<Begin Segment 5>

MA: So after you, you left school, you worked at the service station?

LK: Yeah.

MA: What types of things did you do?

LK: Huh?

MA: What did you do at the service station?

LK: Service station? Now, I fixed car, I fixed tires, beside gassing up the car.

MA: Did many people have cars?

LK: Huh?

MA: Did many people have cars back then?

LK: Oh, yeah. You have to have cars there. [Laughs] Nobody's like me, man. You have to get car. I mean, not only that, all the young boys get car, too. But, you know, Dad used to have, you have heard of a Model A -- no, Model T Ford? You heard of that? Okay, Dad used to have one, and you know my crazy brother? He goes to sell that car to get a jeep, army jeep. And how the heck he -- and a lawyer bought that car, now. How can a lawyer buy a car when my brother don't own a car -- I mean, yeah, he's not old enough to own a car. And yeah, he sold the car to the lawyer.

MA: Was your dad pretty mad?

LK: Huh?

MA: Was your dad upset?

LK: What?

MA: Was your dad pretty mad that he sold his car?

LK: My dad? No.

MA: So, Larry, what religion did your family practice?

LK: My religion is Buddhist, but I'm a non-sectarian.

MA: Why is that?

LK: I never believe in God. I still don't. But all my children believe in it. So I always took -- you know that Faith Bible Church? That's where my, all my family used to go. And so what happened is, now, see, I'm deaf, huh? So I never -- no, not only that, I snore, snore in church. So it's embarrassing, so I don't go church. But all my family goes, so every time when the, it's over, I pick them up and take 'em home.

MA: So when you were a kid, though, your family was Buddhist?

LK: So, my, you know my daughters all got married, going through the husband, that goes to church. And that's, even my niece is getting married to a guy going to church in California, so all my daughters got married to people that goes to church. So... yeah. [Laughs] Then only that, none of my daughters cook. They don't cook. But you know my wife is, she's... just like... what do you call, Auntie Kachi, just like that. I don't know if you teach your daughter to cook, but that's what my -- now, anything my wife cook, the children have to okay it. If they don't, she just throws the recipe away, you know. So she never teach the kids any, how to cook. So my daughters never learned how to cook.

PM: Did you learn to cook as a child? Did your mother teach you to cook?

LK: Huh?

PM: Did your mother teach you and the boys to cook?

LK: Me? Yeah, I used to cook my own, before I got married. But after my wife started cooking, I never -- well, I still, yeah. So even now, I cook my own because I'm living by myself... well, my daughter lives with me, but she never cooks for me. And actually that, she always like TV dinner. [Laughs]

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.