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BN: Do you remember what the differences were between Tule Lake and Topaz? I mean, did it feel the same?

HT: It felt the same. But then when we had to get out of camp and go up into Oregon, it was really different. Because some of them were homes, and then for us, living in camp, it's a little different. But we had, the place that we slept at, they had outhouse, it wasn't toilets, you had to go around the corner.

BN: This is after you'd left and were in Oregon?

HT: Yeah, we were in Oregon.

BN: Sprague River.

HT: Yeah, Sprague River, it was like that, they were Indians. And when we came back to San Francisco, one of the Indian boys came, went to the military and he came to visit my older brother, I remember that.

BN: Now, at Sprague River, what was the living situation like? Was it barracks similar to like in camp?

HT: No, no, I know there were some houses. There was this one couple that was from Sacramento or something like that, and one time they invited a couple of us kids to eat food there. The only thing was it had an outhouse, but it was a bigger one. She had a kitchen and a living room and a bedroom. The one that we had was, that was it, too, but then ours, the bedroom was so cold, because they don't have anything like that, and there were other, like wildlife. Yeah, it was sort of... and it was all dirt and everything. But there must have been about, maybe about eight families around there.

BN: Did you have multiple rooms or was it like camp where it was one big...

HT: I think the one where we were staying, there was like four units or something like that, and they had an outhouse on the side, and then a couple of blocks away, they had another one, they had a couple of them. I know that, as I recall, they were not from San Francisco, they were from Sacramento or something like that, and they were there long enough to, they were wanting to go back. And then when my father was finally able to find a place to come back to the city, he brought me to find a place.

BN: And then when you were there at Sprague River, he was, you mentioned he was working on a, doing railroad work?

HT: Yeah, railroad tracks, I think all the workers, I think.

BN: But then did you go to school and stuff there?

HT: Yeah, I think so, because I played with the Indian kids and all that, so it must have been the Indian kids. Because my brother had a guy that was Indian and I had an Indian girl that I was friends with. So I think it must have been grammar school or whatever.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.