Densho Digital Archive - Fred Oda Interview (denshovh-ofred

<Begin Segment 6>

TI: Okay, so let's now talk about you a little bit more. So you were born in 1923, and what are some early memories that you have growing up in Watsonville?

FO: Well, like I said, it was depression time, so we had to cook up our own entertainment. Just play marbles and Cut the Pie, and stuff like that. Get the willow stick, and play that, PeeWee we called that. (Narr. note: We also played Kick the Can, Hide and Seek, and played with bottle milk cover. Toss the cover on the ground and the opponent had to cover part of it to win. For Cops & Robbers, we made a rifle out of wood with a clothespin for a trigger, and tire tube for bullets. On New Year's Eve, we went to the park and selected a leader to lead us for the scramble night in Chinatown. The merchants and gambling dens would toss pennies on the sidewalk for us to fight over. We made enough for us to gamble the next day tossing the penny against a building to get closest to win. It was mostly Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish kids.)

TI: Now, when you said Cut the Pie, is that a game?

FO: Yeah, especially wintertime, when the ground was soft, we'd make a circle. Then we'd throw the knife and we'd cut it, and you can't get your foot in there, then you lost. [Laughs]

TI: Okay, so it was kind of like, then, it's a knife skill game, that you would try to get smaller and smaller, and then the winner would be the last one who could get their foot into that pie. And who were your playmates, when you had all these games?

FO: Kids that grew up in town, yeah.

TI: Were they all Japanese?

FO: Yeah.

TI: And so tell me about, like, the Japanese neighborhood, your friends. Like how many friends did you have that you ran around with?

FO: Oh, there must have been around ten, fifteen, I guess, yeah. They all had businesses in town.

TI: So these were, I mean, like the sons of people that...

FO: Yeah, sons of businesspeople.

TI: And what were some of the names of your friends? When you say ten, fifteen, what were just a few of the names of some of your better friends?

FO: That's one thing my wife was surprised when she married me, she said, "Gee, the people around here sure got funny nicknames." [Laughs]

TI: So better yet. Give me the, we love nicknames, what are some of the nicknames?

FO: Well, we used to have a guy called Pinhead.

TI: Okay, Pinhead.

FO: Jughead.

TI: Jughead.

FO: Slug.

TI: Slug.

FO: What else was there? I can't think of who else did we have... nickname. (Narr. note: Also Hump, Sugar, Bonehead.)

TI: Now, why would someone have the nickname Slug?

FO: Huh?

TI: Why would you give a nickname Slug?

FO: I don't know why. The Japanese name was Kasuto, but Slug? Oh, yeah, Soup, a guy called Soup.

TI: And do you know why they called him Soup? I'm always curious how they --

FO: I think his Japanese name was probably Suyeo or something.

TI: Or Pinhead. Why did you get a nickname like Pinhead?

FO: I guess he had a small head, I guess. [Laughs]

TI: Good, okay. So we have more names for our, we have this list of Nisei nicknames, and I think we have some new ones here. This is good. But they never gave you a nickname?

FO: No.

TI: And when you have these nicknames, how would the nicknames come about? I mean, who would give someone a name?

FO: I don't know how it comes about. There are some more funny names, just don't come to my mind now.

TI: Well, maybe it'll come when we talk more about some of the things you did.