<Begin Segment 14>

AI: Well, then I wanted to ask you about, it sounds like you were working so hard in the business there, but you were also thinking of starting a family also, with Bill.

MF: Yeah. That's the problem. We wanted children so bad and, and I knew that it wasn't his fault because he had children. And so I went to the doctor and he said, "Well, you've been working too hard." He said, "Why don't you take a vacation?" And so we took a -- went to San Francisco Expo. And we were there about three weeks. And then I got pregnant. And we were married about, oh about six years, I guess, before I got pregnant. I had David.

AI: And then David was... when was David born?

MF: '39.

AI: 1939. I think, did you say that he was born in November? Earlier, you told me he was born in November?

MF: Yeah, when we took the Expo. I don't know what, that was early in the spring or something... was it February? Somewhere around that time. Then I got pregnant so David was born November 13th.

AI: Did you have David at the hospital or at home?

MF: What?

AI: Did you have David at the hospital or at home?

MF: Oh, I had it at Swedish. And you know, those days you stay in the hospital for two weeks, you know, for a pregnancy. It was only a hundred dollars for two weeks. And the doctor was a hundred dollars. And the baby doctor was a hundred dollars. He was cheap huh? Two weeks in Swedish for a hundred. That's almost like a -- now they just charge about a hundred dollars a day.

AI: Or even an hour. [Laughs]

MF: [Laughs] I had Thanksgiving dinner with Bill when I was there.

AI: In the hospital?

MF: Yeah. See, he was born on thirteenth and I was there two weeks.

AI: That's wonderful. It's hard to believe. It's so different from now.

MF: Yeah. Both of my doctors passed on but, David's baby doctor passed on, Dr. Douglas, and, and what was that, my doctor, Dr. Scott? Yeah, they're both gone.

AI: Well, did -- you gave David a Japanese name, also.

MF: Huh?

AI: You gave David a Japanese name, also. Is that right?

MF: Hiroshi.

AI: Hiroshi?

MF: Hiroshi. He said it's named after his great-uncle who was a army captain, head of the army in Japan. He was quite a famous man. So they named him after him. [Laughs]

AI: Well, you must've been very busy with David when he was an infant. Were you still able to do some work in the shop? Or were you mostly at home with David?

MF: Oh, David was always with me. One time he wanted to climb up on the counter and he fell. So I had to take a taxi and go to medical dental building, the doctor that I knew, and he took a x-ray and nothing wrong with him. He climbed up on the high counter. I didn't know. I was sewing or something and I didn't know until he, heard a thump. I looked and David was on the floor crying.

AI: Oh no.

MF: You know, he didn't walk until he was fourteen months old 'cause I always had him in that stroller. And the doctor said, "Shame on you, letting him on the stroller. Why didn't you put him on the crib?" But I never had a crib in the shop. I had a crib in the home but I never had one in the shop. He was always on the stroller.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.