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TI: So talk about that month away from home at the ocean. Was it a time of just like vacation, or were you working, or what was that like?

IS: No. I think we all, just time to play. And I never corrected it, but I mentioned that we used to go to church school and that was true. In Terminal Island, there was a temple, Buddhist temple, and there was a Christian church. And the Christian church didn't have like church summer school. And we did go there, not that regularly, and I don't know why it got in the book. I guess my spouse, when she wrote it, like she heard something, that we did attend something and she almost, when she read it, it almost sounded like we went for a week or two week quite regularly. It wasn't like that. My parents did go to their church-related studies, but we children didn't, younger people didn't go there regularly.

TI: So what would you do then? What was your...

IS: Well, in the morning, because all these other Niseis from Brawley that we knew back home, would also be up there. So we'd gather at a place and play cards or checkers or something like that in the morning, go home to eat lunch. Then we'd go to the beach to go swimming. Then after we'd come back from that, we'd even go fishing. And then nighttime we'd gather again to play cards and things like that. It was really a fun play time.

TI: And the adults, what would they do during the day?

IS: Pretty much the same thing. They visited with each other, and... what was I going to say? Oh. Like, yeah, I was really jumping, but I can imagine what happened when the Japanese Americans were put into camps. I think the parents had, some parents had difficult time controlling the kids in that way. I mean, here they were, your friends are right there, your neighbors, and to control that, I kind of felt like the fuinki, what is it? The atmosphere or the conditions are so geared towards playing. Because that certainly was. Nowadays, I see our grandkids, summertime is not playtime, and gosh, they have all these summer school. [Laughs]

TI: Oh, that's interesting.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.