

TI: And what did you do with it once you caught it?

KT: We split it up and...

TI: And brought it home.

KT: And brought it home. And I think, I think my mother said, "Let's save it for New Year's." So we froze it. We boiled it and then froze it.

TI: And you mentioned squidding, so back then how did you catch squid?

KT: We made a, what we called a, I don't know if this is the correct term, but a herring rake. We bought a, it might be like a flooring, straight grain fir, about eight feet long, and we'd shave it in sort of an oval shape and then we'd punch holes in there, and we get piano wire and you cut it and you sharpen one edge, and you put in a plier and you hit the plier and you drive it in these little holes. About that much on the end [indicates a couple feet] would be these things sticking out. And we'd ride a boat out there, looking around, and they're sort of fluorescent, the squid, so they'll be swimming by, and they go in schools, so the first bunch you don't want to disturb. You let 'em go by a little bit, and then after that you can, no matter what you do they just keep coming.

TI: And so you're just, like, hooking them kind of.

KT: You just run that pole right through 'em.

TI: And it kind of impales them?

KT: They, yeah, it, they get impaled by this wire. And then you lock it on the side of the boat and dump it in the boat, and then the other guys'll be putting it in the bucket.

TI: Wow. Was that a common way to get -- I've never heard...

KT: Yeah. We all did that.

TI: Interesting.

KT: Now they jig for 'em, but --

TI: Yeah, that's what I'm familiar with, the jigging.

KT: Yeah, I guess them days we, everybody's doing the way we were doing because you get a whole mess of 'em that way. Maybe it's illegal now, I don't know.

TI: And whereabouts in Puget Sound did you do this?

KT: It was up there by Point Defiance.

TI: Okay, so again, by Tacoma.

KT: There was a boathouse there. We'd rent the boat at the boathouse and row out there, not too far, and we'd scout around for 'em.

TI: And then also, like salmon fishing, did you do very much salmon fishing?

KT: I didn't do any salmon fishing. I did once, but we didn't get anything. A friend of mine had a boat, so we played hooky and went salmon fishing, but no, no salmon.

TI: So who were some of your friends, growing up in Auburn, that you hung around with?

KT: There's a guy named Frank Tsujii, Roy Oyama, Tom Yoshida, those are my good friends.

TI: Okay. That's good. So you have a good memory that you can remember that. So you were born 1923, so what year did you graduate from high school?

KT: '41.

TI: Okay, so June 1941.

KT: Yeah.

TI: And what did you do after you graduated?

KT: My dad said, "If you don't know what to do, why don't you work on the railroad?" So he talked to his foreman, and so there was an opening there so I got a job there. And this Roy Oyama got a job, and the foreman's sons, they were both working there, and one other guy I, Yuzuru Watanabe. There were about five of us worked for the railroad. Then the war started and we all got canned. [Laughs]

TI: So let's talk first about, so what was your, what did you do with the railroad, what kind of work?

KT: We did...

TI: The gandy dancing?

KT: Yeah. Track maintenance.

TI: And then cleaning out freight cars and things like that?

KT: No, we didn't clean out the freight cars. We, most of us is out in the track, working track.

TI: Now, was that, coming out of high school, was that supposed to be a pretty good job, working for the railroad?

KT: No, it wasn't. It was something to do, I guess.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.