<Begin Segment 10>

RP: And you brought... by now, you had your model airplanes, did you bring some of those airplanes to Manzanar?

TI: No, I didn't bring any of them. I ordered them through the mail. This fellow and I was doing...

RP: Uh-huh.

TI: ...(model) shop on Pico. So he would send them to me, and he gave us a good price on 'em, which we passed on to the kids in the camp. Because nobody had money, so we'd sell 'em and stuff at our cost, so they'd have something to do. And it turned out to be a pretty good thing.

RP: And you decided to set up this club, too.

TI: Yeah, so we set up a club called Manzanar Wingnuts. We even had some t-shirts made with "Manzanar Wingnuts" across, great big "Wingnuts." I've still got pictures of myself wearing 'em. And I wish I kept the t-shirts, but I didn't. But anyway, that's how we got that club name.

RP: A "wingnut" was another term for an airplane mechanic?

TI: Yeah, yeah, right.

KP: It's also a double entendre. There is a wing nut that you actually, a bolt, a nut.

TI: Yeah, there was a nut there.

RP: Right.

KP: And can I ask a question about the Wingnuts? Did you, I mean, how did you actually start... did you get model airplanes for yourself mainly and saw the kids were really interested? Or was it the idea that... was that how it worked?

TI: Well, I'd got in contact with this fellow that had this model shop on Pico. And naturally, he liked me, so he sent me all kinds of... then he'd, whatever it was, he'd give me a pretty good deal. So then we started buying 'em for the kids that wanted 'em. Sort of started up a little shop in a way. My wife used to take care of the stuff while I was gone, working up in the mountains. But it turned out to be a good hobby.

RP: You had a, you acquired a gasoline-powered plane.

TI: Yeah.

RP: Did you make that in camp?

TI: Yeah. I bought the model from down here, fired it up, it went all right. We stole the gasoline from you know where. [Laughs]

RP: And where would you, where did you fly the plane? Out towards the edges of the camp?

TI: We flew 'em in the --

RP: Firebreak?

TI: Firebreak. There was quite a bit of room. And occasionally some would fly out, but what you call it, the guards would let us go out and get 'em. So it was okay.

KP: How did they do in the wind?

TI: Well, on a windy day, we didn't fly.

RP: Grounded. [Laughs]

TI: Yeah, they're grounded.

RP: There was a few windy days, wasn't there?

TI: Few? Lots of wind.

KP: So one other question about your gas plane, was it a free flight gas plane, or was it...

TI: Yeah, it's a free flight one. But you only put in just enough gasoline so it'd only go just a little ways, make sure it don't go out.

KP: With an 049 engine, do you remember?

TI: You know, I don't even recall what it was.

KP: It looks like it.

RP: So you would have regular meetings, get-togethers with, with your club members?

TI: Oh, yeah. Saturdays and Sundays. It was out in the wide open.

RP: Tom, did you ever hike up to the, to the base of the mountains there, take any walks from the reservoir up there?

TI: I did one time, but that's quite a ways up there. And if you ride a car up, that's something else. But to walk up there is something else.

RP: Even from the reservoir.

TI: Yeah.

RP: Now, did you have access to a vehicle, is that how you got up to the reservoir and back every day?

TI: Well, yeah. The guard went with us, but he was an old man. We could have overpowered him if we wanted. He was a guy, possibly eighty years old, and he was a guard.

RP: So he would just escort you up there?

TI: And ride back with us.

RP: Ride back with you?

TI: Yeah. He was a nice guy.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.