6. Camp Activities

Edward Sekermestrovich: of guys slept, but we were just tired.

Royal G. Jackson: After that long trip?

Edward Sekermestrovich: Yes.

6. Camp Activities

Royal G. Jackson: What were the first kind of activities you were involved in?

Edward Sekermestrovich: Well, they took you around the camp and showed you the camp and told you -- and asked you if you wanted to be a truck driver, or what can you do. So we had to go into the office, and they took us all in what they called the rec hall. That's where they asked what you could do. And you told them. And then the fellows, some of them just fought fires, some of them made roads, some of them were drivers, some went to mechanic school -- we had a little school there.

Royal G. Jackson: Were you given a choice from among these options?

Edward Sekermestrovich: Yes, I chose every time I wanted something.

Royal G. Jackson: What did you choose?

Edward Sekermestrovich: Well, I started out to drive one of them Forest Service [State Forestry Department] trucks. And we used to have to take a bunch in there every morning to Salem, and we'd dig on the capitol.

Royal G. Jackson: The foundation?

Edward Sekermestrovich: That's right.

Royal G. Jackson: Did you actually dig, or did you just drive truck?

Edward Sekermestrovich: No! [With Ed's sense of humor, I would guess that he said this word in mock horror at even having to consider digging.] I drove the truck over there with the twenty-five guys in it, and they drove the real trucks, the dump trucks. They'd back in there and the guy would load them up with the shovel. The fellow that was running the shovel, he was a civilian. When we got done with that project, they found something else, forest fire, or something like that.

Royal G. Jackson: To what extent was the military involved in this? Did they have a direct supervisory role over you?

Edward Sekermestrovich: I don't know where they got their instructions or nothing like that. But, like I said, we went over, twenty-five fellows. I'd drive them over -- that's what I first started to

Edward Sekermestrovich: do -- took them over there to work; and when we got there, we had our own dump truck, but we left them there, and we'd come home at night.

Royal G. Jackson: What would you do all day long?

Edward Sekermestrovich: I'd loaf or if somebody got sick I'd drive his truck, or I could go right across the street from the penitentiary to where the Forest Service headquarters was.

Royal G. Jackson: State Forestry headquarters?

Edward Sekermestrovich: State forestry headquarters, and they had a mess hall. That's where we ate. I'd go over there and loaf, or else go in the quarters and just look at magazines or anything like that; or you could walk around town if I wanted to, if I wasn't busy.

Royal G. Jackson: At four o'clock or something like that you'd load them up?

Edward Sekermestrovich: Well, I'd say about 3:00 p.m. or 3:30 p.m.

Royal G. Jackson: Then what was the routine, you'd go back to camp . . .?

Edward Sekermestrovich: Back to camp, you wash yourself, clean up, and eat supper, and then go down to the rec hall and PX and spend your money or do whatever you want to do.

Royal G. Jackson: What kind of things did you do at the rec hall?

Edward Sekermestrovich: Well, you shot pool, and you had a piano player there -- we had a good one. You played cards if you wanted to. You wasn't supposed to gamble, but you know how that goes. We never gambled. [Laughter]

Royal G. Jackson: Did you get a little poker in there?

Edward Sekermestrovich: Oh, you shouldn't say that. You're not allowed to say that. [Laughter] Oh, yes, we played poker, and stuff like that. But it was a nice camp, it was very nice. I loved it, I don't care . . .

Royal G. Jackson: If there was still daylight outside when you got in, did you take walks, or do anything outside, or was it all pretty much inside?

Edward Sekermestrovich: Well, later on we had classes for archery and leather work and I went to Oregon State up here to the engineering building; we had classes there.

Royal G. Jackson: What kind of classes?

Edward Sekermestrovich: I was taking welding up there.

Royal G. Jackson: Was that during the day or at night?

Edward Sekermestrovich: At night. Afterwards we'd go up there.