<Begin Segment 17>

SF: I want to go back a little bit and talk about what it was like for you working on this railroad gang, and on the Great Northern. You guys used to live in boxcars. Is that right?

TS: Yeah. Boxcars that were not suitable for merchandise. Of course, they were painted, and windows were put in.

SF: Well, so, so what was the equipment inside of these homes, as they were?

TS: Well, they were just single beds. And some of the cars had double beds, one above the other, I think. And then, in the center of the car, there was a, what we used to call a caboose stove; a short stove, where you can build a fire to keep warm.

SF: So the johns were like outhouses?

TS: Outhouses, yeah. When we moved from one place to another, you'd dig a hole and put the outhouse there.

SF: What were the, like the bathing facilities like? I mean, how did you keep yourself clean?

TS: Well, the bathing was, for the Japanese guys, was very unique, I would say. Right after you came in from your job site every day, the first thing you'd see is all of the men grabbing a stick with a, with the wires on it, and then two 5-gallon buckets, and going over to what we call the water car. And fill those full of water and carry the bucket back to each one of the boxcars. And in front of each boxcar, we had washtubs set above a little deal, like a stove. And we'd put wood underneath and start the fire. And then, boil the -- make hot water there. That's what we did before supper. And then, when the ding-ding-ding, the dinner bell -- then we'd go to dinner. Then after we come back, we'd complete that. And then people would take turns and take baths inside the car. We'd carry the bucket...

SF: Oh, you'd get, you'd dip the water...

TS: Hot water out, the outside and take it inside. And we had another tub inside, and pour the water into the tub, put cold water. And we'd each wash up, wash our bodies. And then on the back side of the boxcar, there's another door, and that's a side that nobody's ever at, so we just flipped the water over on that side. And...

SF: Next guy would come up and...

TS: Do the, yeah.

SF: Same thing.

TS: Kinda clean the tub a little bit, and...

[Interruption]

SF: Okay. Tad, you were talking a little bit about how the Japanese crews would take a shower, or take a -- clean themselves up at the end of the day. And the procedure strikes me as being kind of Japanese-based, right? With the carrying of the water...

TS: Yeah.

SF: ...and then heating it up outside, and sort of washing oneself inside the car. What did the other crews do? I mean, there were white crews and...

TS: Well, I'm speaking of those days, okay. This is early '40s? And whenever you're in a boxcar and then -- or you're in a train, passenger, and you look out, you see a bunch of boxcars that (housed) gangs. And you could tell the Japanese gang simply because they had these hot water-making things right outside the boxcar. And they had lines where they'd have clothes hanging, or a place where they could put their clothes. And when you went by a white gang, there was nothing. So -- then, they just didn't take baths or wash themselves, even the foreman I guess. And later on, I got a job as a timekeeper for a gang that was made up of white laborers. And these were white laborers that, that I guess took the most menial jobs. Anyway, they worked on the railroad and they just didn't take baths.

SF: These white gangs, were they mostly folks that quotes we would call "winos," or...

TS: Yeah. They were basically what you call winos, yeah.

SF: So how would you describe their work patterns? I mean, if the Japanese, Niseis in particular, were competitive and probably wanted to lay a lot of track just to show that they were good or something like that...

TS: Yeah.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.