<Begin Segment 14>

RP: We talked about these, these young men, the adventurous types who would swim across the canal and go out of camp. Did you ever have an opportunity to get out of camp at all? Either on your own or going into Twin Falls?

MH: My experience was that they needed harvest workers to pick potatoes. And so actually they let school out and I don't remember maybe for a couple weeks we went out to pick potatoes in Jerome. And there were, I don't know, nine, ten of us who went out. My sister, my two older sisters and I and some other people from our same block went out. And all the girls slept in one... I think it was an old motel and all the beds were just side by side. We had cooking facilities that we could cook and the farmer who we worked for came and picked us up in a big truck. So we just rode in the back of a truck to go to work. And seems like we worked from sun, sun up to sun down. Hard work, picking potatoes in a basket and then putting it into a gunny sack. It took two of those baskets to put in and so it took two people at least for the girls. The guys could drag their burlap sack and fill it up. But it's pretty hard for the girls to do that. And, you know, I'm not sure how we were paid, whether we were paid by the lines that we did. I don't think it was by the sacks that we filled. I just can't really remember exactly.

RP: What did you do with all the money you made?

MH: Oh, my girlfriend and I, we went to the store. It was a cute little dress shop. And she and I both bought the same pinafore. It's navy blue with ruffles around where the straps came through and, and she and I and another gal who didn't go out with us but she finally was able to find kind of a pinafore like us, we, we decided we were gonna have a trio. Probably the worst sounding trio you ever heard for a Christmas talent show. And we got to wear those pinafores for that, yeah. So, and then the rest of the money I think went to my mom.

RP: So where did you buy the pinafores?

MH: Where?

RP: Where, what, what town?

MH: Yes, it was within walking distance, yeah. Like it was just, you know, our motel or whatever we stayed in was just right up the street in the town of Jerome.

RP: Oh it was in Jerome, okay.

MH: Yes, uh-huh. So, anyway, it was hard work but we had a good time and you know when kids get together you always find something to do that's fun, besides being hungry and tired. So that was our experience in... they called it seasonal, seasonal work. And I think they just let the whole high school, schools let out except the grade school. And a lot of people did that because they needed to help out the...

RP: A lot of... yeah, quite a few folks went out on furloughs. Did you make any visits at all to Twin Falls?

MH: I don't think... you know I really don't think I did. I know my sister, sisters did but I don't think I was ever, went out.

RP: And what did they do in Twin Falls? What were the circumstances of their visits?

MH: You mean when they went out? I think they, they went out and did shopping most of the time buying clothing and that kind of stuff. Because there wasn't too much in our canteen as far as clothing went. And my mother did get a clothing allowance. She worked for sixteen dollars as a dishwasher and then she did get a clothing allowance. And also as younger children, and I guess I was young enough that we used to get, we used to call it oyatsu in Japanese. But it was getting treats in the afternoon. And to this day I can't stand fig bars or those expensive dried apricots. Those were the two things that I remember the most.

RP: Oh, that's just what we have over here for snacks for you. Dried apricots and fig bars.

MH: Fig bars, oh, okay, you can have 'em, you can have 'em all.

RP: I can have have 'em all?

MH: Yeah. I, but those, they did have that for the younger kids.

RP: And can you spell the term that you used, yohatsu?

MH: Oyatsu.

RP: Oyatsu.

MH: Yeah. O-Y-A-T-S-U.

RP: Okay, thank you.

MH: Uh-huh.

RP: I've never heard that term before. So that's the like, the afternoon snacks.

MH: Right. Yeah, there were some Japanese words that are really, really much more fitting. My kids grew up with the word daiji, instead of saying no to them, something they shouldn't touch or whatever we'd always say daiji, daiji. So we never said the word no to them.

RP: Oh that's interesting.

MH: And they knew daiji meant they couldn't touch it, okay. And the other one was abunai, abunai. So if you climb the tree, watch out. And we couldn't... I'd never say no you couldn't climb it or whatever. We just said abunai and they knew it was dangerous. Yeah, so there are some words that were much more easier to use than English words. Right.

RP: Right.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.