Densho Digital Archive - Helen Mori Interview (denshovh-mhelen

<Begin Segment 12>

RP: Helen, you mentioned about the scorpions. Occasionally they would get up into --

HM: Yeah.

RP: -- into the room and, and they loved to crawl into people's shoes and boots.

HM: There was, there was one near me once but they got it. It didn't sting me or anything like that. But I heard other people in camp where it got into the room. I don't know that it stung 'em, but it did get into the room.

RP: Did you see any other signs of wildlife around the camp?

HM: Snakes. We saw gopher snakes. They were those big ol' things. I don't remember seeing rattlesnakes, not in Manzanar. But maybe there were.

RP: A couple of kids we've talked to mentioned that there used to be a gentleman that had like a, he kept animals in cages almost like a little, a zoo. He had rabbits and...

HM: Not in Manzanar. In Manzanar? I don't know what block. I never saw it. Really?

RP: I think it was rabbits, ground squirrels, some birds...

HM: Really? I wonder whose block that was.

RP: I'm not sure. I'll have to find out.

HM: We were in the middle of camp, 21. So we had the outdoor theater screen, the big ol' screen. They'd show the old movies like with Deanna Durbin, people you never even heard of. They'd show it on this big... and the screen faced Block 21, which was neat. Yeah. That was only in the summer though 'cause winter was too cold.

RP: Right. So, what, would you just kind of scoop out the sand and how would you make a chair out there?

HM: Oh, by then I think we were able to buy the folding chairs at the co-op. You know the kind, the canvas, you just flip it like this and open it and... I think that's what we used. They didn't have seats or--

RP: Benches.

HM: -- benches or I know not that I recall. Or we sat in the sand. 'Cause the screen was huge. That's bigger than our front drape, you know, really big, really big.