Life In Camp

In San Anita, there was no school and my grandfather was too young to work, so all my grandfather did was play. He played fast pitch softball, football, and ping-pong. He became very good at fast pitch softball because that was pretty much all that they did. After 6 months in San Anita, the San Diego group of which my grandfather was a part was moved to a camp in Poston, AZ. They were given advice to buy boots before they moved because of the dust in Poston. The weather was hot, the dust was thick and was constantly stirred up in the peoples' faces.

The Poston camp was divided into three sections with firebreaks dividing them. The San Diego group was in Section Three. The barracks that they lived in had tarpaper walls. The recreation hall was two barracks attached together. Unfortunately the recreation hall was empty.

In Poston, they had a school. It was taught by educated Japanese and some white volunteers. My grandfather went to this school for 2 years and graduated as a junior. He and others in his class got their certificate of graduation through the department that takes care of Indian affairs.

My grandfather got a job at this camp. He and 6 of his friends collected the camp trash on a tractor and trailer. After collecting it, they took it to the dump and burned it. This doesn't seem like a very fun job, but he and his friends made it fun. At this camp they found things to do. They played a lot of fast pitch softball and basketball. The team my grandfather was on, Willie's Nine, won the camp championship.

There was a movie once a week too. For a while, the camp authorities only switched the movie between the sections1 and 2. Then my grandfather and some of his friends went to the office and demanded that their section get it's turn. The office allowed them to get their turn in the movie rotation after that.

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