Densho Digital Repository - Mas Takano Interview (Densho ID: ddr-ajah-1-5-11)

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BN: And then once you moved out of your father's friends' place, where did you go to?

MT: I said, my father worked hard, he really worked hard, and he didn't have a car. I used to help him, and sometimes from school I used to go directly to where I knew he would be, and I'd help him and then go home, walk home.

BN: So did he reestablish his garden?

MT: Yeah, he did, one at a time, one at a time. On a Saturday I would, one day... you learn a lot from your parents. He had a place, we had to go from one end of Alameda, not the lengthwise, but it's only three miles wide, I think, two or three miles wide, and five miles long or something, whatever it is. We lived on this side, and on the other side we used to walk, and we had this place and a man hired him, four dollars a month. And so while we were doing it, we were there about two or three weeks and I went with him. And we'd have to go to another place, and he didn't have a lawnmower. So we'd have to have, when he got a place, they said, "Do you have a lawnmower?" They said, "Yeah." We brought a lawnmower and cut his lawn. But anyway, this guys had... the next door guy said, "Hey, you guys come here, and would you ask your dad if he would do our place?" And I said sure, so we got that place. So we asked the man next door, our first guy, and he we said, "Mr. Marillis, can we use your lawnmower?" And he said, "Sure, go ahead." If you've got some other use for the lawnmower, not a problem. So we went three doors, got those three doors, it was a cul-de-sac, six houses in and six houses back. We did fourteen places on a Saturday without moving with one lawnmower.

MT: And my father would have to go there, and he'd go there early morning and sharpen the lawnmower on Saturday. And that man used to work for a beverage distribution company, Golden Gate Beverages. And at noon, he'd get his son and his little guy, search us out and with an ice-cold soda. My father never forgot that.

BN: Then was he eventually able to buy his own equipment?

MT: Yeah, yeah, then he got a car. Got a car and we were able to do it. He worked for that Marillis family in 1946 to 1960-some ought.

BN: So a long time.

MT: Long time. He never changed, it was four dollars, and he would put in plants for him, seasons, time to put the pansies in spring. And I saw their kids grow up, go on to high school. But my father never... four bucks a month. And it took at least an hour to cut that place, you know, put in flowers and trim the hedges.