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JF: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

VY: Okay, so what was like an average day for you like, growing up in your house? What kinds of activities happened in your house?

JF: Oh, you know, quite frankly, I have very few memories of when I was young, from even three years old. It had to be fun, it had to be noisy. Being three doors away from the church, too, we became known as the annex to the church. And knowing my mother, and knowing my grandparents, they formed, again, their Issei relationships, their friends. So many of those Issei folks after church would come to, on Sundays to our house. Not so much the Niseis, because they had their own families to deal with, to watch. But our Sansei friends met at our home as well, so it was just kind of an open house attitude, which was wonderful. And that's how it always was as long as I can remember, just an open home for all of us to bring our friends, for my grandparents to have their friends, and Mom and Dad, too, they had their friends as well.

VY: Yeah, what kinds of things was your mom doing during that time?

JF: Well, with six children, she couldn't work, so Dad again was the only one to work. Later on, she did go out and work, but it was just, again, working for acquaintances that she would go and help in their home or help elders in their homes, that kind of thing. But I know my grandmother, before the war, worked, and after the war, I don't know whether she did any more home care or housekeeping for people.

VY: So when you all were kids, who was the main caretaker of the kids? Was it your grandmother, your...

JF: It was my mother. My grandmother was always there. I know she did a lot of cooking, and she was there to help. Traditionally again, she was there to help her daughter raise these children. And it had to be difficult. Growing up, we... he didn't enjoy getting new clothes, we didn't enjoy getting new toys or bikes. We always were given what they used to call hand-me-downs from friends. The hand-me-downs were wonderful, and again, we didn't know any different. We just didn't have those expectations. Well, we did, but that didn't get us down, that didn't worry us. We lived through it.

VY: What was school like? What were your classmates like and your teachers?

JF: Oh, gosh. I loved going to school. I went to Porter school, happened to be the same grammar school, elementary school that my mother went to. And typically with Alameda in those days, there were very few, in my classes, very few Asian children. But I guess I was the dutiful... didn't make waves, no trouble. So I was welcomed, treated wonderfully by my teachers, and it was a nice time, it was a wonderful time. I remember our Halloween parades that we used to have. I distinctly remember one of the costumes that I wore, it was a red Chinese costume, silk Chinese costume. And I don't know where that came from, but I distinctly remember that, walking around the schoolyard in a parade.

VY: That's interesting. Did you like wearing that costume, was it something that was appealing to you?

JF: I didn't mind it, I didn't mind it. And I didn't it was, at the time, I probably didn't know it was a Chinese costume, so I wouldn't be bothered by that at all.

VY: Yeah, that's interesting. I know you don't remember, you just didn't know where that costume came from, but did someone suggest you wear it, or did you just like the color?

JF: I don't know, maybe it was given to... again, it was in the stack of clothes that came from another family.

VY: And what about the other kids? Was it mostly, like, Asian and white, or were there other ethnic groups?

JF: No, it was not very diverse, not very diverse. It was mostly white. I remember I had a close-by neighbor, Bill Clinton, he was Black. But it was mostly Caucasian.

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