<Begin Segment 12>

KP: So the first night you got there was dark at Manzanar and didn't really know where you were. What about the next morning?

GM: Oh, I wrote about that in my memoir. I dragged my brother up, got him out of bed, one of 'em, and I was curious to see where we were, so we, I told him to hurry up and get dressed and we, we went outside and it was still pitch black, but you could see the lights receding down to the highway so I knew we were up higher than, you know. We could see the lights going down. And on the other side it was just a black mass. Nothin' to... and then the searchlights came around every so often, make a sweep. And, and my brother and I, we stood by the mess hall to see what, the sun rise, so as the sky lightened up you could start to see features. There were mountains on the other side and there were mountains on the, the Inyo Mountain on one side and the Sierra Nevada on the other, and they looked kind of massive, huge to me. And as the skies got lighter and lighter you could see the features, see the mountain, the hills and everything, and then the snow, and then the light, the sun started to poke out. But long before that, I would say you could see color, but to the south there was the Alabama Hills and the sun raised over the, it's still behind the hills, but it will catch the crest of the mountains, and we were amazed that where it was white (snow) -- it was still white, but the rest of the, turned purple and red and orange and yellow, and just was amazing. Now, on the other side there was no, no snow, but it was kind of a monotonous mass. And I wrote about that, (...) when we awoke the wind had died down and the stars came out and you could see millions of stars. You never saw that in Ocean Park because the smog down there in Ocean Park usually you had an overcast, like here, you know, in June, so we hardly ever saw stars. But imagine, oh, you could almost touch 'em, so I was really amazed about that. And finally the birds started singing and you couldn't see 'em, but they were there. Every once in a while you'd see one flying by. That was quite an experience and I wrote about it, but I never asked my brother what, how he interpreted.

KP: So your father got you a job and himself a job in the mess hall?

GM: Oh, yes. He had some cooking experience, so he became a cook. But I didn't have any experience, so they put me washing pots and pans. That's what I did all day long, and I got tired of it after about a couple days. I said no, no, I said there's more to this than just washing pots and pans. So this chief, Yama his name was, he was a gaunt guy, tall, skinny, and I used to pester him all the time. He, he didn't like to talk much, and he says, "You got to go where you going. You bother me," kind of thing. But gradually he would tell me, okay, go peel some onions or do this, so that's what I started doing. I'd peel onions and potatoes and, and gradually I start slicing them and so I got to know what ingredients went into what and kinda interesting. Then the head cook or, he was a guy named Eddie Uno, he was the boss there, and he saw that I was really eager beaver, so he says, "Okay, I'll make you an assistant." And gradually from assistant became a junior cook and a cook and then became the head cook. Same time my father became the head, head of the kitchen, so it was kind of interesting.

KP: So as... a couple of terms come up, you talk about "swampers."

GM: Yeah.

KP: What was the job of a swamper?

GM: Swampers are those guys that came around delivering things on these trucks. It was a flatbed truck, no stakes or anything and they had all these food and piles of onions and crates of vegetables.

KP: And where did those, where were they delivered to?

GM: To the back, there was like a little stairs there in the back of the... yeah. [Points to picture] This would be the back of the mess hall.

KP: And the kitchen's on the other side, and that's kind of a...

GM: Yeah, the kitchen is right over here in this area, and then there was a refrigerator here and a pantry on this side, so they'd back the truck here and they, and there was a table right behind, behind here. They'd throw everything in there. Well, the vegetable they put on the floor here, but the, like side of beef, that's what they'd bring. They'd dump right on the table

KP: And where, where were the dishes being washed?

GM: The dishes would be on the other side of the pantry. See this thing had the length and along the wall here they had the sinks.

KP: And the hot water heater was on there.

GM: Yeah.

KP: Okay. How often would the swampers come and deliver food?

GM: Oh, sometimes two, three days, every two, three days.

KP: And so a lot of it had to be refrigerated to make it keep?

GM: Oh, yeah. Yeah. We had a walk-in refrigerator.

KP: Oh, did you? Okay. Looks like folks doing dishes there. Does that look kind of like the way yours was laid out?

GM: No. Ours was never organized.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.