<Begin Segment 9>

RP: This is a continuation of an oral history with Elaine Stanley and this is tape two and, Elaine, we were talking about some of the sports that you taught at Manzanar. The other sport that you taught was volleyball?

ES: Volleyball, yes.

RP: And I was just curious what were the girls required to wear shorts or uniforms for PE here?

ES: I believe they had black shorts and white blouses. I think that picture that you showed of the group with me in the middle there, I think they all had --

Off camera: The girls athletic association. This one, I think they all have kind of lightest shorts or tannish shorts and white shirts, lots of white.

RP: You're actually in this picture.

ES: Yes.

RP: I'm going to ask you to hold that up for us and Kirk is going to scan in on that. Is that a good angle for you?

KP: Which picture?

RP: It's the GAA picture up here.

KP: I can do that.

RP: And she's right there.

KP: Hold on a second. And can you point that out again?

RP: And, Elaine, can you recall is this is a whole group of girls that were associated with the girls athletics association.

ES: Yes.

RP: Officers and --

ES: I don't know what the picture says it was, whether it was the athletic association group...

Off camera: Yeah, it had GAA.

RP: GAA. So were you involved in setting that organization up?

ES: Yes, I believe I was. I don't know whether my supervisor was the one really responsible for it. There's so many things I've forgotten.

RP: You talked about what the girls wore for their PE uniforms. How about yourself? Did you traditionally wear shorts?

ES: Usually I wore shorts except during the winter when I'd wear my ski pants to keep warm. It would get pretty cold out there in the firebreak and pretty hot in the summer.

RP: Right, tell us how the weather affected the athletic activities.

ES: Well, if we just couldn't be outside then we were in our barracks room and I always had a health class too.

RP: So on days when you couldn't be out playing, you would be teaching health?

ES: Yes, or we might have a... I would always give an exam on health or on basketball rules or volleyball rules or one of the sports.

RP: So did you organize teams, volleyball and some of the other sports?

ES: Yes, we had teams and I believe different classes would play against each other sometimes.

RP: In reading this book there was mention of some of the all star teams around the volleyball league and I'm just going to throw out some of these names to you and see if they ring any bells. Bombers, Huskies, Wheaties, Soccerettes, Pushovers and Netsters.

ES: I wonder why Soccerettes when we didn't have soccer.

RP: And according to this book the Wheaties came out as the undefeated team in volleyball league.

ES: Oh, was that among the girls?

RP: Amongst the girls. Basketball you said was your favorite sport you liked to teach and at the time that you were teaching it you were describing to us earlier how the different types of courts and things like that. What was it like here at Manzanar? How did you teach it?

ES: We had the two courts where the guards stayed in the one court and the forwards in the other court.

RP: And do you know where you played basketball? Where were the hoops located?

ES: It was on the firebreaks someplace, that was for sure. Everything was on the fire break outside.

RP: Was it... this auditorium was built in a firebreak.

ES: Yes, it was supposed to have been finished while I was still here but it wasn't finished until after I left. So I don't know which month it was finished. Do you remember or does it say any place? It must have been the end of '44.

RP: Maybe the end of the summer of '44, maybe shortly after you left.

ES: Yeah, because I think '45 they had the graduation here. But the graduation wasn't in this building in '44. In fact I don't know where they had the graduation.

RP: So you never had any involvement with sports inside the building?

ES: No, that would have been nice.

RP: Going back to basketball what were some of the fundamentals of the game that you tried to instill in the girls?

ES: I was trying to teach them techniques, how to dribble, how to pass, how to shoot, how to pivot, how to run.

RP: And during games that you had, who would officiate the games?

ES: Well, I think I mostly officiated the games.

RP: With a whistle?

ES: With a whistle. I had my whistle for years. In fact I think I just got rid of it when I moved from Big Bear to --

Off camera: No, I have it.

ES: Oh, you have my whistle?

RP: Still have the whistle.

Off camera: Yeah, it's at my house.

ES: [Laughs] It's still in existence then.

RP: That's great, well maybe next time you can bring it up with you and you could demonstrate.

Off camera: It's a good whistle, it's an excellent whistle.

RP: You must have gave it some quite a bit of use.

Off camera: It's a safety for hunting. It's a good whistle.

RP: So it served dual purposes.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright &copy; 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.