<Begin Segment 8>
TI: So I'm going to ask Yoshiko, when you think of growing up in Watsonville in the '30s, before the war, what was Watsonville like?
YN: It wasn't this crowded. You could leave your door unlocked, leave the house. I think those were the fun days that we had, all the kids, brothers and sisters would play together. We never had toys, they all made the toys. So we appreciated a lot of those things. Now it's so different.
TI: And so when you were with your brothers and sisters, what kind of games would you play?
YN: In those days?
TI: Yeah, in those days.
YN: We used to play with marbles and jacks. They used to make their toys, and I was amazed, with my mother's spool, spool, they'll make little jags on there and make it look like a tractor, and they put a rubber band in there and twist it with a matchstick. I thought that was amazing. And they played, made telephones with Coke cans with string on there. They'll catch birds with a box, standing up, and pull that string from another, where the bird can't see, they used to catch birds that way. Those were good days.
TI: So just very simple things with just things you could make from everyday.
YN: Yeah. I used to make stilts.
TI: And did you pretty much play with your siblings, or did you play with neighbor kids, too?
YN: A few neighbors, but not too many, because there weren't, the houses were so far apart. I had one good friend, we used to go back and forth. (...)
EN: Yeah.
YN: Those were the good days.
TI: And how about you, Eiko? When you think of those days in the '30s before the war, growing up, what are some of your memories?
EN: Mostly I was taking, helping my mother taking care of the kids. [Laughs] Well, when we had time, we would go outside and then we used to make teams, both make, play football, we used to throw balls and pretend we're playing football. We didn't know the game itself, but we'd just see other people play.
TI: And so the girls would play football with the boys? You would just all play together?
EN: To make the team. [Laughs] That's what I remember. Besides that, I was always washing diapers and taking care of the little ones.
TI: How about just maybe like outdoor activities? Did, as a family, did you guys ever have big picnics where you guys would all go out someplace, I don't know, by the river or someplace else?
EN: My father used to go fishing a lot. It's not like now, they, he used to fish and bring sackful home at the beach.
TI: So he would go fish and bring what home? A sack full of fish?
EN: Uh-huh, the perch. You could catch perch out on the beach. But it's not plentiful now. Before, he used to catch fish. But otherwise, I don't know what we did. We're getting kind of old to remember things. [Laughs]
TI: No, this is fine. I mean, you're telling --
EN: I should have kept a diary, huh?
TI: No, you're remembering lots of things. Like there's the river. Did you guys ever go down to the river and do things?
YN: I remember that. We used to go in that water.
EN: There's a river right on the other side of the ranch.
TI: And so like swimming, would you go swimming at the river?
YN: I didn't know how to swim, but I used to just walk through it. That was one of the things that we did. Our father used to take us picnics. Do you remember that?
EN: Yeah.
YN: My mother used to make those musubi and pack a lunch.
EN: And go to Monterey.
YN: Seventeen Mile Drive. They'd take us to the Fourth of July parade.
EN: Yeah, take us to movies. [Laughs]
<End Segment 8> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.