Densho Digital Archive - Tom I. Mine Interview (denshovh-mtom

<Begin Segment 21>

TI: Well, one of the things that I've read about is a golf course in Poston.

TM: Oh that, later on, when we got time, when we got settled. Gee, I got to, I worked in the kitchen, I said, that's the best place to work. It's cool and you got the cooler and a lot of food there, so I won't starve. Then later on, I said, "Gee, what am I gonna do in between?" And there was, see, we were right on the corner, it's Block 210, open spaces, you know. And to get on the other side, no, it was in the... anyway, there was a lot of areas where vacant land. Not vacant land, but open land, spaces, so I asked somebody, "Could I go out there and make a few holes to play golf?" And they said, "Oh, do whatever you want," they didn't care. There wasn't anybody interested in golf in those days. So to pass time, I said, oh, I think I made three or four or five holes just way out back.

TI: And so how do you make a golf course in the desert? I mean, what do you do?

TM: All we did is for sand, we just kind of raked it and make it level, and get a, going down to the kitchen, got some cans for the hole, made that a cup.

TI: And so the greens were just sand greens.

TM: Yeah, sand greens. We just kind of leveled them, kind of raked it with a, we made it, everybody had it for, leveled it out, so flattened it out so it looked, looked better than just ordinary sand. So made it look like a green, but it wasn't, just a sand, sand area.

TI: Now, did you have, like, fairways?

TM: Well, there's no fairway, it's just open land.

TI: Open land, and so there was no rough or fairways, it was just, everything was rough.

TM: Just a few holes to just kill the time. That's what my intention was.

TI: And what would you do for golf clubs and golf balls?

TM: Well, I finally had them sent to me.

TI: So this was sent back from...

TM: Watsonville, yeah.

TI: ...Watsonville, someone sent you the stuff. How about the other fellows?

TM: Yeah, they did the same thing, they had them sent or, you know.

TI: Now, once you had your little golf course set up, did you have, like, competitions or tournaments?

TM: No, we just... just went out there. And members of Block 220, it'd be at the end over there, they formed the same, they did the same thing. They got the idea of what I was doing, so, "Yeah, I guess we'll do that."

TI: So did you ever go down there and play their course?

TM: No, it was pretty hot to walk down to the other end. [Laughs]

TI: So with it being so hot, when would you guys golf?

TM: Early in the morning.

TI: Early in the morning?

TM: The evening. Just a few holes, three or four holes just to pass time, kill the monotony of it.

TI: Now, during this time, did you ever have contact, or, like, letters from your father about what, where he was and what was happening with your father during this time?

TM: No. He, all I knew was where he was. He wrote to us, and I'm not good at Japanese, so...

TI: Oh, so his letters were in Japanese.

TM: Yeah, so my brother-in-law or my sister, Neesan, she's, she could.

TI: Any other memories or stories about Poston that you want to share?

TM: I don't think there's too much memories, that's not any good. [Laughs]