<Begin Segment 11>

MW: So on the day that they left from Taylor Avenue, could you tell us about what you did that day?

EH: I rode down there and I don't remember the time exactly. But right away there was a soldier pointing, and he says, "You park there and you walk up there and you stay up there. You cannot be down here." I says, "I came down here to say goodbye to Jerry." He says, "You can't even see him. You are to stay up there until the ferry leaves, then you can come out." That was, I don't remember how long we stayed up there, quite a while. But everybody was kind of furious that they wouldn't let us get down there. And you could see the soldiers down there standing erect with their fixed bayonets and loaded rifles. At least they said they were loaded. And everything went peaceful, the ferry left, that was all. And I don't remember who the people that were up there standing with me. I wish I could remember some of 'em. I've asked members of our class, but they were not there. Mike Tarabochia thought maybe that he might have been down there. And Gina Clinton or Gina... whatever her married name is...

MW: Ritchie.

EH: Ritchie, yeah. She thought maybe she had been there. Carmen Rereicich said no, she hadn't seen 'em. But at one of the class reunions, Ritchie Barr said he caught the next ferry over, and he got up on the overhead in Seattle and waved at the guys that they were loading onto the train. Now, I wished I had done that, but I had to go back to work.

MW: How many people were there saying goodbye, do you recall?

EH: You know, I've got a picture, I think it was from the P-I, and there's quite a few people that were standing up in the field. You know, if you go down there now, that open area is not there, it's all grown up. And where the dance hall was, there's a road coming in.

MW: It's hard to visualize today with all the trees.

EH: Yeah, it is. See, 'cause as kids, we'd be down there every day in the summertime and go swimming, then we'd go up and we'd roller skate in the old dance hall. And that dance hall was called Seaton's Hall. And the man that built it was, I believe his first name was John Seaton, and he lived on Taylor Avenue.

[Interruption]

MW: One of the things... the high school was very supportive of the kids who were forced to leave, and one of the things they did at the high school was to have an assembly the day after Pearl Harbor. Do you remember that? Mr. Dennis, the principal, and I think the superintendent was there.

EH: I didn't go. 'Cause I believe I was, I think I was working at Olson store then. No, wait a minute. I was working at the navy yard.

MW: Oh, of course, 'cause you were already graduated. You weren't at the high school then.

EH: Yeah, we had graduated.

MW: Did you talk with any of the kids who were there?

EH: Not that I can recall.

MW: That's fine.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.