<Begin Segment 5>

REM: Can you compare for me Renton with Fife? The, when you went to Fife, you went into high school, and there must -- was there a big difference between Renton and Fife?

RTM: Well, the only thing, Renton, there weren't as many Nihonjin in Renton as there are in Fife. Fife, we must have had, 30 or 40 percent of the whole school was Japanese. And so that was the big change there. I entered Fife High School as a sophomore, so, and then...

REM: But it's an agricultural area, Fife. Was Renton agricultural or industrial? Do you remember? How, I was trying to see if there was, if they were similar or different, the two schools. Did you feel at Fife more at home? There were more Japanese at Fife...

RTM: Uh-huh.

REM: ...than at Renton. About half the student body, wasn't it?

RTM: Practically, yeah.

REM: Can you compare that? Did you enjoy Fife? Fife also had tremendous athletic programs and this sort of thing. Did you participate in those?

RTM: Well, when I first went to Fife, I was only about ninety-pounder, and so, you know, I didn't qualify to play very many sports programs. But I did get involved in the athletic program by being the, the managers for baseball and basketball and so on. That was about the extent of my athletic abilities there.

REM: All this time you're also working in the greenhouse with your dad?

RTM: Yes, we had. Yes.

REM: What did you do in the greenhouse as a, when you were in high school? What did you...?

RTM: Well, we did whatever chores was necessary. I mean, I know during the fall, and we used to grow chrysanthemums and stuff for the fall season. And our job was to come home after school and help the spray program, spraying the mums and so on. And so I've probably inhaled a lot of insecticide over my lifetime. [Laughs]

REM: [Laughs] You're still alive.

RTM: Yeah. But you don't find any aphids on me, either. [Laughs]

REM: [Laughs] How big an area is the greenhouse area, not only your father bought, but was it five acres, ten acres?

RTM: Well, we have right now about six, six acres there, but the greenhouse itself, we have maybe about a 130,000 square feet of covered area. That's about three times the size it was when they first went to Fife.

REM: Is there a busy season and a slack season, or is it same all year-round?

RTM: Well, our busy season is in the spring because that was, when we went into the bedding plant business, and that was our busiest time. Through the summer, and well, we used to grow greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes, and that was -- but that kept us pretty busy as far as kids are concerned.

REM: The four years that, or three years that you were at Fife High School, were they happy years when you were in high school?

RTM: I think so, yeah.

REM: You enjoyed the students and the classes?

RTM: Uh-huh.

REM: You graduated 19-...

RTM: 1940.

REM: On the eve of World War II, 1940, June? You graduated in June of '40?

RTM: Yes, uh-huh.

REM: Uh-huh. Was there any thought on your part of leaving the greenhouse and, say, going to California or someplace to strike out on your own, or...?

RTM: No. I don't think (so), not at that time. I don't think that ever entered our mind, you know. We were too young to be even thinking that far ahead, I think.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.