<Begin Segment 8>

TI: Okay, so let's go to Topaz. And so describe Topaz.

KY: Well, Topaz, I went to Topaz, I got a job as an ambulance driver, and I drove an ambulance for a few years. Then after that, got tired of that, I went and worked on the farm.

TI: Well, let me back up. So ambulance driver, because Topaz is like a little town.

KY: That's right.

TI: And so generally you had this little ambulance.

KY: That's right, an army ambulance.

TI: How frequently would you have to go around and pick people up?

KY: I hardly picked anybody up. We were more or less a chauffeur for the nurses and the doctors, you know. We'd just go and pick 'em up once in a while, or do things like that, delivery, milk for the babies or something like that. There were very few emergencies as far as ambulance is concerned.

TI: So were you on duty at a certain time, did you have be by the ambulance on call?

KY: Oh, yeah. You had to be, you worked like a regular laborer, you work, I think it's about eight hours a day. And you put in your shift and you go back.

TI: So it sounds like there's a lot of just sitting around.

KY: Sitting around, oh, yeah, lot of sitting around. People were always sitting around in camp. You know, they eventually got jobs working on the farm or a nurse's aide, or an ambulance driver or whatever you get. He was making sixteen dollars a month. Only ones who got more money was the doctors and the professionals, but they only got nineteen dollars a month. Ridiculous.

TI: So you said you were in Tanforan, kind of like an individual, you kind of stayed by yourself. Is that the same in Topaz, or did you find some friends or people that you...

KY: No, I stayed by myself in Topaz, too. I never traveled. But near the end of, before I left Tanforan, I had a little gang of girls and boys, but it was about six of us, family type. We all stuck around together and spent the time there as a group. Because, you know, there's a lot of people in camp, and you don't see people from the outer areas. You just want to meet with people within your area.

TI: Well, because in the camp, with so many young people, they had dances, bands and all those things. Did you ever go to a dance?

KY: No, I was never a dancer. Never a dancer, I hated those things.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.