Densho Digital Archive - Alfred Miyagishima Interview (denshovh-malfred-01-0007)

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TI: I want to talk about your childhood memories of Nebraska, and were there any things that sort of stand out in terms of, you mentioned playing a lot. What kind of games or what kind of playing did you do?

AM: Well, we used to, as a young boy, I remember there were some men that, lot of bachelor men that ended up in Scottsbluff, and lot of 'em used to work at the cafe. And there also was a gambling group -- actually it was only two, two men that... that would be an interesting history, because I remember in the back room they used to have a place called the club. And the place where my dad's grocery store was, they had some apartments downstairs, they had some rooms upstairs, they had an area in the back that had a couple bedrooms and a big area which they called the club. And the, lot of the single men used to hang out there and play hana, or they would play go, and on given nights, why, they would play hana for money. And I know Nishi-san and Watanabe-san used to be the ones that had the games. They also had roulette tables in the back, and they never brought those out, but I do know that one time I was back there peeking around and I saw some roulette tables. So somebody told me that years and years ago, they used to go to these railroad camps with their equipment, chuck-a-luck, I guess, roulette, some other games, and they would travel from camp to camp and set up a gambling thing, and that's how they made their money. Eventually they ended up in Scottsbluff. But going back to my childhood, they used to go fishing, every two or three weeks they --

TI: I'm sorry, before we go there, the club is really interesting to me. So these two men, when they weren't running the club, were they doing other things, or was it enough for them...

AM: No, they just ran the club.

TI: They just ran the club. And when you say "bachelor men," about how many are you talking about? Dozens?

AM: Maybe fifteen or twenty.

TI: And so they were probably, you said they worked a lot at the restaurant, but they probably worked elsewhere? Were they farmhands, too, things like that?

AM: None of 'em, some of 'em used to work on the farms, and they used to be like the hired men. But in the wintertime, they'd come back into town and they'd spend their time there. They'd cook there and everything, just like you're familiar with the Chinese tongs? Similar. Where the tongs have a club, you know, and they serve food, somebody cooks, they all eat, they all play paique or shigo or whatever. And it was similar to that except not on the big scale that the Chinese tongs had. This is just a very small minor thing.

TI: So when I'm, when I interview people in places on the West Coast cities, so I hear similar stories where they have these sort of gambling places, usually in the basement, and usually there's also lots of drinking. Is that, did you see alcohol and drinking and things like that?

AM: I never saw that.

TI: Never saw that? The other thing that sometimes people talk about are, is prostitution. Was that something that you saw or were aware of? Was that happening in these towns?

AM: Never saw any women in there.

TI: Interesting. Yeah, I was just curious because --

AM: That was a rarity. I don't, I just remember every once in a while they would have, play hana, and there was certain farmers that used to like to come in and play hana. Of course, there was always money out there, and I never learned how to play that, but they would come and, but it wasn't a regular, regular thing. Yeah, they would come in and they would play and they never hung out there, it wasn't on a regular basis or anything, but I remember seeing 'em in there.

TI: Now, would people like your father, would they ever go down there and maybe play also?

AM: I never seen him in there. It's just part of the daily things, I guess. It wasn't, I don't ever remember seeing any kind of problems down there. No arguments, and I used to hang in there.

TI: And so if your, if your mother had found out that you were hanging around there, would she be upset, or was it not a big deal?

AM: No, there was nothing there to get really upset about. And they would play cards and stuff, and I don't, I imagine there was money exchanged but I never remember seeing any. And I remember even falling asleep in there lots of times. I used to talk to some of the old men there, just talk about regular things. They used to take me fishing, and that's where I kind of got stuck on it.

TI: Yeah, so go ahead and tell me about the fishing.

AM: Well, that's where it started from, you know. And then, of course, all the spin offs of, "How did you learn how to go fishing with these old men? What did the old men do?' They used to go trout fishing a lot, and I remember they used to go to certain places and they showed me how to clean the fish and how to keep it fresh, and how to rig up a line and all that kind of stuff. Of course, in those days, most of the fishing was with worms or something like that, minnows, worms, some live bait.