<Begin Segment 21>

AI: What were the worst parts of that, of Pinedale for you? What was the most difficult part of being there?

RT: Oh, I think the things that I remember were, of course, my father wasn't there for most of that experience, so our family was a little fractured there.

AI: And you still didn't know when you would see him.

RT: No, not at all. Not at all. I'm sure that my mother kept writing to him. And one of the things I remember the most, being from the Pacific Northwest, was the heat. It was very, very hot down there, especially as we moved into June and July. And I do, as I said, remember that sand. Tule Lake wasn't much better. That was also very dusty and sandy. I think it was just such an aimless type of existence. We didn't realize it as kids that, I guess we thought that this was all vacation fun time. I mean, no farm to take care of, no chores to do, no responsibilities, and at that age I suppose we thought that this was great, but we weren't there long enough, our family. We didn't stay in camp long enough for this type of existence to pall.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.