<Begin Segment 17>

TI: And the other question I forgot to ask was, so when you lived in Seattle, where was your father's office? Where did he go to work?

EY: Most of the time it was on the Smith Tower, Smith Tower, and he shared an office with Tom Masuda.

TI: So back then, the Smith Tower was the tallest building in Seattle, wasn't it?

EY: Yes, that's right.

TI: And so was that a pretty prestigious place to have an office?

EY: I think so.

TI: So the business was doing pretty well for him to be in the Smith Tower, that's probably the best, maybe, business location in the city.

EY: Well, I don't think so. I do remember Erling Bendickson telling me that my father had a big desk, and he was sitting back there. And Erling is a man that had a moderately large oyster operation in Willapa Harbor. And he also had some operation up in Alaska. So he would always say, he used to say, "Well, gee, your father had an office in the Smith Tower, and he had a big desk, and he was sitting behind there." [Laughs]

TI: See, I remember, because I was always impressed when I went to the Smith Tower, because those elevators, they would always have that operator there, someone who would operate the elevator. And I always thought that was special.

EY: Yeah, that was... my brother and I went over to Smith Cove to do some fishing, and we caught a bunch of black cod, and we had a paper shopping bag and we put the fish in. When we got on the streetcar, the bottom came out. We had a devil of a time. [Laughs] I think we got off at Pike Place Market to buy another bag.

TI: That's a good story. So you had to just kind of hold the fish with your hands?

EY: [Nods].

TI: Well, that's interesting. So you'd go to Smith Cove and you can catch black cod there?

EY: Yeah. I think it was Pier 90 or Pier 91, something like that.

TI: So as a kid, was it common for you to just take the streetcars to different parts of town?

EY: Yeah, we went there. It was a good way for us to go. We weren't old enough to drive yet, you know.

TI: When you think about those Seattle days before you went to, up north, what's some fond memories of growing up in Seattle?

EY: Well, I remember around Christmastime, on the Smith Tower, Tom Masuda and my father would have some whiskey in some bottles. And the operator, the elevator operator would be hopping in to get a... and would give 'em back. I think if it were today, we'd be worrying. [Laughs]

TI: Right, won't be very safe to have a drunk elevator operator. Yeah, I was wondering, given that you went to Franklin High School, did you ever attend baseball games at Sick's Seattle Stadium?

EY: I didn't, but a lot of the fellows were, went down the hill, you know, to watch the game.

TI: Yeah, because you can get a free seat up there and watch the game.

EY: Oh, yeah. But I just loved that teacher that we had. She was teaching... I think she taught a lot of the students that participated in plays sponsored by the classes. And so one day I was on the elevator and Dewey Soriano came in, and I said, "Hi, Dewey," then talked about different teachers, and told something about Ms. McDonald. And he said, "Oh, that's right, she's everybody's favorite." She was a nice teacher. And then there was a Mr. Hurley, English teacher, so I went to visit him once, I took my young daughter along with me. And he was living with a bunch of men. So maybe all these people were former teachers, you know, but they had a particular place, only about a block and a half from Franklin High School.

TI: And they were like retired teachers?

EY: Yes, that's right.

TI: Interesting.

EY: There was an article in the paper about one of our teachers that was very good at cooking. So probably when all the men teachers were living there, maybe he was assigned the job of cooking.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.