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DG: What holidays did you celebrate?

AI: Oh, excuse me, before we go on to holidays, I wanted to ask a little bit more about the restaurant business.

RI: Oh.

AI: And the name of the restaurant?

RI: Okay, the name of the restaurant was State Cafe. And when evacuation came around, my father had had that restaurant for thirty-some years, at least thirty years. And it was always around First Avenue and Madison. And he probably started out working for somebody but eventually owned his own business. Well, my mother was put to work when she came. And then when we were old enough, we were always helping. So, there was never a day off in the restaurant in those days because it wasn't unionized. When it became unionized we had to close one day a week, and I don't remember when we closed, maybe it was Tuesday or Thursday. But every holiday we were there helping. And since there were four girls in our family we were always wait-, doing waitress work. And I became pretty good, except that I'm a, somebody called gasa-gasa, you know, a little bit hyperactive, and I'm trying to do too much, more than I'm able to. So, when I'm packing dishes I put so much in my arms that by the time I get to the, to the sink where I'm suppose to deposit it, bang. [Laughs] So my mother would say, "Oh, there goes Ruby again." [Laughs] I broke a lotta dishes there. Because instead of taking maybe two cups and saucers, well, I'd load my arm with this, and you know, gotta do as much as possible on one trip instead of making two or three trips. But we were there for holidays and weekends. But, around then there were a lot of parades. And the parades used to be along First Avenue, Second Avenue. And during the parade time we would be right in front of the restaurant watching them. For instance, like the masons would have a parade or whatever. But we were always downtown. Then, lot of our friends would come to the restaurant and they want to get free ice cream or, or something. They'd go to the library or go downtown then they would stop at the restaurant.

DG: How many tables were at the restaurant?

RI: Gosh, I don't know, maybe about six or seven booths, booths, we called it. And there was a curtain that would draw to close it up, too, but probably the tables sat four or six or -- but there was a long counter, mahogany counter with a big back mirror and most of the work was done on the counter. And then, lot of the, during the war, before evacuation, this restaurant was near the ferry dock, so lot of the workers were going by ferry to Bremerton to work. So early in the morning we'd pack lunches for them and they'd take it to --

DG: So what kind of food?

RI: Well, it was all American food. No Japanese food.

DG: And the cooks, cooks were...

RI: The cook was a Japanese man. We had hamburger and salmon and fish and all kinds of things like that.

DG: Did your father cook?

RI: My father also became a cook, too. He actually was supposed to be waiter, but... then my mother was a waitress. Then when we were going to college -- this is still before and during the war -- my sister and I, we took turns going to the UW. I went to the restaurant in the morning with my father. My father went to the restaurant around four o'clock in the morning. So he'd wake me up and I'd go with him. And we walked because we didn't have a car in those days. We walked down to First and Madison from East Spruce and Tenth Avenue, and then he would open up the restaurant and I would go upstairs to a loft or something and take a nap while he opened up the restaurant, got the stove warmed up and lights put on and everything. And then about the time he opened the restaurant, I don't know whether it was six or seven o'clock, he'd wake me up and then I'd go down and start making the lunch and taking care of the customers as they came. Then, around twelve o'clock my sister will come back from the UW so she would take over and I'd dash out to the University. Because I had a lot of laboratory courses that were in the afternoon and she had lotta lecture courses, because she was taking Economics. So we sort of traded like that and went to school. In those days it was streetcar running around First Avenue and the streetcars went to the university area.

Then I'd come home and I used to study right in the kitchen. Our house was not central heating. There was a coal, coal stove and so everybody congregated in the kitchen and I, I remember studying at the kitchen table with everybody else yelling and all that. But I was able to concentrate. So I think I learned good study habits that way. But that's how we were. And then as my younger sisters got older then they started to take over, too. Then, when my next sister, Fran, was ready to go to college, my father took her aside, my father and mother or both, and told her to not go to college because my mother was pregnant and they needed her to help because my mother can't work in the restaurant. I don't know how pregnant she was, but apparently, when it was obvious. So Fran had to sacrifice herself and work in the restaurant. And she was told that she could go to college later, but about that time we had to be evacuated. So, the younger two did not go to college, two sisters. But my brothers went because they were after the war. But it was our family kind of thing and we all cooperated.

DG: So Bessie graduated?

RI: Bessie graduated in Puyallup. She, she was a senior about to get her degree in June but we were evacuated in May. First of all, though, around that time -- but that's evacuation. You know, she had, she got married and then she got her degree in the grandstands at Puyallup where the UW officials came. I don't think she was the only one, there were several UW people. But she said that she had to bring some, do some work in the camp in Puyallup to finish off. Well, if we were evacuated in May, there probably were a few more weeks of school. But she did get her degree.

DG: Staying with the restaurant, you mentioned that several people, Ehime-ken people owned restaurants and that's why your --

RI: Yes, lots, there were lots of Ehime-ken people along First Avenue, around skid row. There were the Kinomotos, they had a restaurant. They were Ehime-ken, and Nakashimas. There were three brothers who were running a restaurant. I don't know what that restaurant was called. There was another restaurant on First Avenue near the Pike Place Market that was Ehime-ken people. But somehow, probably as friends, they all were in the restaurant business, lot of them were in the restaurant business. But, I think as they got employment in restaurants then they began to own their own.

DG: They mostly catered to the hakujin?

RI: Yeah. Most of the catering was hakujin.

DG: Because like in Pike and Madison area.

RI: But then, since we were, since we were near Western Avenue, lot of the Western Avenue people came up. And there were some Japanese people in that area, in the produce houses. They came to eat their lunch, but mostly Caucasian people, and off-the-street people.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.