<Begin Segment 17>

RP: How much freedom did you have as kids in camp? Some folks say, "You know, we had too much freedom," the family kind of disintegrated a little bit in terms of being close. And I think the most important observation that people have mentioned in that regard is that families didn't eat together in the mess halls, and kids went out and came with their friends. Did you sense a drifting apart of your family? Of course, your dad wasn't there for a year, or did you come closer together?

AF: Well, my mother was by herself with four girls, so nothing but females. We never had that problem, huh?

NN: I believe that my three older sisters, being close in age, had friends and things like that in common. So they were, had a lot of social activities. But myself, being by myself, I wouldn't say that I... I had a few friends around our block, but nothing really as much as they would have, being young.

AF: That's right. Three of us, three older sisters were close in age, one or two years apart. But Nancy was six years down the road.

NN: But I did learn how to jitterbug and sing some of those dance tunes that they were playing.

RP: Well, how about boys? Did you date at all, Kiyo? Did you have any boyfriends in camp? I saw a few pictures of them over there.

AF: Yeah, she used to play in the jazz band and all that. Oh, in fact, there's an ex-jazz bander, trumpet player over here.

NN: She was also one of the princesses when they had -- was that the class? I think it was the class queen.

KT: You could forget that. [Laughs]

NN: But we do have a picture of that, too, where she's one of the princesses.

RP: So what was the attitude towards dating in camp? Did your mom allow that?

AF: I guess so. She didn't, she didn't say anything.

KT: No, I don't remember.

AF: Of course, we weren't the type to go haywire or anything. So she didn't say anything. And my father wasn't there.

NN: Do you think it was more group gatherings?

AF: Yeah, we were, we had --

RP: Kind of a group, watched over each other.

KT: I think our social life had a lot to do with the clubs that we belonged to.

AF: I remember the YMCA got the children together, girls together, and say, "We're going to form an organization." So I remember joining a group, my sister and I joined a group, and Kiyo joined a large older group. And Nancy was too young.

KT: I mean, there isn't anywhere, even if you dated, where would you go? [Laughs]

RP: Merritt Park. [Laughs]

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.