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RP: We were talking about Elizabeth as your immediate supervisor and she was the one who evaluated you. What kind of evaluation did you receive from her for two years?

ES: Well, I guess they had an evaluation once a year for the federal government demanded and mine was a very good for my first year and I know Elizabeth told me that she had given me an 'excellent' and Genevieve Carter said no first year teacher should ever have an 'excellent' so I was given a 'very good' which made me happy.

RP: And then you received another evaluation the second year you were here?

ES: You know, I can't remember the second year I was here. I know I was never rated as anything except a 'very good.'

RP: You never received an 'excellent'?

ES: No.

RP: Okay. One of the interesting activities that you taught here was baton twirling. So tell us a little bit about that.

ES: Oh, yes, I knew nothing about a baton, I'd never even held a baton, and when they told me I was to teach the baton class... and this was a summer activity. That's the first summer that I was here although it continued on through the year but mostly it was to give me something to do for that first summer. And so I was introduced to a young girl called Florence Kuwata and she taught me whatever I was able to learn she taught me. And then there were two outstanding baton twirlers, Kathleen and Cecelia, and I guess I got by anyway teaching them or they teaching me. But it was an interesting group and they performed for different occasions and there was some kind of stage that they had built and they performed on the stage. And they all had costumes. I know Kathleen's mother was very good at making costumes.

RP: And the mothers of those two girls --

ES: Yeah, they were competitors, each one thought their girl was the best.

RP: Can you hold that? So the girl in the middle is Florence?

ES: Florence, yes.

RP: Kuwata and then --

ES: The girl on the left I think is Kathleen and the one on the right was Cecelia.

RP: Great looking uniforms.

ES: Yes, yes. I don't know whether Kathleen's mother made all of those.

RP: Was that the most contact you had with parents?

ES: That was the most contact I had with parents, yes.

RP: Was the two moms of Kathleen and --

ES: Yes, I know Florence now relocated. When they were allowed to relocate she relocated to I thought she relocated to Chicago but I don't know. She was out of high school when I was here, she probably graduated the year before.

RP: So where did you go out to practice baton twirling?

ES: I can't remember, it must have been the firebreak. Everything was done on the firebreak. It wasn't in a room, it was outside. 'Cause those girls would throw up their batons pretty high.

RP: Couple other activities that you got involved with after it was... I think it was the first summer that you were here in August there was a festival.

ES: Oh, the Nisei festival, yeah.

RP: What did you do during that festival?

ES: Well, we were... our group, I don't know just whoever it was, was made candied apples and I can just remember it was a hot August day, we were in a kitchen someplace and these pots of boiling water and sugar and some cinnamon and red coloring, we made red candied apples. I don't know, I guess they sold them at the festival. Anyway, they all disappeared and I forget how many apples we did but I think it was a whole crate of apples.

RP: Do you know if the apples were from Manzanar here? There were quite a few apple trees.

ES: I don't think they were from Manzanar.

RP: Did you get involved in any of the activities that Japanese Americans promoted like that festival?

ES: Well, Margaret Sawedell and myself were asked to teach to a ballroom dancing class and we did that I think a night or two a week. So we got involved with the Japanese young people.

RP: And do you know roughly what age group those folks would've been?

ES: I think they were late teens and early twenties, most of them.

RP: Where did you learn to dance?

ES: Well, I had taken dancing at, mostly at City College when I was there I had several dancing classes, tap dancing and ballroom dancing. And Margaret, she was always the leader, she knew more steps than I did.

RP: So what were some of the ballroom dances that you taught here in the camp?

ES: Well, it was just one or two nights a week that we had it and it was in one of the barracks. I don't know which music we had at that time, radio or phonograph.

RP: How was the response to the class?

ES: Oh, we must have had about twenty, I guess.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright &copy; 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.