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DG: It was harder for you with younger children?

FH: It was hard for me with the... not a worry, not hard, but lots of worry. We thought something maybe was missing in diet because my daughter, she would go behind the barrack and eat sand. And you could tell because she had sand here [gestures to mouth] and their movement, lot of sand in her movement. Got worried and I took her to doctor, and doctor says, "Don't worry as long as it comes out." But I don't know. I thought maybe she's short of some kind of vitamin or something, 'cause I don't know, she ate sand for a while. I was so scared. 'Cause we got all the milk we want, but no ice box, we had to go to mess hall to get the milk. And so hot, and it gets curdled right away, and I didn't know. You worry for nothing, I guess. But she was healthy, I don't know. And of course, there's lot of babysitters, so naturally, "Kayo's eating sand, she's eating sand," so I'd bring her home. So I thought maybe diet was something wrong, but took 'em to doctor, she said, "Well, as long as it comes out, don't worry about it."

DG: So how long did that happen? How long did that go on for?

FH: Oh, not too long, I guess, but she was eating sand. You could tell when she's, you know... she knows she can't eat it, but I don't know.

DG: Were there other changes in behavior you noticed with your kids?

FH: No... not enough to mention, I guess, that's the only thing. And sometimes she, too, we had to rush her to the windy day, to the clinic because she had a high fever. But we found out that every time she teeth, get new teeth, then she has high fever. I remember running in the sandstorm with a blanket over her, of course, Sab would carry, we went. But after that we didn't worry too much, because we knew every time she had new teeth come, she got a fever, high fever.

DG: Do you remember other times when any of your kids were sick?

FH: No, Neal was healthy. Neal was always healthy. My daughter, we had trouble with her. But other than that, I guess... well, I was ill, too, one time.

DG: Tell me about that.

FH: Well, the one little apartment we had, I get so tired I couldn't even mop it at one time. I had to sit down, and I was getting so tired. So my husband, he mopped the floor for me. And anyway, I was, I was really tired, so he finally told me to go to a doctor. I don't like to go doctor so I kept putting it off, then he made an appointment for me, and he said, "You're going to go," 'cause he made an appointment. So the army truck came after me, went to the doctor, and I had, oh, I had to get hysterectomy, so found out that. I was in the hospital, that was the only time I went to the hospital. I have never been in the hospital, because we had children at home in the country. The hospital that was at camp Minidoka, after we came to Minidoka. So, and I had a tumor, I guess. But I didn't want to go to a doctor, but I found out I had tumor. So after that I'm okay.

DG: So tell me about the hospital stay.

FH: Yeah, hospital, it's all one big barrack, all the cots all the way around. The whole barrack was a hospital. They had Japanese doctor, that was at Minidoka. But I think I stayed about one week. That was the only time I went to the hospital. And of course I had Leonard in the Manzanar hospital. So I guess I'm healthy as a whole, the other children, I had 'em at home. So far as I know I've never been in a hospital. My husband used to say, "Oh, you're strong as a horse," Because he went to hospital more often than...

DG: Oh, he was in the...

FH: Uh-huh, he had hernia so many times.

DG: Was this during the war, or was this after?

FH: After we came back, uh-huh. So he used to tell me, "You're strong as a horse." I tell him, "Well, you know, horse, they eat too much wheat, oats, they expand, so they die, too, too much eating." [Laughs] So I tell him, used to say, "A horse might die, too," when you feed him. Like we sold one horse to a Filipino man, I remember, fifteen dollars. Then with that money we bought, my sister and I bought new curtains, and he fed his horse too much oats, and it died. So... they said the oats expands.

DG: There you go. [Laughs] So you're the secret to, the secret to healthy long living is not to eat too much...

FH: Yeah, don't eat oats. [Laughs]

DG: All right. Good, we'll end there. [Laughs]

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.