Densho Digital Archive - Margaret Stanicci Interview (denshovh-smargaret-01-0003)

<Begin Segment 3>

RP: Let's talk a little bit about your other siblings. You mentioned you had a, an older sister who was born in 1911?

MS: Yes.

RP: That was, that was the oldest.

MS: That's the oldest, yes.

RP: What was her name?

MS: Florence.

RP: Florence.

MS: Florence.

RP: And was she, where was she born? Was she born in Inglewood or La Crescenta?

MS: Oh no, no. It must have been Inglewood. Yes. I remember seeing a picture of her. Very cute little picture about, she was probably about maybe, close to three years old. And I remember my father said that she was trying to be helpful, and saw that he had been picking weeds, and so she was gonna help him pick weeds. And so she went, but unfortunately she picked plants. And it was very difficult, but my father wasn't able to really get mad at her because obviously she was helping him. But it meant that days of his work had been destroyed. And, yes, she...

RP: There was a seven year gap between...

MS: No, then we had Mary, my next sister, who later became a nurse.

RP: And she was born...

MS: A couple years later, so...

RP: A couple years later than Mary?

MS: Yeah. And then another brother who is a couple years later than that. Let's see, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen... and then another brother, and then I was born. So I don't know, they...

RP: Who are the, what are the names of the two other brothers?

MS: Frank was the oldest.

RP: Frank?

MS: And then Philip.

RP: Philip.

MS: And both Frank and Philip were in the army.

RP: During World War II?

MS: During the war, yes, before we were sent to camp.

RP: Oh, they were...

MS: They had already been in.

RP: They had already been in.

MS: One had volunteered and the other was drafted very early.

RP: So there was Florence, Mary, Frank, Philip, and then...

MS: And then me. And then one younger brother, Paul.

RP: Paul.

MS: Paul actually came up to help build some of the, some of the barracks.

RP: Oh, he was one of the volunteers?

MS: Yes, he was in that volunteer group.

RP: The volunteer group.

MS: And one reason was because you could take your own car. And because you can take your own car he thought, oh, he could take a lot more than in one duffel bag or suitcase or something. And so he decided to volunteer and he piled a lot of things in the car and left.

RP: Do you remember some of the things he took?

MS: Yeah, whatever he felt.

RP: Do you remember some of the things that he piled in the car, Margaret?

MS: You know, I don't. And if I had known, I would have asked him. You know, if I had known. But I'm trying to remember whether I asked him to take my carving tools and a roll of tooling copper which I had. Because they were kind of important for me at that time, 'cause I had been doing it. But he might have brought them, because I had them.

RP: Who were you closest to of all your brothers and sisters?

MS: You know, I really wasn't very close to any of them because as we were growing up, of course Florence and Mary would be paired together since they were older. And then Frank and Phil were boys, and they wanted nothing to do with...

RP: Girls.

MS: Girls. And so I was, yeah, I was kind of alone there, and then my younger brother. And since I had to help take care of my younger brother why, I guess maybe we were the closest. Yes.