<Begin Segment 10>

MA: So when you were living up in north Seattle, then, were there other houses nearby, or were you pretty isolated?

SE: No, pretty much isolated, yeah. There was a couple of homes sort of beside and behind us, but they had little children.

MA: And how often would you go back to see your parents at the hotel?

SE: It varied, you know. Let's see. We didn't live out, out there too regular. I maintained my room at the hotel, and I was home more, at the hotel than back there, because the family meals, but out there at the market -- well, we did help with the sister having to have somebody to eat with, and the second brother would help a little. But they always seemed to have their baseball, basketball, different things, they were gone. And so the girls did a lot of work, most of the work. My brother, the oldest brother was terrible. He'd go down to the market to buy vegetables, and he'd go to the back, and they would gamble, and he'd take the money that the girls gave him to gamble. And so he didn't have much money, and much of the time, the girls didn't know it, that he bought things on credit.

MA: Where would he go to gamble, what sorts of places were there?

SE: Oh, in back of the... what do they call it? Western Avenue or something, where they have the wholesale vegetables, and they'd go down in the, they pick up the vegetables there. And he'd go and gamble in the back. So sometimes he had to bring home the leftovers, and the girls had a hard time selling those things, but they had such staunch neighborhood people that would come in and buy fruits and vegetables from them. So it was sad when they finally decided, it was terrible because, then the girls didn't go back anymore, and I'd go to the house from school, I'll go back there, and then I'll come home to Seattle. But I'd go and get things, some vegetables and things for home.

MA: Oh, I see. So your brother would go to the, to pick up fruits and vegetables so you could sell at your, at the market in north Seattle, and then he would stay and gamble. Is that what happened?

SE: Well, lot of times he gambled, he didn't bring the vegetables 'til late. So it was hard for the girls. I think he was too young to have that responsibility of all that money, and I think that, and he had a weakness for gambling, so it was a responsibility that Dad shouldn't have given, given him, and to have that money in hand.

MA: Was gambling a common...

SE: It's a common thing at those wholesale houses.

MA: Was it mostly, sort of, Nisei young men?

SE: Oh, no, everybody, the Caucasians and the Italians, because lot of the farmers were Italians. So mostly were older men, you know. Here he was a youngster, too young to be with those men gambling. But it's like any kind of sickness, you know, if you have the money in hand, you're going to gamble. And then when you lose, then you think, "I got to get it back, I got to get it back."

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.