<Begin Segment 13>

RP: The second summer you were here you had another type of job at the motor pool. You worked under Nancy Zishank who was a camp escort?

ES: Yes.

RP: Tell us about that.

ES: Well, one of the trips that I went on was to take a group of men in a van to Barstow so they could catch the train there to visit some of their friends or relatives in the camps there in Arizona. Then another trip was a station wagon group that I took to Reno so they could relocate to Chicago or Cleveland or Kansas City.

RP: The trip that you took to Barstow, what type of vehicle did you --

ES: That was a van. No... just bench seats in it and no windows. And then we had a flat tire just this side of Olancha. So the men got out and thank heavens we had a spare. So we changed the tired and we went onto Barstow.

RP: You saw that they all got on the train and off they went.

ES: Yes.

RP: Do you remember wearing a badge during that trip that identified you as an escort?

ES: I don't remember.

RP: Did you stop along the way anywhere for lunch?

ES: You know I can't remember that either. All I know it was hot out there changing that tire.

RP: Other than Martha were there any other teachers that you, you know, struck up an instant friendship with or felt close to?

ES: Yes, Anita Christiansen who married one of the MPs next door, she taught... she was the art teacher. And another one was Burmay Rude who married the pilot teacher across the road. They were my closest friends, there was Margaret and Martha, Burmay, Anita, they were my closest friends here.

RP: Do you recall a teacher by the name of Louie Frizzell?

ES: Yes, he was the music teacher. And he left to perform in Oklahoma and Broadway. That's what I'd heard anyway.

RP: Do you remember... what do you remember about him here at Manzanar?

ES: Well, he went around a lot with Clyde who was blind. They were friendly, and Janet Goldberg, I think her name was, the three of them were very friendly. I liked them all but they weren't in our group.

RP: Did you have any contact with any of the military police socially or professionally?

ES: Socially, yes.

RP: I know you were engaged but did you --

ES: I was engaged but still... you always look around and see who's the best. [Laughs]

RP: So did you, where did you go with some of these guys? Did you go on dates and where did you go?

ES: Well, you wouldn't call them dates. We'd walk down the road and back. I was going around too with one of the workers over at the airport. All I can remember is that he got a jeep and I think he had too much to drink and we ended up in the Alabama Hills off, he hadn't made the turn and we went right out into the sagebrush in the jeep. I think that was about the last time I dated him. There was a nice one that I used to take a lot of walks with out there, Ernie, I think his name was. And he was a lumberjack, had been in northern California. Gosh, he must have been about six foot three and must have weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, he was big. He was very, very nice. And I often wondered if he... in fact I think I even invited him to my wedding. He couldn't come, he was the MPs, but now Anita Christiansen, she married an MP and he went down in a troop ship going over to England. They'd only been married maybe a year if even that long. She never married again.

RP: Did she marry him here?

ES: I don't know that she married him here or she married him in Long Beach. She was from Long Beach.

RP: On some of these visits with the MPs would they talk about what their experience was like here?

ES: No, it was more about experience as a lumberjack.

RP: How about Genevieve Carter, the superintendent of schools, did you have much contact with her?

ES: No, I had very little contact with her.

RP: The high school principal, do you remember?

ES: Mr. -- was that Mr. High or... I know there was a principal for the elementary schools and one for the high school. I never had much contact with the principal of the high school. My main contact was with Elizabeth Moxley.

RP: Did you get a chance to walk around the camp and see various areas of the camp?

ES: While I was here?

RP: A hospital, you mentioned you had an experience at the hospital.

ES: No, we would take walks and I went to the Catholic church there. I noticed the sign there today for it when we drove around the camp.

RP: Did you go on a regular basis?

ES: Yes, Sundays.

RP: Elaine, you said you had an experience at the hospital, the Manzanar hospital.

ES: Oh, they thought maybe I had appendicitis, I think I was in there a couple of days, that was it. Although I knew one of the nurses very well, Jo Haas, and she was a close friend with Elizabeth Moxley. The two of them did a lot of things together.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright &copy; 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.