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RP: Tell us about your mother, what you remember most about her and what did you...

RD: Well, my mother, she was a very loving person and she always worked hard all her life. She gave us kids whatever she could. And she never had much, but I know what saved our butt is when Roosevelt got elected President and they come out with the WPA. And then my mother had a steady job from then on, and that saved a lot of people's lives back then back in '32 when he got elected.

RP: What did she do?

RD: She worked, she worked in a laundry for quite a few years and then she worked in a butter factory there. But when she retired, she retired from a laundry, working in a laundry.

RP: What was the WPA job that she got?

RD: Well, she worked around the houses doing housework and stuff like that. It kept her busy doing things, cleaning houses, stuff like that. Part of my childhood, I don't know, it's pretty hard to remember it, I just remember, like my brother and I, we never seemed to get along too good. He was always running around with his group, and he was, when he was sixteen, he was coming up to Corning here, driving. He got mixed, got friends with Goldbergs out there on Fillmore Street when they had a lot of chicken... well, what do you call 'em, where they brought down there and butchered 'em and everything else, you know. He used to drive up here to Corning and pick up chickens and stuff. My mother always kept me on a tight leash.

RP: So was sports a big part of your life growing up?

RD: Pardon?

RP: Sports?

RD: I don't understand the question.

RP: Was sports a big part of your life? Sports. Baseball...

RD: Oh, yeah, yeah, sports. Oh, sports, yeah. Yeah, I played, I didn't get to do much in high school because I got off, I got out of high school about two-thirty and went to work at three o'clock. I didn't play any sports in high school, but I used to play softball whenever I got a chance, and in school I played basketball and softball. I did pretty good at that.

RP: You were kind of a, pretty tall guy at that time, weren't you?

RD: Yeah, I was... well, I was, at that time, like I said, when I went in the service, I was 6'1-1/2". And I was over 6'3" when I got out. See, I had, I was inducted on... did you want that part?

RP: We're gonna get there. Tell us a little bit more about this job that you got at the shipyard working in the, working on ships.

RD: Yeah.

RP: Age sixteen, how did you get the job?

RD: Well, I just, they needed workers. And then we're out there and I worked, I worked for my dad. And don't ask me what I did because I didn't have nothing to do. [Laughs] I slept most of the time, I guess, 'cause they sent me, I didn't have much to do. I'd haul nuts and bolts around to different people or something, run over to my brother's place, screw around there a little bit, and come back here and take a nap someplace. There wasn't very much for me to do, and I don't know how long I worked there, probably six weeks, a couple months or so, my mother and I worked the night shift. We used to take the ferry over to Richmond and worked the shipyards.

RP: That's where you worked?

RD: Yeah, uh-huh. I usually had, what... Saturdays, Fridays and Saturdays, went back to work on Sunday night, I guess, something like that. Fridays and Saturdays off. So as far as my job there, I didn't have very much to do. I can remember I went in there and told 'em I was quitting at that time as far as the job, and they told me I couldn't quit, so I showed 'em my draft notice and they changed their mind there. [Laughs]

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.