<Begin Segment 6>

RP: Now, did you, as a kid growing up in Seattle area, did you fish yourself or did you go out with your dad on occasions to the beach?

VI: Well, you know, Seattle is a seaport town, so you have the waterfront. And along the waterfront you had all these fish houses that the boats brought fish in. And, of course, they'll throw the heads and stuff right into the water at that time. So we used to go, as kids, we used to go down there and fish. But what we used to do was take one of these barrels and take the barrel stays, and they were made of bamboo. And we'd get a gunny sack, and we'd make a little net out of it. Then we'd go to the fish house, and we'd get the salmon heads, 'cause they'll throw 'em away, and we'd tie it down there, and we'd go along the side of the dock and the side of the piling. We'd lower it down and leave it for a while, and then the shrimps would come. So we'd sit there and we'd slowly pull it up until we'd get to the top, and then we'd go fast, so we'd catch shrimps. And if we got about a pound or two, we'd take it, and we'd go to the fish house where they reel it, and we'd sell it for a nickel a pound. We'd take the nickel, go up town, and we'd get our hamburgers for a nickel. So we used to spend the summertime going down shrimping. And we used to go to a hamburger, hamburger place, everybody in Seattle knows about it. They make a little chili burger, but it's the greasiest thing you can get. And, you know, at that time we didn't worry about grease or fat or all that, the more grease you had the better it was. You'd take that with chili on it for a nickel, oh, you couldn't beat it. [Laughs]

RP: You'd go down and shrimp with your friends or with your dad or who?

VI: No, with our friends. Yeah. Two or three of us would go down there, and we'd lay about four or five nets down there. Meanwhile, we'd sit there and fish. So...

RP: What else would you catch?

VI: Oh, we'd catch little shiners which looks like little perches, or we caught rock cod. The, I have to tell you a story about fishing, this is about my kids. My oldest son had a birthday party, and he had about ten of his friends at the birthday party. So I made him a little fishing line with a pole on it, and I took him down to Main Fish which is on the waterfront, to let them catch these little pokies or shiners, and they were just biting like mad. And the reason why they were there is that the sewage from the city right into the thing so the fish would congregate there so you couldn't miss catching fish. [Laughs] Of course, I don't know if we ate it or not, but at that time we didn't think anything about the pollution or all that, so...

RP: It was just catching fish.

VI: And the kids had a ball 'cause they'd catch little fish.

RP: That was their first experience.

VI: Right.

RP: You want to catch a fish.

VI: Yeah. Living on the waterfront, you know, it's -- you have many, many good experiences.

RP: So how far were you from the waterfront?

VI: Oh, we were, let's see, we were on Seventh Avenue so we were about eight blocks down the hill to the waterfront, eight, nine.

RP: Is this where the motel was that your, that your folks rented?

VI: No, the hotel was at the top of the hill.

RP: Okay, this is another location then?

VI: This is as we walked down the hill.

RP: Walked down the hill to the waterfront.

VI: To the waterfront. In fact, they got the saying or slang "skid road," and that's where they got it. They slid the poles down the hill to the sawmill down there, so that's where they got the name "skid row." So we used to go down, and then at that time there were a lot of fish houses down by the waterfront. Now you go down there, and it's all the, built up, but with the businesses and the hotel, you have the Edgewater there, and you have the Aquarium, and you've got the... oh, the Pier 1s and Ivar's and the restaurants, so it's really different.

RP: Different town.

VI: Yeah.

RP: Different waterfront.

VI: Right. And then usually underneath the piers they'd have planks so that people could service the docks. And as kids, we used to go down there and go around the planks. Once in a while we'd fall in, but we knew enough to swim so that they would always have a ladder someplace around there, you know. So we spent a lot of time. Now, if my kids did that I'd be worried sick, you know. [Laughs]

RP: Right. But you had the, you had the freedom --

VI: Right.

RP: -- to roam around and to do what you want?

VI: Yeah. And I don't think we ever told our parents, you know... yeah.

RP: Yeah, you don't want to let them know what you're doing.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2007 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.