<Begin Segment 6>

RP: You had just one sibling, your brother?

PF: Yes.

RP: And what was his name?

PF: Myrlin, or, we called him Myrlin. His name is Frank Myrlin. And everybody who grew up with him and knows him from then calls him Myrlin. Now, when he went into the service he had to take his first name. So everybody that knows him from then on knows him as Frank.

RP: At the time I believe he's several years younger than you?

PF: He's eighteen months younger.

RP: And at that time there was no hospital in Bishop.

PF: No.

RP: So where were babies like Frank delivered?

PF: He was born at home. Oh, and he, Nancy Boon was the nurse or what did, what did we decide that we'll call... midwife. She was the midwife that came to help my mother. And my grandmother was there. My grandmother came out from Kansas and she stayed with my mother and helped take care of me. And so he was born right there at 324 May Street.

RP: One other story that you shared with me about the house is that it actually played a part in a movie.

PF: Oh, yeah. It was like a thirty-minute movie, I believe, Mule Days. No, Death Valley Days was the name of it. And they had a mule that they, in this particular movie, they brought it into our house. They had to put plywood down on the floor so they could bring that mule into the house and then for some part of the movie it had to come back out. And so they brought it, or it came out by itself, I think. And it was very well-mannered mule. It came out the front door and down the steps. And I believe I was thinking that it was Ronald Reagan that was the emcee at that time. I could be wrong, but it seems like he was. (...) Ken Curtis was in that movie with the mule. And the mule may have been his. (...)

RP: And where did you go to school in Bishop?

PF: I went to Bishop Elementary School, there on Line Street. And at one time I had a classroom that was over the firehouse. I can't remember if that was sixth grade or... anyway, I remember the siren when they had a fire and it was a volunteer fire department so it had to have the siren to get everybody to know there was a fire. (...) I graduated from the eighth grade there and then I went to Bishop Union High School.

RP: You mentioned the fire department.

PF: Uh-huh.

RP: You said that your father worked as a volunteer fireman?

PF: No, no, he was on the fire truck for the city of L.A. And, and why he was just the city of L.A. fire truck, maybe it was just for their property? Because that maybe wasn't considered Bishop fire department, their property. (...)

RP: There was a, a memorable fire that you shared with me when we talked.

PF: Yes, it was out off of Line Street somewhere. And there was an old, whether there was a shack there or not I don't know. (But) anyway, there was a bum that maybe was living in the shack to get out of the weather, anyway, and it caught fire. And by the time my mother went out there I guess maybe to take my dad some food because it seemed to be a pretty lengthy fire, hard to put out. There was this old man ringed in fire. And he put his hand out for her to help him and the ring of fire was too wide and she couldn't help him. And so he ended up in the Redwood Hospital, which was just down the street from us on Home Street. And it was called Redwood Hospital because at one time it was Redwood. And I remember you could hear him screaming. They put him in a tub with cool water or something to try to ease the pain, and he passed away. That (was) one of the saddest parts of my dad's job I think.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.