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MN: And then one time I did housework again, then it was time for me to come back to camp 'cause my parents were able to go back home. They said that they were able to go back, so I was the one that decided, well, I wasn't married, I was single, and so I told 'em, oh, and I wanted to go home and see the Sound, and get a ride on the ferry boat and see the mountains. And I said, "Oh, I gotta go home, I'll take the parents home." So I took the parents home and came home. It was really wonderful. And then, oh, one day, before I came home, my, we knew that Dad was gonna be released one day, but we didn't know when. And so in order to come home, we had to get parents, and Dad wasn't home, Mom and I, and so I went into Twin Falls, got permission to do some shopping, we needed clothes, summer kind of clothes, 'cause it was before September that we were gonna be able to go home. And so Reverend Andrews gave, told me to come in again, so I got a permission to go and I went and done some shoppings, buy things that I needed as soon as we got home. So on the way home... another crying... and on the way home, at the bus stop, here was my dad, waiting. [Cries] He was coming home from (New) Mexico, coming to Hunt, Idaho, and I got to see my father. We hugged and Grandpa came, a pretty straw hat on, and that was one of the greatest moments during all that evacuation time, my father and I got to come home together on the bus, I brought him home. Because I had the permission and all, it was easy to go through. He was able to come home directly with me to our camp in '44. That was one of the... you know, it was so great to... yeah, it was the answer to our prayers, that Dad got to come home. Yeah, to this day, when I talk about it, I still cry. That was the greatest gift, he was released and able to come home.

And when we got home, people were so happy to see us, but the dogs were gone. And oh, and the dogs were from Frank Kitamoto's mother and father's dog, two puppies they gave us, and we named them Teddy and... what was it? Teddy... Teddy... I can't think of his name. I had it all this time. [Laughs] [Interruption] Teddy and Minnie was our doggies' name. The kitties, they were all gone when we came home, even the cats were gone. But it was so sad leaving them and then come home and find them gone. But it was so good to be home, and got to see our friends. Then when I came home, the next door neighbor, that was Norwegian family, their name was Johnsons, they were gone. And the new neighbors had lived in there, and then I got to know them. They were from North Dakota, living in the next-door house. Got to be friends with them. But the renters were still there.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.