Interviewer:
Who first came here, and how did you hear about Richmond before you came?
Foster:
Well, so many people from my home heard about the big government shipyard, the war was going on. And so many people heard about how much they paid. Some was scared to come because they thought blackouts and everything, after the war would break out. But some were anxious to come, and they come and they write people back to tell them how much money they was making and stuff like that. Because it didn’t matter about the ship because people were sleeping double and triple and everything. And some were working in the day and your friend was sleeping in the same area, in bed that you slept in at night.
Because, my brother, now he worked graveyard shift and then he worked another job in the daytime. [laughs] He worked two jobs! His wife never worked. He had 15 kids but he took care of all of those people, doctor bills and everything. And when he died, he left his family living good. Just a good manager I guess. Of course I never was able to have that kind of income and stuff like that. His third wife he married, right now, she living off of what he left her.
When I came to Richmond, I came on a Southern Pacific train. You know, it took us four straight days to come here then. I don’t know how it is now on the train. [laughs] I think it’s little better, don’t you think so? [laughs] Four days. Oh, you were so tired. We stopped and changed, when I left for St. Louis, I changed in Kansas City, Missouri. And I got a change again. When I came on to Santa Fe, that was east, west, one. But anyway, I think the next change was Albuquerque, New Mexico.
And then we changed somewhere in Arizona. And from that I remember we come on into … they changed so much, we had to change, they switched cars and things and when we got to somewhere, we had to change and take a bus into Bakersfield for something got wrong with the train, that’s when I first came here. We took a bus into Baker — yeah, we used to have a big train station there, Santa Fe, you know about that?
Interviewer:
Were you traveling alone or with someone else?
Foster:
I traveled alone. I didn’t have no companion, but I met lots of people, friends and things, people I got acquainted with on my way. Was traveling out here, coming out here from different areas, you know, the South.
Story from We Are California: Stories of Immigraiton and Change
Migrations
Animal 
Human 
Dance/Art