<Begin Segment 4>

RP: And so the school in Kelton was right there in the middle of the town?

KY: Yeah, the school was on our side of the track and it was, actually it was held up by a couple of telephone poles and it was so old and it began to tip and Dad got the crew to put telephone poles up against it to hold it up. But it was a really old thing, the largest class of kids there from first grade to tenth grade, largest one ever was eighteen students. And there were two... three or four students I guess came from the ranch about two miles out. They were kind of an isolated ranching family and they rode horses down from that ranch to go to school.

RP: So what do you remember about going to school there?

KY: Gee, I can remember having class in the teacher's kitchen around a kitchen table and she would be making bread and when the bread was ready we got to eat some of it. [Laughs] But there were only four students in grades one to five. And then the rest of them went in the (schoolhouse) from sixth on up to grade ten were in the main classroom. But there were only about, oh, usually twelve, ten, twelve students in the whole school so it was pretty small.

RP: What did you do for fun?

KY: Gosh, I can't remember. Going out chasing jackrabbits with the wooden spokes out of the car wheels and the older cars had wooden spokes, they didn't have metal. And we'd throw them at the rabbits as we chased them through the brush, we did that. We would take buckets of water out to the greasewood and sagebrush and pour water down the holes, squirrel holes and they'd come out and we'd chase 'em around. I don't think we ever killed any of 'em, just chased them around tried to catch 'em. We'd take a hike out to what we called Table Rock, was a place about three miles west of town. And all the kids would get together and walk to Table Rock and back. We had a sandbox that I played in I remember.

RP: Did you have any encounters with rattlesnakes growing up?

KY: No we didn't, I guess there just weren't any around there, maybe it was too dry, I don't know. Actually I guess even rattlesnakes have to have water but anyway it was really dry. There was a little pond that collected some water when it rained and ran down the trail from Park Valley into and made a little pond. And the rabbits would come around that pond and drink at night and they just lined the bank and our house was maybe half a block from the pond and you could hear 'em at the house when they drank. And occasionally a coyote would come down and chase the rabbits.

RP: So there was a store in town too?

KY: Yeah, there was a store. I can't remember what it sold but there was a store, a general store.

RP: Did you have a car to drive to a larger town?

KY: Yeah, yeah, Dad had a 1928 Essex and we would drive that, he would drive that over the, in those days just all dirt roads to Brigham City which was oh, some fifty, sixty miles away and we'd go there. Ogden was another town, city, the first big city and we'd go as far as Ogden and get whatever things they needed. Mother didn't need much, she made all our clothes I think, she didn't need a pattern but she could make a shirt no problem at all.

RP: How were you accepted by the rest of the families in Kelton? Were you just part of the larger family as a Japanese American family?

KY: We didn't notice any difference. We didn't know there was any difference. Whether or not they felt that way I don't know. They always seemed to respect Dad. Anytime they... I remember they occasionally would come and consult him about something or they would ask for help with something. Everybody was helpful to each other, I don't know that they ever treated Dad any different.

RP: In 1933 you moved? And where did you move to?

KY: We moved to Corinne which was, during those early days was a real hub when the transcontinental railroad was first completed, Corinne was a boom town that had brothels and everything else. [Laughs] It was supposed to (have been some) kind of a terminal for a branch that was going to go into Montana but that didn't materialize and Corinne eventually closed down. That was after the war anyway.

RP: And do you remember your first job, Kan?

KY: My job?

RP: Your first job you worked?

KY: I started working for farmers when I was about nine years old, picking beans and peas and taking care of row crops out on their farms.

RP: Was this in Corinne?

KY: Yeah, but it was just more because that's what I could do, whenever the one farmer would call for some help and us kids said, sure. We had these sons and daughters of the other workers that dad had and there we had a Hispanic family and then an Italian family and three Caucasian (families). There was another old Italian guy, a single guy, but that was... we formed a little nucleus there on the edge of town and this is a railroad, again all connected to the railroad. The housing was furnished by the railroad.

RP: Did your father have a free pass to ride the train?

KY: Ride the train?

RP: Yeah, did he have a free pass? Did the family --

KY: Oh, yeah, yeah.

RP: Did you ride the train as kids?

KY: Yeah, we used to go from Kelton to Corinne and back just for the ride and that was about it. It wasn't used much for transportation.

RP: You said your dad during the Depression went out to fish, to catch some food for the family. Did you also learn how to fish during that time?

KY: Yeah, all us kids learned how to fish, I didn't do too much because I was pretty young at the time. Yeah, my older brothers learned to fish and we would always go to the mountain with Dad and the whole family and spend a Saturday or Sunday up in the mountains.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.