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TI: And about how old was he? He must have been like twenty-eight or so?

DB: Yeah, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, something like that. So he was the director there, and a lot of the remembrances, the Hutchinson brothers as I mentioned, it seemed like everybody we met, every place from here to Chicago to New York or wherever we'd take a trip, there was always somebody from South Park that showed up. And so he made a huge community impact. You remind me that the Japanese community was in South Park, again from, I'm sure...

TI: Yeah, my father-in-law was raised in South Park, and he recalls a really strong Italian community.

DB: Right. Well, with the same farming communities there with the Italians who were out in the Duwamish valley. That park, by the way, it's still a park, and the field house, I think, is gone. We actually have the brass frontplate of the South Park, they gave that to Dad. He may have opened up that park gymnasium as well. But anyhow, he loved South Park, he has a lot of memories there, and a lot of friends, and that pops up all the time, South Park. Whenever he was stuck, he'd say, "Well, he's from South Park." Couldn't introduce him, but he said, "He's from South Park." But then he moved to Collins. We figured he moved to Collins in 1937, is that, Marietta, what we thought?

TI: So right about the time you were born.

DB: Yeah. So '37.

TI: Now do you know why they would move around?

DB: Well, I think there were just job opportunities and just move up. I don't know if there was a hierarchy of one being better than the other, (...) and it was a little shorter drive for him. But he worked off hours. In the parks, they started at two o'clock, and he didn't get home until eleven o'clock, so he was off traffic -- and there was not much traffic in those days -- so I don't know if there's any considerations. Except Collins, as we kids grew up, myself, and I think my older brothers and sisters and Marietta later, Collins was the place. I mean, (...) South Park for us was a little bit of a historic... you know, he was also at South Park, and he was also at Green Lake, but Collins was his program.

TI: So when he got to Collins, what was, was that a new facility, was that an older one?

DB: Well, I think it was probably... they were all, the Seattle Parks Department was developed by this guy (Olmstead), the guy who had done the New York Central Park. And in the 1920s there was a great public community appreciation, people were really building the community. You don't see that anymore. But you know, it was a great, so where are we gonna have the parks for the old folks? Where are we gonna have the places for the kids to play? So it was in the boom of social responsibility, public social responsibility and community, they looked to city government to do those things. So there was -- I was thinking on the way over -- there was nine or ten Parks Department field houses around town, and Seattle, I think -- this statistic might not be accurate, but had more park playing space, I mean, small little ball fields to bigger complexes like Woodland Park and others, than any other place in the country at that time. So they had invested heavily into the park system, and of course the beach system, starting with Madison, Madrona, Mount Baker, Seward, down that way, and east and west, Green Lake, and of course Alki and Golden Gardens where nobody ever swam.

TI: Too cold.

DB: And then they had the one pool down at Colman, which is down at Lincoln Park. So Dad was, knew all of these places, but Collins was his emotional connection with the community.

TI: Well, it's kind of interesting, during that time period, in terms of if you were a person of color, that was probably the community's field house you would go to also.

DB: That's right. Now, that community (...). We knew we were here, but in those days, there were these wonderful, large family homes that were owned by Jewish urban types. And they were moving out by that time. There was some Jewish representation, a fellow by the name of (Bernie Krebs) played on the senior men's team (...). But by that time, the Chinese community had made a foothold, and the Japanese immigration was into the central city, so it really became... it was multiracial for sure, diversity before people made a slogan out of it. And the black community when (Dad) came here was maybe even nonexistent but slight. But with the war industry, then more black kids moved into the Yesler Terrace and that area black families and kids. But it was primarily an Oriental facility, and remained so during, right up until the difficult times. And I was available, in other words, he did a lot of babysitting with me because I think Mom was glad to get me out of the house, but I came to Collins a lot when I was a young kid. Five, six, seven, and I don't know I could have stayed here all day until ten o'clock, but there may have been special, certainly Saturdays. So I met and played with a lot of the kids we were talking about today, and remember them in kind of the child remembrance (...).

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2013 Densho. All Rights Reserved.