Densho Digital Archive - Phyllis Fechner Interview (denshovh-fphyllis-01-0009)

<Begin Segment 9>

RP: You also, your father, when the camp was closing down and they were dismantling the camp, you had another, another Manzanar experience through the --

PF: Uh-huh.

RP: -- through your father. Tell us about that.

PF: Well, I was a newlywed. As a matter of fact, I was a new mother. I had a baby son and my dad went down. My ex-husband and I lived at Rovana in one of their apartments. And we didn't have any furniture so my dad went down to Manzanar with his little four-by-eight trailer and bought a kitchen table and four chairs, a bed... a bed, a dresser, and a high boy -- a chest of drawers -- and that chair. [Laughs] That chair, and I have recovered it since. And he bought two more same chair, type of chair, for them and two chest of drawers for them, and I think that was about all he could get in that little trailer. He hauled it all. He got it for forty dollars. Hauled it all back in that little trailer.

RP: He built that trailer.

PF: Yes, he built the trailer in 1934 on a Model A axle. And it had wooden sides that you could take off, stake side. And front and back, the whole thing came off so it was like a flatbed trailer my son has it now. One of my, one of our sons. Says it's still goin'.

[Interruption]

RP: This is tape two of a continuing interview with Phyllis Fechner. And Phyllis, we were just talking about some of your Manzanar connections. Specifically your father going down and purchasing a lot of furniture for you. Kind of setting you up in housekeeping in Rovana.

PF: Uh-huh.

RP: Do you have any idea at all where, where the furniture came from in the camp?

PF: Yes, it was from the officers quarters. And it all had numbers on it. and they're... oh, (Dad also bought) two twin beds and two night stands. I have one of the night stands and the twin beds are gone. And they had the numbers on there. 3206 or something like that was on one of them. And my mother had them when she was in the convalescent hospital in Yerington. And when she moved back to Bishop from there I donated that bed, her twin bed and the chest of drawers and the night stand to one of the girls that helped her so much, and it was for her son when I went back and asked her about it she said that she got it and that her son was wondering what those numbers were for. And I said, "Well, they were from the officers' quarters at the internment camp at Manzanar, and they were their numbers." And I don't know whether each building had a number or what, but every piece had a number on it. I don't remember one on that chair. I think I refinished it anyway. But the chest of drawers and her bed, (...) on the foot of the bed was the number. It was interesting.

RP: How was the quality of the furniture, do you recall?

PF: It was birdseye maple, or it's maple. It's very good. Good quality, tongue and groove. It was put together, it was nice furniture for officers. It wasn't for the people in Quonset, in the huts or whatever you call 'em. It wasn't for the prisoners. And it was very good quality. (...)

RP: Do you, do you know of anybody else other than your father who went down to Manzanar and purchased buildings or furniture or any other items that would have come from the camp?

PF: You know, I'm sure there was, there were people from Bishop. But no, I don't know of any. I wouldn't know who they were. I'm sure there were. Because if he heard about it then there must have been others that did.