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Title: Takeko Yokoyama Todo Interview
Narrator: Takeko Yokoyama Todo
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: June 9, 2015
Densho ID: denshovh-ttakeko-01-0004

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TI: So take me through a typical day, like a weekday when you would have to go to school. I just want to get a sense of the rhythm of what happened during a typical day.

TT: Yah, see, we lived on 18th and Weller, and Washington school was on 18th and King? No, it's on the other side of...

TI: Right, Jackson, King.

TT: So we'd all walk to school, any friends would pick us up on the way, and we'd all walk to school.

TI: But even start from when you wake up, I'm curious about breakfast, what you had, everything. So just from the moment you wake up, let's walk through the day.

TT: Well, when I woke up, then I'm a sleepyhead, so I don't even know if we had breakfast or what we did. See, I don't remember those kind of things. And I know my mother was home then, because she taught Japanese school, but she was home during the day. And then for a while she was working as a housegirl, housewoman, and she would take off, my father would take her to work. So I don't know if we just got ourselves ready for school and went.

TI: But you remember sometimes, I mean, your friends would come by and pick you up as they were going to school. So you're waiting at your house, and then you see them coming and you just kind of joined them?

TT: Yah. We'd go down the alley, because we had alleys then, and so we'd go down the alley and meet people at the bottom of the alley on 18th Avenue.

TI: And you were close to school, I mean, Washington school, you're just like a block or so away.

TT: And then when we got into Garfield High School, we used to walk all the way up there.

TI: And again, that's not too far away.

TT: No, but now people look at it, "You used to walk that far?" [Laughs] You know, because kids nowadays, couple blocks is far for them to go.

TI: Because you're talking about maybe five blocks to Garfield?

TT: More than that, from 18th up to 23rd.

TI: Yeah, and then over, I guess.

TT: Over about three, four blocks. But we did a lot of walking. We used to walk downtown on the weekends, and we'd go to a movie, and then we'd walk home all the way, too.

TI: Now that's a pretty long walk, downtown.

TT: Yah. But we didn't have any money, and even with bus for about five cents, I mean, we didn't have the money to be taking a bus.

TI: Right.

TT: We were lucky we went to a movie.

TI: So let's go back to when you went to Washington school, so this is your junior high school.

TT: It was still a regular high school then.

TI: A regular...

TT: I mean, regular grade school.

TI: Oh, grade school back then.

TT: Yah. And that's when they divided the sixth grade, and we, part of us went to Bailey Gatzert the last year before Washington became a junior high. And I think that's where I met your dad.

TI: At Bailey Gatzert?

TT: Yah.

TI: Because he lived further down.

TT: Yah. So we went there for half a year.

TI: But going back to when you were going to, then, Washington elementary school, when you were younger, after school... or let me ask you, for lunch, do you remember what you did for lunch? Did you bring lunch or did you...

TT: We usually brought some kind of sandwich. And if we wanted something to eat, I think for a nickel you used to be able to buy shepherd's pie. That's the one thing I remember. I don't remember anything else, but the shepherd's pie was something they used to make.

TI: Well, the other thing, as you talk about, sort of, pie and breads and sandwiches, your neighborhood had, did they have bakeries back then?

TT: Wonder Bakery.

TI: Yeah, that's my memory of that area, they had the Wonder Bakery, and the --

TT: Wonder Bakery and the Seattle French Bakery.

TI: Right, and the smells because of the baked goods.

TT: Yah. So if we didn't have any bread, my mother would say, "Go up, walk up to the bakery and get a loaf of bread." So I'd go on the back door, knock on the door, and they'd open it and give me... for five cents I'd get a loaf of bread. But, see, that was on 20th and Weller.

TI: Yeah, so a couple blocks up from you. And when you did that, I mean, was that like day-old bread or was that fresh bread?

TT: No, it was fresh bread.

TI: Okay.

TT: You know, you just knock on the door and says, "Could buy a loaf of bread?" and they said, "Sure. You got five cents?" "Okay."

TI: Oh, interesting. But they didn't have like a retail outlet?

TT: No, not then.

TI: Okay. So after school, after your regular school, then what happened?

TT: Then we'd come home and we'd get oyatsu, you know what oyatsu is?

TI: Like a snack?

TT: Yah, it's just a little snack, maybe a Hershey Kiss or maybe a little something. And then we'd stay home, and then we went to Japanese school.

TI: And that's just down the block?

TT: Yah, down on... what was it? Fourteenth and Weller. It's where it is now.

TI: So more like... I always think of it more almost like 16th and Weller. Maybe it's 14th.

TT: Well, you know, the blocks were longer. We lived on 18th, so it was from 18th to 14th, it was nothing, we'd just go downhill.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2015 Densho. All Rights Reserved.