Densho Digital Archive - Dorothy Ikkanda Interview (denshovh-idorothy-01-0006)

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RP: Now, there was the pier that you described where your dad worked. There was also another pier just to the north?

DI: There was a Lick Pier, and there was an Aragon Ballroom on Lick Pier. And they had a bingo parlor just east of that, and my dad was a bookkeeper there. And I remember going there and going into his office and talking to him. And then years later, lot of the Nisei fellows from west L.A., used to go down to Lick Pier Ballroom for dance, social dancing, yeah.

RP: Now, bingo was a... one of a, kind of a legal, legal game in those days.

DI: Oh, yeah.

RP: And there were a lot of bingo parlors around.

DI: Oh, yeah. In fact, Bill Harrah, that has Harrah's Club, started in bingo, I think in Redondo Beach or somewhere. I remember the name quite well. Not that I knew him, but I knew the name.

RP: So did you spend a lot of time as a family going down to the beach, or picnics?

DI: Yeah, we walked, (...) we'd pack a lunch. My girlfriend used to love to come to stay over for a few days because she got to go to the beach. 'Cause she lived downtown, and so she looked forward to coming, spending a few days and walking to the beach, 'cause she never got to go.

RP: Do you remember the Red Cars that used to run from Santa Monica to Los Angeles? Did you used to travel that way?

DI: I think occasionally we used to take the bus, I think, up to Rimpau and Pico and then the streetcars, there was a place there. And we got on the streetcar and then went to East First Street, like Little Tokyo or Broadway. Fifth and Broadway, the department stores along there, Broadway, May Company, Bullocks along there. Yeah, I remember going there with my mother. And Grand Central Market downtown, oh, yeah.

RP: That was a pretty exciting trip.

DI: Yeah. [Laughs] It was nice.

RP: So you had this big interest in baseball.

DI: I love sports, I love volleyball.

RP: Volleyball?

DI: Uh-huh.

RP: Were you on teams in high school?

DI: Well, on the weekends, they'd have girl's clubs. Like the Buddhist church here used to have a young group of, I think they had a boy's basketball and baseball and also for the girls. And I remember when we were already married, they allowed me to play with them. So I think I was the old lady, married lady on the basketball team, volleyball team. [Laughs]

RP: And did you have a, did you have a Japanese market nearby your home where you shopped? Where would you go for...

DI: Well, they had, no, I don't think we had a Japanese store. But like the produce markets were basically, the good vegetables were, produce markets were run by the Japanese people. But I don't remember being able to go buy, like, sashimi, fresh fish, I think we'd probably have to come to Sawtelle here.