Densho Digital Archive - Mary Jean Spallino Interview (denshovh-smary

<Begin Segment 13>

RM: Do you remember going to any of the picnic areas or the swimming area in Manzanar?

MS: No.

RM: What about going... you know, the Sierra Nevadas are right there.

MS: Yes, they're so beautiful.

RM: Did you ever go hiking or anything?

MS: I wasn't a hiker. I had gone horseback riding, though.

RM: Oh, where did you go?

MS: Oh, just wandered around outside the camp a little bit. And I also took flying lessons. They had flying schools, that was a good place along that stretch there of 395, and they had a little flying school right across from the gate, the entryway to Manzanar. And so I did take flying lessons, and so when you solo you cut the tail off your shirt, I still have that, and the date. I never flew after that, because, oh, my parents were appalled. And it was a young couple, Pete... can't remember her first name, they were killed in Los Angeles. So the school closed down, so I never flew after that. But I did have that accomplishment that I did solo.

RM: That's incredible.

MS: It is. Really, for me, I look back now and think, my gosh, I can't believe I did it. One of those little planes, the little Aeronca.

RM: So can you tell us about the airport across the highway from Manzanar?

MS: Oh, honey, you couldn't even call it an airport nowadays.

RM: What was it like?

MS: A little pathetic, run by this... they were just a young couple. But I will tell you that the gal who trained me, it wasn't Pete or... Lola was the wife's name. It wasn't either one of them who trained me. They had... Ann, she was in the, what do they call the women's flying group?

RM: Women's flying group?

MS: Yes.

RM: I don't know.

MS: For a very short time. It was the women's, the WAFs? The Women's Air Force...

RM: Oh, you mean in the military.

MS: Yeah, yeah. And Ann was one of those. She was only, she would fly, or she had flown the planes from the West Coast to the east so they could take off for Europe. She wasn't allowed to fly to Europe. I'm not even sure it was part of the air force. But anyway, she was marvelous, she was a little bitty thing, and she was the person who trained me, she was just wonderful. And she flew several... to get the planes to the East Coast.

RM: How did you learn that you could take these flying lessons?

MS: Well, we were free to leave camp, but we knew... I guess we had wandered over there or something. I don't know, I don't even remember how much they charged.

RM: Were there other women who learned how to fly?

MS: Not that I recall, no. But I don't remember any others from where I was, maybe there were others. I don't know how it happened, I guess I wanted to try something.

RM: That's really amazing.

MS: It is. I look back as though I'm looking at somebody else.

RM: Sure.

KL: Where did you go on your solo flight?

RM: Oh, you just fly around.

KL: In the valley?

RM: Yeah. All you do, you have to fly a certain distance, certain lengths of time, a certain altitude. The main thing is if you can get off the ground, if you can land. And mine was not a good landing. But that often is the case.

RM: Well, you're still here, so it was good enough.

MS: I'm here, yeah. And I'm really not adventure... to a degree I am, but to another degree I'm not all that adventurous.