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GY: Getting back to my dad, it was something that was sort of a pain for me. Whenever we'd have to fill out information about the family, a questionnaire, survey, father's name, address, age, birthday, occupation, I didn't know what to put down because he didn't have much of an occupation. Many of my Nisei friends were owners of a grocery store. That was kinda neat, you know, proprietor of some enterprise, or cleaners or dyeworks kind of thing. But he was just a laborer at the time. Although in Seattle, when he came over, he started a fruit and vegetable route selling merchandise off of this truck, a Ford truck, Model T. And he'd go to different parts of the city. Queen Anne was a name that stays in my mind. And he would have regular customers, and he'd stop off and take orders. And I would accompany him when I was a little bit older. And it was an open front of the truck. And I remember going around the curve once and I fell over, fell and hit my head. It was very traumatic experience, but I was not injured permanently -- I don't think, anyway. [Laughs]

My father promised me that if he -- if I would help him in the summertime, going with him -- which I hated to do, I'd rather play with the kids in the neighborhood -- he would pay me 25 cents a week. God, 25 cents a week, let's see. Four weeks in the month, that's twenty-five times four, it's a dollar. Maybe two months. Two bucks, man. I thought, oh, neat. You could buy a lot of things. Ice cream cones were for a nickel. Even hot dog was five or ten cents. The movies, five cents. Boy. Two bucks. That was a lot of money. But he never gave me a penny. I had to ask, "Hey, when am I, am I going to get paid at all, Dad?" We called him Papa. You know, "Yeah, I'll pay you, I'll pay you." Never did. Never got -- so I resented that for many years, you know, like maybe fifty years. [Laughs] And (I) came to the realization finally that, well, it's just very difficult to, to make any money, any profit on the money. And so -- that was that. So I said, okay, after many, many years.

And in connection with this kind of a style of living and expectations, the Ringling Brothers Circus would come by, Barnum and Bailey, I guess, it was. Every year or two, some empty lot or wherever they came. Never did find out. I'd see these signs posted on the walls in the city, throughout the city. And, "Papa, I'd like to go to the circus." "Okay, yeah." "When can we go?" "Okay, pretty soon." Never did go, man. Another resentment I kept -- I don't know how many years I kept. And I thought, oh, God, I get... he probably doesn't like me very much, kind of thing, that kind of feeling. When it all had to do with the economy and his lack of money for this kind of thing.

Another thing about clothing, too. In those days, the high bib, overall style that young ladies like to wear nowadays, and copy. Blue denim was something worn every day, and as other families and boys -- you know the Nisei families, the bib finally came off and we just had ordinary pants. And, but I had to keep wearing those things for a long time, and oh, I hated that, too. But eventually I overcame that and became typical. [Laughs] Oh, Dad... let's see...

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.