<Begin Segment 6>

SG: Any other memories of playing basketball and baseball?

GA: Well, we sure used to have fun. There used to be a girl's league also. And at the end of the season, we'd have, we would have a dance together and we had lots of fun in those days.

SG: This is, the dances were in Portland?

GA: In Portland, yes.

SG: Do you remember about how many people would come to the dances?

GA: Oh, gosh, I'm just guessing, 100, 150, something like that, not too many. But we would rent places like Neighbors of Wood Craft Hall. It's still there. I think we even rented 50th Hall once or twice. I don't remember much more about basketball. Here again, I think I mentioned that we used to go to Seattle to play tournaments, basketball tournaments. We used to have a lot of fun in those days, made lots of friends.

SG: And you mentioned you enjoyed meeting the pretty girls?

GA: Yes, yes. Yeah, I used to have a girlfriend in Seattle, but nothing became of it.

SG: Were there dances up in Seattle also?

GA: Yes, yes. The dances in Seattle, we enjoyed going to them and meeting the new girls and friends in Seattle. And Seattle didn't seem that far to us in those days even with the slower cars and the bad highways. There were only two lane highways in those days as you know. I think it took around four hours to go, drive to Seattle in those days.

SG: What were the dances like?

GA: There was no drinking, so I don't remember any fights. We always had a very congenial group going to the dances, lots of fun, and that was a place where we met new girls and new friends. I miss those days.

SG: What kind of music did you listen to?

GA: Glenn Miller. Boy, I can't remember some of those names now, but music of the '40s I think you'd call them.

SG: So you had live bands play at the dances?

GA: Oh, yeah, yeah. I wish I can remember some of the names of those bands, but I don't.

SG: Were there Japanese bands?

GA: No, no, all Caucasians.

SG: It sounds like fun.

GA: Oh, yeah. I wish I could remember some of the things we did, but as you know after the war, we couldn't do any of those things; that is, everything stopped in 1941.

SG: And how old were you in 1941?

GA: I was twenty-two, I guess, yeah, twenty-two, 1918, so twenty-two.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.