Densho Digital Archive - George Yamada Interview (denshovh-ygeorge

<Begin Segment 33>

MA: What was your experience like living in New York City for that year that you were there?

GY: Oh, we really enjoyed it. Yeah, we went to Radio City Music Hall, we found right there in Times Square, a place to have a steak. And it was a quickie steak, it was a nice large steak, and it was like McDonald's or Carole's, they cook the steak there and you ate it right there. I think you got a potato with it, but it was only sixty-five cents, I think. Real cheap. The only place you would lose money if you didn't watch your change was... not confectionaries, but those little fruit stands and places like that. You've gotta watch your change in New York City. [Laughs]

MA: Was there a strong Japanese American community in New York?

GY: Yes, they had JACL there, they had the Buddhist Church. I've attended several of the functions, primarily in the Buddhist end. They were more busy with whatever, movies or dances or social gathering. But it was close by, as I remember, in Manhattan.

MA: What was it like for you, you said that you were involved with a lot of the Buddhist community activities?

GY: Oh, I don't know. Even in Seattle, I ran around, the friends happened to be YBA, Young Buddhist Association, some Catholics, not too many. And a lot of Protestants, because I used to go to Seattle to meet up with Protestants, I mean, in our youth group. In New York State, we had to work a lot of Sundays, so the chances of us going to church was rare, very rare, until I got further established and my business got worse and worse, poorer and poorer, that I find my Sundays was open a lot. And one of the great things about chick sexing then was I loved fishing. I loved fishing with a worm or an egg, or grasshoppers, but I had an opportunity, even as, living here before I got married, to fly fish. And however, when we got into upstate New York, that was the mecca of fly fishing. All these beautiful mountain streams and rivers, and every time I went to Vermont, I made sure I went fishing there also. I made it a point to go fishing. And much as I was tired and bleary-eyed and everything, we managed to get in fishing, two times a --

MA: Was there -- sorry -- was there a group of people that you would go fishing with?

GY: Sometimes. Generally speaking, a lot of times, I ended up by myself. We did travel together some of the time, but not that often. And it turned out that everyone liked fishing. I could think of out of four, out of five, out of six, one, two, just three of us enjoyed fishing, fly fishing or worm fishing or whatever.

MA: So you were able to really get into that while you were living in New York?

GY: Oh, yeah. I think I really enjoyed that portion of it. I still enjoy fly fishing over here, and trying to get out as much as possible, fly fishing, tying my own flies.