<Begin Segment 12>

LH: Well, let's go, going back to how you were talking about the community, forming there in Puyallup. Did you, did you sort of regroup with your friends, going to visit them even though they were in different camps and play, you know, do stuff with them?

FF: Well, you could only visit. You couldn't play with them 'cause there wasn't enough time. I think you were given like an hour or two to visit. I don't think there was really a curfew or anything, but you couldn't stay beyond a certain... like dinnertime you had to get back before dinnertime or something. But I didn't do that too much, 'cause there was some new people that I got to know in Puyallup also. And so, you know, you play sports and from, anything from pitching horseshoe to playing little outdoor basketball or -- softball you couldn't play 'cause there wasn't that much room -- but we did, and then we played catch a lot. And there were, there's some "white" friends who came from Seattle to visit us, you know, behind -- out of, outside the barbed wire and we were behind the barbed wire -- who would bring us candy and sporting equipments. Gene Boyd, who was a savior for the Japanese American community in Seattle at the park department -- he was an instructor. He loved us, and I, I still love him because he, he kept me out of trouble, or he at least, his direction as to my interests in sports was so keen, that I never fell out of focus to excel in sports. 'Cause he always said, "You can't be a dissipating drinker or smoke or if you want to be good. You gotta dedicate yourself and focus." And I said, "What? Dedicate? What does focus mean?" And I started to understand... you obsess, it gets an obsession, but be good about that obsession. There's other things in life other than just whatever you want to do. And, you know, I remembered that. And my famous saying nowadays is, as I'm older, you focus, but then at the same time you balance out, balance the act. You know, you got, you could be interested -- I can't be, I'm no athlete anymore -- but I do different kind of physical things. But you know, you got family, you got your sports, you got friends, you got your, even colleagues that you might have been in the military service with, which I still keep in contact with. And I think the whole gamut of your life, to keep that balance. I think that was so keen, as I look at it anyway, and the word "balance" seems to have stuck with me all my life, and I think that's good.

For some reason, someone had given me the right direction to, to deal with that, and even 'til this day, my kids mean good friends to me, and my buddies who went to college with me are still my close friends who we... you know, sometimes you don't have to see them every week or every day, I think good friends -- my famous saying is good friends are forever, and I really believe in that. And this Bill Mair, who's a top-notch artist in Seattle, he and I grew up in the art program at the university, and he went to the School of Art in Chicago, and I went to the School of Design. But he, he was more the inner focus, fine artist. But he was a real, a true friend who's always beside you. And he would even... he's the kind of guy I think if we were in army, I mean, if we were in the same service -- well, he was in the air force. But if we were army buddies, he would be the kind of guy that would fight for your life if he's... and I like that, and I like to think that I keep the balance with a person like him, who I don't see often but when we do it's hilarious, we have a great time.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.