Mom
November 27, 1911 ~ April 9, 2000
Family History Amidst the Memory Traces:
Mom was born on November 23, 1911, in Warm Springs, CA, near Fremont in the Bay Area - the story goes that she was born at home, and there was a delay in "registering" the birth so her birth certificate lists her birth date as November 27, 1911, the day she has celebrated all these years....She spent her early childhood in Warm Springs, and later in Atwater, CA....She grew up on a farm, attending Atwater Elementary School, and later graduated from Livingston High School in Livingston, CA... |
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Mom met Dad in the early thirties - as this was an arranged marriage, it had elements of the formal and traditional Japanese culture - Mom said that when she was told this gentleman was coming calling and the reason, she asked her mother "What if I don't like him...?" - to which her mother wisely said "Then we will have a nice afternoon and we will look further..." - so much for formality and tradition....Mom said that she was pretty anxious about the meeting, but found that he was very nice and that she liked him - They were married in Warm Springs on June 27, 1931, and rest is history and tradition... |
At the outset of World War II, our family was interned initially at the Merced County fair grounds - I have a recollection of the horse stalls that were our brief living quarters, but only vaguely - the way memory works, I'm not sure but that these are memory traces of things I was told or heard sometime later....Friends of the family - a local judge, the president of the Bank of America in Atwater, and a prominent farmer in the area - were extremely supportive of our family under the circumstances, and went out of their way to "buy" our family farm for $1.00 with all the appropriately signed deeds - following the end of the war, our family returned to Atwater and the farm was "sold" back to Mom&Dad for $1.00, with all the appropriately signed deeds - because of this support she retained a cherished circle of friends until her death.... |
We went by train to Granada, Colorado, to the "relocation" ("concentration") camp designated "Amache," named after the daughter of an Indian chief from the local area's historic past....Again there are faint memory traces, snatches of visions of "camp" life - sitting in some kind of gathering in the sandy bowl used as a meeting place until the church building was completed - the school bully, Tad, who waited for me after school and made me play marbles because no one else would play with him - the "farmer's market" where a group of us kids stole some tomatoes, and of being caught because there was tomato juice and seeds down my T-shirt front, obvious to all but a novice and naive child "thief" - sitting at my aunt Kimie's feet as she read the Sunday comics to us - being carried wrapped up in a blanket from one building to another because the temperature was somewhere below zero with the snow up to the eves of the buildings - being carried wrapped up in a blanket with my head and eyes covered from one building to another because I had the chickenpox |
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and there was concern for my eyesight - playfully throwing a chunk of coal against the wall of the coal bin at the end of the communal dining hall trying to get it through a hole in the boards, and having it bounce back one time hitting me in the head cutting a gash in my forehead, and all the excitement it caused, not to mention the stern lecture I got - hearing stories of my uncle George, the war hero, fighting the enemy in a far away place called Italy - I remember the blue star hanging in my aunt Kimie's window - memory traces from a childhood adventure "in camp," mostly positive due to the efforts of Mom&Dad from passing along their disappointment, frustrations, and bitterness at being sent there...
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The Kids....There were four of us, sort of the Three Musketeers Plus One - David was born in camp - the "war baby" he was affectionately called - life in Atwater was certainly simple for us as children, and while we were poor, as in not rich, we didn't lack for much of anything - there was always ample food on the table, fruits from the orchard and vegetables from the garden, and chickens, which meant eggs in the morning and southern fried chicken on Sunday - and most important, there was family...
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Family....is everything - it is what sustains in the face of challenges given you by life - and life has always been good, a sentiment and atmosphere set in our home by Mom&Dad - what I feel about family I learned from them, and to me it is priceless....I didn't know or learn anything about the war years and being "in camp" until I was in high school, a testament to Mom&Dad's willingness to swallow their feelings to avoid passing along to us any negativity about our country...
Goodbye, Mom - Thank You so much - and Thank You for so much...
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