<Begin Segment 8>

LH: So when he came to Seattle, then, what did he start doing?

FG: Well, first he worked for a while at a small store, and I can't remember what kind of store it was, kind of like a grocery store sort of thing, but then it didn't work out. It was for a Japanese. I can't think of the name of the people, but that didn't last too long. And so then he went to work for Kubota with Kubota Gardens, Mr. Kubota, and so he did gardening for a while. In the meanwhile, my mother worked in this store and my mother worked out quite well. And so eventually what happened is my father decided that he would open a store, and so he opened, let's see, Home Brew Supply store and then that was something that my mother and father did together.

LH: Okay. And then, of course, at the time they were all doing this they were starting to raise a family as well. And what year were you born?

FG: I was born in 1933.

LH: 1933.

FG: And I was born in the back room of that store so it's... my mother used to laugh and she said they used to call me hakoiri musume and usually that means that you're kind of a princess sort of thing where you don't, you're not exposed to the outside elements. But that wasn't really what it was. I really grew up in a box. [Laughs]

LH: Literally. Hakoiri means "in a box."

FG: Literally, in a box. Mrs. Beppu delivered me.

LH: And she was a midwife.

FG: Yeah. Right. I think she delivered many children, many babies, but anyway I was one of them, too.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.