Ms. Cronin:What was the boat trip like?
Ms. Cronin:When you were coming over.
Mr. Madayag:That is a big boat. Empress of Russia. Yeah. Empress of Russia. That was a big boat. There were SO many of us there it takes us 21 days traveling, not including the stop in every port see. About 30 days altogether to get here.
Ms. Cronin:Anyone get sick? That's a long time.
Mr. Madayag:Oh sure Several of them get sick and one died too. And they dump it in the sea, Pacific anyway. And so they dump it in the sea. There was a preacher there too, Just like a priest. So after the ceremony they dump it like that, just like that.
Ms. Cronin:Did you have a lot bf friends come over with you?
Mr. Madayag:Oh there are lots of us leaving with. One another in our barrio And we were about 295 altogether of us on that ship, to come over here, Filipino anyway. And then when I get to Grays Harbor, I think I was there in like this. vet call it barrio, in a OW of so many houses. We were five. the meridian, in the middle of the ocean I get seasick, and I was so sick when IT get here, that I stayed home where my brother is for a lot, for about eleven days, to get better. . And then I get a chance to work in the sawmill that time. And my work there in the sawmill is to strip those lumbers, anyway. Only three dollars and a quarter a day, And then in 1931-32 the wages drop down to two and a half a day. When after that no more work, that's the Depression time. So I went to Seattle and stay in Seattle and go work farm in Auburn, Kent anyway, for fifteen cents an hour. And then it drops to, yeah, fifteen cents an hour, and then in 1932, that's when I came here, one Japanese I met there in Seattle was from here in this Island, and then he was hiring and you know how much he told me he'll pay? He told me he'll pay nine cents per hour and I give you rice to cook. All the rest on your feeding you buy it yourself. If you work I'll pay you nine cents." So, I work. For about, not less than a year anyway. So I used to go to Alaska cannery.
Ms. Cronin:When was the first year you went up to Alaska?
Mr. Madayag:1934. 1934 and then 65 dollars a month. Go for two months, that's hundred-thirty, for two months. And then after that we come to Seattle and we boys, young boys yet, we don't care, sometimes we got money. today and tomorrow we got no money, because we gamble with those Chinese people there in Seattle. So you. know what's a gambler. Sometimes you got money right now, but maybe this afternoon you got no more money. If you can hit it a dime or a quarter from your friend then you start gambling again, then you win, then you will have some money.
Ms. Cronin:Did you ever live in Chinatown?
Mr. Madayag:Sure, that's where I live, in Chinatown. You know how much I pay for one week? Dollar a week
Mr. Madayag:Rent. In the hotel. They change your bedsheets once a week. Anyway. And then that time we are not doing anything, I stay there in | Chinatown, I used to go fishing in the dock, ferry dock, there around the Port of Seattle.. And those shiners, and we cook them and that's what
Ms. Cronin:Did they have a ferry boat that went back and forth all the time then?
Mr. Madayag:What ferry boat where?
Ms. Cronin:You know that one we have now, .they have a little ferry boat ride
Mr. Madayag:Sure. We got, we don't have no ferry boat there in Winslow. We don't have no ferry boat there in Winslow. What we have ferry boat is Port Blakely. That's a Port Blakely ferry boat. And then there is a ferry boat there in Manitou Bay, and then go around the Island like that. Seabold, ferry boat there. And then after a while it comes to here in Manzanita. And that's it. It go back again to Seattle, that way. And I think it was thirty five ‘cents, one way. ‘Thirty-five cents one way back in 1936. 1936 I don't know, 1932, I forgot now.
Ms. Cronin:When you first got off the boat, when you first Landed in the United States, you went right to Grays Harbor?
Ms. Cronin:And then you didn't. go to Chinatown then, until you started going up. To Alaska and coming back down?
Mr. Madayag:I only went to Seattle when there's. no more in the sawmill. The sawmill stop because no business, that time.
Ms. Cronin:That's about '34 then?
Mr. Madayag:Yeah,. And then sometimes I stay in Seattle, I get into barber shop, work in a barber. shop as.a barber. And I only get a shave and hair cutting only 25¢: And I get fifteen cents and the shop get ten cents.
Ms. Cronin:Was that enough to live on?
Mr. Madayag:No: One sack of rice cost around three dollars. That will get x you about a month and a half to use that sack of rice.. If you eat rice in the morning, rice noontime, rice in the nighttime - If you get money maybe hamburger _ ten cents a pound. That hamburger I think you eat that three times mixed with cabbage chop the cabbage and mix it with hamburger.
Ms. Cronin:And then go fishing too?
Mr. Madayag:Go fishing in the, because we got no boat to go in the water. Still when I com here, these Hiashida people here, (they are one of the richest people, Japanese here, and they don't even, they only "torogotog " Car. You know. what's torogoteg car? That junk. ‘That car sitting there is even better.
Ms. Cronin:How do you say that word you just told me?
Mr. Madayag:What's Torogotog? Torogotog car. Junk.
Ms. Cronin:I'll have you write that down. for me later.
Mr. Madayag:Torogotog. Junk we call it there, that's Philippine lingo. Torogotog. Junk.
Ms. Cronin:They just had a bad car and they. were the richest?
Mr. Madayag:Yeah. It could hardly run. And when we were here we like to go dig clams, we even walk from Hiashida to Fletcher's Bay, and carry the clams Ms., Cronin: Is that who you were picking berries for? Mr. Madayag: Yeah, I work there and I work SO many, how many of them, one, Hiashida, Koura, Matsushita, Futokawa, yeah; yeah, those are the Japanese people I work for. And then it comes to 1936. We were getting 17 cents and a half per hour now then. And then I belong to the Cannery and Farm Union in Seattle so I was forced to look for a better way of working here. But then the Japanese had made the berries before at maybe six, six-seven cents. A pound, before. So I was forced to ask more per hour here in the farm because I belong to the Cannery and Farm Labor Union in Seattle. So I led the strike of the workers here, mostly of the Filipino boys and Max Avid is my secretary too.